Film

Chicago 10

Name: Chicago 10
Genre: Documentary, Animation, History, War
Released: 2008
Cast: Dylan Baker, Hank Azaria, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider

A furious, funny, formally reckless documentary about the 1968 Chicago Seven (originally Eight) conspiracy trial, splicing real riot footage with rotoscoped animation of the courtroom chaos. It plays less like history than a fever dream — Yippie theatrics, a judge who's basically a cartoon villain because he really was one. For anyone who wants their politics loud, funny, and true.

TMDb rating

5.8

If you liked this

The Trial of the Chicago 72020

Aaron Sorkin's dramatization of the exact same trial, all zingers and righteous fury, with a script built for maximum courtroom catharsis. The obvious next stop, and a genuinely great one.

But It smooths the real story's mess into something tidier and more triumphant than what actually happened.

Medium Cool1969

A fiction film about a TV cameraman that was literally shot during the '68 DNC riots, blurring scripted drama and real tear gas until you can't tell which is which.

But Loose, dated, and structurally odd by design — it's an experience more than a story.

Good Night, and Good Luck.2005

Edward R. Murrow taking on McCarthy, shot in cool black-and-white — the same story of institutions weaponized against dissent, told with total restraint instead of chaos.

But Quiet and procedural where Chicago 10 is loud; if you wanted more mayhem, this will feel austere.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Punishment Park1971

Same subject — anti-war dissidents facing a rigged justice system — but imagined as speculative fiction shot to look like a real broadcast, the mirror image of Chicago 10's real trial dressed up as animation.

A faux-documentary shot like raw news footage, imagining anti-war protesters tried by a kangaroo tribunal and sent into the desert as a real punishment. Savage, low-budget, and eerily plausible.

But Cheap-looking and deliberately ugly, with no stars and no comfort — it's agitprop, not entertainment.

Milk2008

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, another portrait of a movement built out of theater, charisma, and refusal to play by the establishment's rules.

But It's a more conventional biopic — warmer and sadder, without the anarchic collage energy.

Frost/Nixon2008

A different kind of trial — an interview as duel — set in the same wrecked post-'60s political landscape, with power finally forced to answer for itself.

But Talkier and more contained; two men in chairs rather than a nation in the streets.

All the President's Men1976

The institutional rot Chicago 10 rages against, followed to its logical endpoint, told through the patient grind of investigative journalism instead of protest.

But Deliberately unglamorous and procedural — no riots, no theater, just phone calls and paperwork.

Judgment at Nuremberg1961

The granddaddy of the courtroom-as-moral-battleground movie, asking who gets to sit in judgment and why, with performances that still land like a gut punch.

But Long, stagey, and very much a product of its era's pacing — patience required.

Vice2018

Adam McKay's own collage-and-satire approach to American power, gleefully breaking form to make a political point, in the same irreverent spirit as Chicago 10's animation.

But Smugger and more scattershot; some find its cleverness exhausting rather than energizing.

Mississippi Burning1988

A harder, angrier look at the same decade's violence against dissent and civil rights, minus any of the black comedy — just righteous, blunt-force outrage.

But Grim and heavy-handed, with none of the playful formal tricks that make Chicago 10 feel alive.

Chicago2002

Same city, same idea that a trial is theater and the media is complicit — except played entirely for camp and song instead of outrage, a wicked tonal inversion of the same insight.

A Bob Fosse-style musical about murder trials turned into media circuses, all razzle-dazzle and courtroom showmanship — pure spectacle where guilt barely matters next to performance.

But It's a glossy, jazz-hands musical; if you want political weight, this offers none.

Waltz with Bashir2008

Uses the exact same trick as Chicago 10 — animating real testimony to get at a truth straight footage can't reach — but turns it toward grief and war memory instead of protest and farce.

An animated documentary about a filmmaker piecing together his fractured memories of the 1982 Lebanon War, using rotoscope-style animation to render real trauma and real interviews.

But Slower and more inward — a personal memory piece, not a courtroom or a crowd scene in sight.