Chicago 10 (2006)

Documentary on the trial of eight protesters and activists for incitement to riot at the anti-war protests held in conjunction with the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago (the number 10 comes from the inclusion of their two lawyers). The documentary makes extensive use of the court transcripts of the trial dramatized through that usually superfluous ‘digital people’ effect, and using all star voices including Dylan Baker, Hank Azaria, Mark Ruffalo, and Jeffery Wright. This proves a very effective and compelling way to present the trial, and in fact it was snippets of these sequences which I saw in the documentary’s run on PBS the other week, that inspired me to rent this and see it in full. That Judge comes off horrible, unfit for duty and quite likely rather racist, while the defense attorney a true liberal hero. The ‘eight’ are an interesting, surprisingly diverse bunch, who while sometimes unorthodox weren’t really dangerous. In fact they were all found innocent on the trumped up conspiracy charges, but some were sentenced to prison time for contempt of court, again trumped up charges coming from that sadistic judge. Higher courts later reversed all of these sentences. A fascinating story well told. 4 out of 5.

P.S. I recently learned that Spielburg is doing a movie on this same story.