Dramatizations of historial events rarely get better than this.
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Grade: A
Director: Aaron Sorkin (Molly’s Game)
Screenplay: Sorkin (Steve Jobs)
Cast: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat)
Runtime: 2h 9m
Rating: R
By: John DeSando
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a remarkable dramatization of the trial outcome of the protest march at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. The leaders of the resistance became like rock stars for prompting the demonstrations against the Vietnam war and coincidentally police brutality: Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Bobbie Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), the national chairman of the Black Panther Party, and David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) are featured.
The docudrama does a superlative job differentiating the combatants, given the number of them and their large personalities. Hayden is depicted as the most reasonable and Bobby Seale the most volatile while Hoffman is a witty provocateur. He trial is worth seeing itself for fine actors like Joseph Gordon Levitt as the level-headed prosecutor, Richard Schultz; Mark Rylance as inveterate interrupter defense lawyer, William Kunstler; and Frank Langella as the beleaguered judge, Julius Hoffman. The actors make you feel as if you are in the courtroom with the famous participants.
The courtroom is the scene of the film’s most tumultuous action (even more so than the original footage of the riots), for instance, when Seale is brought back into the courtroom bound and gagged.
Today’s local rioting over police brutality is a cautionary reminder of those anarchic times in 1968.
Less dramatic but just as poignant is the testimony of Ramsey Clark (Michael Keaton), former attorney general, for the defense. As it turns out, the judge would not allow the jurors to hear his testimony. This is real-life drama almost too hard to believe.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is historical dramatization at its best—accurate history and relevance to our own times. As Dellinger ominously told his family before the demonstration, “[Mayor] Daley is not going to let his city turn into a theater of war.” An apt description of what actually happened.
“So your brother’s bound and gagged
And they’ve chained him to a chair
Won’t you please come to Chicago just to sing
In a land that’s known as freedom, how can such a thing be fair
Won’t you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring”
Graham Nash, “Chicago,” 1971
