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Chicago 10
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (25th September 2008). |
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The Film
 At first glance, “Chicago 10” looks like a “Waking Life” (2001) rotoscope-styled drama movie about the 1969 trial of 7 protestors, which had me a little hesitant since for me rotoscoping seems to come off as more of a style-over-substance approach that tries to be visually daring and leave it’s content behind. Instead, I was surprised and a little impressed with Brett Morgan’s “Chicago 10” a documentary, of sorts, combining animated and celebrity voiced reenactments of the trial of the Chicago 8 combined with documentary footage and additional dramatic material. Using the transcripts from the trial of the Chicago 8 (a group including 'Yippie' movement founders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin as well as co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense Bobby Seale) the film begins with the animated opening statements of the trial, interspersing archive footage and interviews with the defendants, including on the ground footage in the midst of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests. The trial degenerates into a mockery, both because of the antics of the yippie defendants like Abbie Hoffman (voiced by Hank Azaria), but also because of the Judge’s suppression of Bobby Seale (voiced by Jeffrey Wright) by having him gagged and bound to a chair. Some of the documentary footage is honestly incredible, how close cameras were able to get to the police gassing and beating the crowds of protesters that marched towards city hall. The styling of the documentary footage is put together really well, but the animation style seems to leave something to be desired. In still shots and at first glance, the style resembles the aforementioned rotoscoping technique, but turns out to be cell shaded computer animation which feels fairly stiff and looks awkward and clumsy in many of the motion shots. In still frames the style looks good, but the type of cell shading they’re going for just doesn’t quite work. It would take some time to get used to, but the way it’s interspersed with the documentary footage, I almost wished they had just favored a different style. There’s an animated sequence in the middle of the film when the police march into the middle of a crew of protesters near the convention that’s worked in and looks better than the cell-shaded style of some of the courtroom scenes, though it may have been a stylistic choice to shake up the different animation styles, I wish they would have stuck to one, preferably the more traditional style they used in the park sequence and a couple others. On top of the animation and the documentary footage, Morgan does a good job of choosing music to fit the documentary, but not over using musical interludes and background music. Rather than playing with a stereotypical documentary of the 1960’s protest movements, “Chicago 10” favors heavy use of Rage Against the Machine, which works well and keeps the film moving at a good pace. Overall, "Chicago 10" is an interesting documentary about a trial that isn’t too well known in popular culture. The archive footage used was impressive and interesting to watch, but the court room scenes, while well voice-acted, wore on me because of the animation style that Morgan chose in expressing it. The transcripts are incredibly interesting and definitely generate some surprise and hopefully conversation, but the way it’s visually presented almost feels like a hindrance on the movie that could have been avoided or dealt with differently.
Video
Presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic aspect ratio, "Chicago 10" has fairly good visual quality. The transfer looks clean, there’s no pixilation in the animations but as I mentioned my problem with the chosen style brings it down a bit. The archive footage, in some instances, has been well preserved or cleaned up and looks clean and clear, making for an overall good presentation.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track for the film sounds clear, there’s good balance and levels especially when placing Rage Against the Machine’s music with dialogue, but both are let at comfortable audible levels so that everything comes through clearly. Again, the choice of Rage Against the Machine as the predominant music really paid off for me, breaking a bit with most documentaries about the 1960’s and suiting more of the anti-establishment tone of the Chicago 8. There is optional English subtitles included on the disc.
Extras
The lack of special features is fairly disappointing; I would have liked to hear from Morgan about the choices he made, especially in terms of animation, surrounding the film. The only special features included on the disc are a short and bonus trailers. “CHICAGO 10 Remix Video Contest Winner (Created by Gine Telaroli)” is a short 1 minute 52 second trailer for “Chicago 10” apparently remixed by a fan. The video quality of the trailer is far below that of the movie which makes it a little frustrating, especially considering this is the only special feature on the disc. The startup bonus trailers included on the disc: - “Son of Rambow” runs for 2 minutes and 24 seconds. - “Shine a Light” runs for 2 minutes and 32 seconds. - “American Gangster: The Complete Second Season” runs for 56 seconds. - “The Kite Runner” runs for 1 minute and 54 seconds. - “An Inconvenient Truth” runs for 2 minutes and 33 seconds.
Packaging
“Chicago 10” comes packaged in a ‘eco-box’ keep case, which is similar to a regular case but has a recycle symbol cut out of the plastic, I guess so that less plastic was used in production, yet at the same time makes it feel flimsy.
Overall
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