Film Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7
© THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (2020) DIR. AARON SORKIN
It is hard to argue that Aaron Sorkin has demonstrated a gift for extracting maximum drama out of court room proceedings. On the other hand, the raw material of the 1969 trial of the motley crew that came to be known as the Chicago 7, was rich with colorful and outrageous characters, soaring rhetorical arguments and disturbing events which feel particularly relevant to our current moment of social and political dissent. The polarization in the country spurred by the Vietnam War and civil rights protests is forced into a head-on collision by the newly-elected President Nixon and his zealous Attorney General John Mitchell. Nixon tasked Mitchell with quashing further outbreaks by charging some of the key figures in the protests before and during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He makes it clear to the prosecutor Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) that the President is hell-bent on winning this case at all costs. (Sound familiar?).
The trial which lasted five months was something of a circus, with the court packed with vocal advocates for the defendants. The case was structured awkwardly with several political cohorts grouped together in an effort to prove a conspiracy case which could bring more serious punishment than permit violations and misdemeanor charges. William Kunstler (Mark Rylance), the controversial civil rights lawyer, took on the defense of the clean-cut Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), outrageous counter-culture figures Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), founders of the Yippie movement, and Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a Black Panther leader, and four other defendants. The court was presided over by Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), who is blatantly biased against the defendants and demonstrably a racist. He repeatedly blocks evidence and silences witnesses, handing out countless contempt citations for ridiculous infractions.
The court room scenes, which veer from amusing, with taunting outbursts from Abbie Hoffman, and shenanigans by the defendants, to apoplectic behavior by the judge, who is clearly losing control, and a shocking display of judicial overreach when the judge orders Seale to be bound, gagged and shackled to his chair for three days in court. The events on which the trial is based are shown in montages of archival and staged newsreels and television coverage at the beginning of the film and interspersed during the court proceedings. There are also clips of the various defendants particular activities. It feels a bit chaotic and murky, but it also feels believable and the pacing keeps one fully engaged. The sense of dread and gloom which is revealed when the defendants are out of the court and things are looking bleak is tangible. The fact that five of the seven were only charged with inciting riots and those charges were overturned on appeal. The contempt of court charges were all dismissed as well. The ominous power of the court was not subverted by politics in the end. The ensemble cast delivers a useful version of a history lesson, which still resonates and ends well.
Available on Netflix.
