If anything it also shows that dissent is a far gone notion in our modern society...
The Camden 28 (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:23
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Despite the fact the events chronicled in The Camden 28 occurred 30 years ago, this poignant and compassionate doc about Vietnam protesters is both powerful and timely.
Runtime: 83 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Anthony Giacchino's suspenseful, tautly constructed documentary THE CAMDEN 28 recounts one of the 20th Century's most fascinating trials. In 1971, a group of Camden, New Jersey, residents who... Anthony Giacchino's suspenseful, tautly constructed documentary THE CAMDEN 28 recounts one of the 20th Century's most fascinating trials. In 1971, a group of Camden, New Jersey, residents who opposed the war in Vietnam, decided to take action. The group, consisting of many religious figures in the local community--including four Catholic priests--became known as the "Catholic left." Their target: the local draft board office, where they intended to destroy as much vital paperwork as possible. But during their assault, authorities barged in and stopped them in their tracks. Clearly, they had been set up. The ensuing trial sparked a passionate court room debate, where justice and the law didn't seem to connect. With THE CAMDEN 28, first-time feature filmmaker Giacchino takes a refreshing approach to his material, allowing the relevant players in the trial to tell their own story. The result is an infinitely more intimate, immediate, and compelling work. While Giacchino conceived of and shot most of his film before the Iraq War commenced, it is nonetheless an eerie reminder that one needn't look too far into the past to predict the future. [More]
Director: Anthony Giacchino
Director: Anthony Giacchino
Studio: First Run Features
Reviews for The Camden 28
Director Anthony Giacchino doesn't always relate the tale in the clearest fashion, but his sometimes overly emotional approach... doesn't detract from its essential fascination.
Until a worthwhile dramatized version of the Camden 28 comes along, this dutiful documentary will suffice.
When it comes to political agitation, the Camden 28 are genuine heroes and deserve to be recognized for what they dared to achieve.
Times have changed, but many of the questions remain the same: How far would you go to stop a war you felt was unjust? Would you break the law if you felt that law to be by nature unlawful?
A vivid and impassioned chronicle of unwavering moral courage under extreme duress.
[Giacchino's] sympathy for his subjects, their cause and the tradition of Christian pacifism is evident yet doesn’t cloud the storytelling as he defies viewers not to stand in admiration and ask tough questions of themselves.
Concise, inventive and unabashedly partisan, The Camden 28 is a small movie that contains multitudes.
a dully presented piece of cinema about a truly worthy group of subjects.
Though the filmmaking is pedestrian, The Camden 28's timeless truths come through with resounding power.
The Camden 28 not only examines the animating forces of protest, but also the nature of betrayal, forgiveness and, ultimately, compassion.
With a brisk narrative that blends intrigue, tension, pathos and humor, Anthony Giacchino’s absorbing look back at a New Jersey antiwar group’s early-’70s arrest and trial is closer to living history than dry, academic harangue.
An unremarkable talking-head docu nudged nearer to must-see status by the remarkable timeliness of its antiwar subject matter.
In revisiting the oppressive measures employed by the FBI during that era, the viewer is treated to a welcome message about the right, if not the duty, to challenge authority, especially in the face of corruption, intransigence and utter arrogance.
A documentary about a watershed trial in 1973 of some anti-war activists from the Catholic Left who took a stand on the basis of conscience.
Fond, stinging, and finally instructive, the film assembles a comprehensive look back at the actions, arrest, and prosecution of a group of political malcontents (most of them young Catholics and some of them priests) in the summer of 1971.
While no one will mistake director Anthony Giacchino for Michael Moore, the documentarian unfolds the drama of the arrest and eventual not guilty verdict of 28 Vietnam War protesters in 1971.
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