In the King of Prussia

Innovatively merging documentary and dramatization, director Emile de Antonio reconstructs the trial of the so-called Plowshares Eight, members of a Christian pacifist movement committed to stopping nuclear proliferation through direct action. Charged with breaking into a General Electric weapons plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and damaging parts intended for nuclear missiles, burning files, and pouring their own blood onto secret documents, the accused—all playing themselves, including brothers and activist Roman Catholic priests Daniel and Philip Berrigan—testify before an unsympathetic judge (Martin Sheen), making the moral case for what they view as an act of civil disobedience.