LOONEY PROTEST

Chicago 10

With the desperate street theater enshrouding the last Republican National Convention already looking like a retreating nightmare, political protestation has surely entered a new era. Whether he’s pure rhetoric or the real thing, Barack Obama gets crowds bouncing with a positive streak: The “Yes We Can!” campaign has an inclusive ring that such polarizing edicts as “Four More Years” can’t touch. Finally, feisty young liberals can dance to an upbeat tune. The question of how long until the record starts skipping is secondary to whether or not it means anything in the first place. Chicago 10, Brett Morgen’s highly original documentary about the Yippie massacre outside the Democratic National Convention of 1968, reminds us that this isn’t the first time vivacity, rather than urgency, dictated activism.

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