Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Chicago 10 / USA / 2007

Chicago 10 parses 16mm newsreel footage, court transcripts, and I imagine some amount of hearsay. This is all filmatized by way of animation, with the infamous Chicago Seven (defense attorneys and Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panthers, round out the 10) rendered in cell-shaded 3d animation. The haircuts are all frenzied, the gestures often a little too roboticized, as is the virtual camerawork which sweeps with great elaborateness across and around the courtroom. Conceptually, this lack of source material is made an asset; the film is supposed to look like a cartoon. And, in turn, my complaints are with Chicago 10 being too cartoonish at times. An air of hostility is to permeate the film—you’re to get a sense of what the cause is enough to identify with the accused. But this is deflated mostly by the voice acting, namely a crabby (and late) Roy Schieder as the crabby judge—it’s easy dislike this guy. There’s no dilemma in morality or ethics whatsoever. The good guys and bad guys are so clearly defined that there’s no ambiguity—everything is unfair and the authorities are all bigots.

To some extent this is all fine and well, I suppose, but Chicago 10 possesses an unforgiveable sin in its soundtrack, comprised mostly of new songs that echo hostility. In lieu of MC5, we have Rage Against the Machine—and most unforgiveably, the latter covers the former’s epochal “Kick Out the Jams.” It identifies with a source that’s 38 years old, and sweetens it, I suppose, to make it more digestable to contemporary audiences. This compromsies the films ethics, disabling the foundation of its thought: that political activism is a timeless struggle, when, in effect, the proceedings herein just end up looking cartoonish.

Full review

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: 35mm print
18 Feb 2008 1:40 PM | Submit Comment