Why so much hype?

Powerful

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

This is an innovative, historical, and very well acted account of the US Government's attempt to put a generation of anti-war protestors on trial. From a political standpoint this film succeeds in outlining the key issues protestors had against the Vietnam War. From a legal standpoint this film succeeds in defining what may have been the most unorthodox and legally flawed trial ever to take place in America. On the artistic side, this film combines fantastic actors who embody the spirit of the true life defendants as well as offering intertwined detailed accounts from the participants themselves.In respect to the reviewer who stated this wasn't what he remembered, I can only say that media accounts usually do not cover events accurately and that this whole docudrama is taken from the actual court transcripts. As someone who has taught and studied this trial and accounts, I assure you will not find better.For an understanding of what divided and still splinters our country, this truly is required viewing.

Required viewing for all American History students should be the rule. Thanks to the great actors, Mickael Lembeck, Elliott Gould, Peter Boyle, Brian Benben, and all the others, this film takes you back to when America's youth set out to made a statement and when they really believed they could change the world..... and didn't we in some ways???

As someone who was living in Chicago in 1968 and very sympathetic to the Chicago 8 at the time, this is not quite the way I remember it. I went to high school (Berkeley-class of 57) with two of the defendants (Froines and Seale) and followed this trial about as closely (newspapers and TV accounts) as you could without being there in the courtroom.While this film represents itself as factual and uses a lot of actual footage of the events, I don't buy it all. Judge Hoffman was not that tolerant or sympathetic nor defense attorney Kunstler that kooky, and little of what went on behind the scenes, especially with Mayor Daly, is not conveyed. This was one of the great political trials of the century and you don't get a sense of the true politics involved. One simple example is that the city of Chicago thought it was on trial, as much as the defendants were, and I got little feel for that from this account.If you want the history of this trial read up on it, this movie must be taken with a bit of a grain of salt.

Some TV movies make you wish for suicide and others entertain you. Still others do not belong, they seem to be real movies. This is one of them... I think this is a greatest TV movie of all time and a damn good movie.