..,.Gary Dretzka
..,.Leonard Klady
...David Poland
...Doug Pratt
...Ray Pride

JANUARY 19, 2007

Chicago 10 Strikes Out

I wish I could tell you that Sundance '07 opened with a bang and not a whimper. But alas...

Brett Morgan and Nanette Burstein made a couple of great documentaries together, On The Ropes and The Kid Stays In The Picture. The first was rather traditional... great story well told. And it was Oscar nominated. The second combined an exercise in style with a solid gold narrative. And it should have been Oscar nominated.

But as couples who work together so often do, the duo split up and each went on their way to new projects. After co-exec'ing the Robert Evans animated series, Kid Notorious, this is Mr. Morgan's first solo film as director.

When one expresses doubt about the result, the quick response is that the film was made with the current generation of youth in mind. But the most clear evidence of that is the animation style used in courtroom reconstructions which is most associated with Richard Linklater's Waking Life ($2.9 million gross) and A Scanner Darkly ($5.5 million). Neither was considered a commercial success. More importantly, there is no indication that kids these days are anxious to see this kind of visualization.

But the biggest disappointment of Chicago 10, which tells the story of what is best known as The Chicago Seven trial (add Bobby Seale and two lawyers to get to 10), is that in choosing to tell this story again, after it's been told quite well before, this film adds almost nothing to the conversation. In fact, after seeing it, I really have no idea what Mr. Morgan thought he was after when he took this on.

I could have asked him, I suppose, though it is one of the great discomforts of Sundance to run into a filmmaker whose film you didn't like... even more so when that filmmaker has very nice things to say about your work.

At 103 minutes, Chicago 10 plays a lot like a very long, very expensive 3-minute YouTube video. Nothing seems to be able to hold the film's concentration for more than a few minutes. There is all kinds of great music. There are a lot of terrific clips from that moment in America's history. But mostly, it takes one of the most interesting moments in American history and reduces it to cool guys mouthing off at the system, with no context, no perspective, and no clear message other than the ubiquitous, "The System Sucks, Dude!"

Of course, an intellectually simplistic look at The Chicago 10 could also be a good movie... if it had the giddy joy and fear of that moment. But this too - no mean feat - was absent. The film was not fun. The film did not take you up the rollercoaster and that send you crashing down, stopping just before endangering you before heading uphill again. Is Abbie Hoffman really going to be the next Napoleon Dynamite? I don't think so.

So, if the film is not terribly successful in recounting the tale intellectually and isn't a great deal of fun, what is there?

Well, there is a lot of skill shown on the screen. You can see how the actors in the recreations developed their characters. You can see how careful Morgan selected and color-timed the archival footage.

But I found myself engaging in the quiet conversation in my head that has become so much the constant whine in the current run of cinema... Make A Choice! What Are You Trying To Tell Me? There are a million ways to tell a story in cinema. You can even tell a story by not telling a story. But what you cannot do is to tell me a story without knowing what you want me to take away from it in emotional terms. And whether it is plaguing Clint Eastwood in Flags of Our Fathers or Alfonso Cuaron in Children of Men or Brett Morgan in Chicago 10, the problem is very real.

The difference is that Eastwood gets a pass for being Eastwood. Cuaron does a virtuoso filmmaking dance that fills the void for many viewing Children of Men.

And there is an odd sensation in this viewer that Mr. Morgan was of the impression that he was delivering either a new story or a truly innovative version of an old story. The effort is audacious. And failing like this only comes of daring.

But is there enough stuff in Chicago 10 to get over that hump?

I think not.

Still, I look forward to Brett's next film. I just hope he finds his clarity before he gets to the cutting room next time.