Saturday, September 28, 2013

Chicago 10



Allow me to demonstrate
In September of 1969, Abbie Hoffman and fellow radical activists Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner were hauled into court along with Black Panther Bobby Seale on a grand jury indictment for allegedly conspiring to incite the massive anti-Vietnam war protests and resulting violent mayhem that transpired in the Chicago environs during the 1968 Democratic Convention. What resulted is arguably the most overtly political "show trial" in American history.

Using a mélange of animation, archival footage and voiceover re-creation by well-known actors, Brett Morgen expands even further on the eye-catching multimedia technique that he and co-director Nanette Burstein used in their 2002 doc The Kid Stays in the Picture.

The bulk of the animated sequences are re-enactments from the trial itself, with dialog lifted directly from courtroom transcripts (and trust me, no rewrites were required because you couldn't make...

San Francisco Chronicle vs Chicago 10
The SF Chronicle movie page editors headlined their review: "Chicago 10 painted as heroes, but they come off as obnoxious." Millions murdered in a crazy war on the other side of the world by that infamous President from Texas (Lyndon "How many boys did you kill today?" Johnson, not today's imposter George W. Bush), thousands and thousands of young draftees thrown into the vortex of slaughter -- and Abbie Hoffman is obnoxious? Read more: [...]

Great Docu-Drama About the 1*9*6*8 DNC March.
The CHICAGO 10 DVD is a gripping movie about the 1968 trial of the "Chicago 8" (later the Chicago 7 when Bobby Seale was separated from the others) who were charged with conspiracy and inciting a riot, among other charges, for the massive demonstrations that took place during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. People, especially young people, from all over the USA convened to protest the Vietnam War when the massive march went awry and cops began attacking the marchers.

Anyway, the movie combines animation and archival footage of the events that took place during that August 1968. The animation is mainly in the courtroom, which is based on the court transcripts. Everything else is shown through footage either from news feeds or amateur video.

I found the movie gripping as the action switches back and forth from the court house trial to the actions happening during the marches etc., culminating in the mess that was captured by news cameras covering the...

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