Last month I saw Brett Morgen’s Chicago 10. Though the reviews haven’t been raving, the film deserves a defense.

Briefly, the movie is about the eight radicals that were put to trial for conspiracy to start a riot after the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The film had many strong moments from spine tingling and inspiring to horrific and tear evoking. It weaves in an animated trial with actual footage. The trial dialogue was constructed using the authentic court transcripts.

One of the biggest criticisms of the movie was the animation. Cinematical claims the animation was too unrealistic. So unrealistic, in fact, that it was hard to concentrate. This is just a shot in the dark, but if Morgen was going for the realistic look he probably would have hired actors. Though, a live reenactment of the trials would’ve been unconvincing along side the real footage. The animation gave the film a feeling of myth and legend which, apparently, was what Morgen was going for. He told Cinematical that he’s “more interested in creating modern-day mythologies than historical documentaries.”

Another reason the film was criticized was for its lack of factual context. The New York Times review of the movie claims that the film is lacking because it does not “engage any sense of history beyond the superficialities of rhetoric and image.” The reviewer then goes on to say that the candidates of the presidential race were never mentioned in the movie, and that it never mentions whether or not the Yippie movement benefited.

I disagree that this takes away from the movie. It’s not Morgen’s job to teach the viewers American history. That time period was complex and the movie was merely illustrating one event of many. I don’t believe the film’s purpose was to educate viewers about that specific Democratic National Convention. It doesn’t matter who the candidates were. The lesson is timeless and applies to today just as much as it did to the ‘60s. And, come on, it’s 40 years later. If viewers don’t know whether or not the Yippie cause lived on they should research the topic themselves. To explain why the movement died would be another, very different, movie.

I was attracted to the movie because I’ve always been mystified by that era, and that trial in particular. The riots happened because the government wanted to silence the counter-culture. And the trial happened because someone had to be punished. By placing false blame on those eight people, the government was trying to absolve itself from blame.

For the same reason that the Vietnam War is compared to the Iraq War, Chicago 10’s message is still relevant today. There are young people today who oppose the Bush Administration and the Iraq War just as much as those young people opposed Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam War. Where are all the protesters now?

—Posted by Brittany Mayne