Chicago 10 (film)

Plot

In 1968, a group of protestors got together to protest the Vietnam War where their actions led to their arrest and trial.

Cast

Production

On the eve of the Afghanistan War, director Brett Morgen was spurred to create Chicago 10 in response to what he saw as the lack of active American opposition to the war. Morgen wanted to make the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s resonate with contemporary youth, which influenced both the film's animation style and its anachronistic soundtrack, the latter of which features modern artists such as Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine, the Beastie Boys, and Eminem. The animated courtroom sequences were also informed by Jerry Rubin's description of the trial as a "cartoon show."

Release

The film premiered January 18, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It later premiered at Silverdocs, the AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival in Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland. The film opened in limited release in the United States on February 29, 2008. It was aired nationally on the PBS program, Independent Lens, on October 22, 2008.

Critical reception

The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. As of April 11, 2010, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of their critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 77 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 24 reviews.