THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Review
Giving Aaron Sorkin the chance to write and direct a movie about an eventful court case is like giving Lance Armstrong the chance to cheat at the Tour De France, you’re simply bound to witness something good. With THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, Mr. Sorkin for the second time in his career, gets behind the camera to recount the aftermath of the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention, where protesters and police violently collided resulting in the arrest of eight supposed conspirators.
Those eight included the likes of Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) and Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society; Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), leaders of the Youth International Party (or more affectionately known as the Yippies); David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), leader of the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam; Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins) and John Froines (Danny Flaherty), two young men with only the vaguest connection to the aforementioned; and finally, Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), National Chairman of the Black Panther Party who had even less to do with the violent confrontations than the previous seven men. With Davis, Hayden, Rubin, Hoffman, Dellinger, Weiner, and Froines being represented by pro-bono lawyers William Kuntsler (Mark Rylance) and Leonard Weinglass (Ben Shenkman), as Seale goes the route of self-representation, the eight men find themselves squaring off against a duo of prosecutors (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and J.C. MacKenzie) and judge (Frank Langella) intent on finding them guilty of any possible crime. As the arguments and accusations fly between the accused and accusers in Sorkin-like fashion, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 slowly peels back on what exactly happened during that fateful convention and surprise, surprise, it turns out the U.S. government and police force is kind of flawed and corrupt!
As these details come into focus, one can’t help but draw modern comparisons between our currently volatile political situation with that of what occurred in 1968, not only on the streets of Chicago between protestors and police, but also in the more sinister happenings in the halls of supposed justice. Going into this relatively unaware of the true historical events that this film is based off, seeing Sorkin dramatically cut between the events of the convention and that of the trial allows for an air of suspense to linger over the film. But I imagine even if you do happen to know every detail about the events put on show here, one would still be impressed by the entertaining drama that Sorkin enlivens with his snappy and quick-paced writing. Even with some over-exaggeration on Sorkin’s part in regards to some characters and events (expect lots of dramatic, fist raising monologues and mic drop moments), the true reality of THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 proves to be as, if not more, dramatic than anything any writer could concoct. While we would like to think our government would never wield their power to impose their own will, the actions on the part of Richard Nixon’s Attorney General show an example of just how easy it is for our government to dip towards something dangerous. Nevertheless, Mr. Sorkin avoids any sense of indulgence (for the most part) in crafting a entertaining movie about a court case that harkens back to an older era of when every other movie released was about some people arguing and yelling dramatically in pristine judicial rooms.
Like those older movies, Sorkin arms himself with a stable of actors all bringing their A-game. Indeed, the primary “7” (but also eight, including Bobby Seale) make for a rooting group of protagonists as Sorkin effectively plays them off against one another as they slowly learn to work together. Each member of the accused party gets their own moment to deliver a snarky/dramatic piece of Sorkin dialogue and each performer more than sells it even if some of them, particularly Abdul-Mateen II, is pushed to the sidelines as the movie goes on. In particular, the relationship between Redmayne’s straight-laced Mr. Hayden and Cohen’s jokey Mr. Hoffman acts not only as an entertaining face-off between two performers giving it their all (despite Cohen’s loose handle on his character’s accent) but also in highlighting the internal divisions within the grander liberal movement as Hayden believes that Democrats would be more effective in society if it wasn’t for people like Hoffman busting in and cheekily playing up to their stereotypes. Despite their differences, these two men and the rest of the other accused soon realize that fighting between themselves will only bring their day of judgement closer upon them, which is just what their government seemingly wants as they employ the most unqualified of judges to reside over the fate of these men. As Judge Julius Hoffman, a character so ridiculously unqualified for his job that it has to be true, Frank Langella seems to be having a blast playing such a deplorable figure of the law as the 7 and their two lawyers, played with exquisite shaggy energy by Rylance and Shenkman, can only look on with a mixture of horror and .
It’s in these showdowns, whether between the 7 and the courts or even between the 7 and themselves that THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 soars. With Sorkin providing the dialogue, one can expect a zippy and sardonic script that has tendencies to dip in the overdramatic but despite those stumbles into the fantastic, Sorkin casts an appropriate air of importance and urgency to his film. He lets his characters have fun but never lets them or the story lose sight of just how traumatic and ominous the events their taking part in are. As the details of the confrontation emerge and the true culprits arise, Sorkin guides his film to an emotionally rewarding, if slightly cheesy, conclusion that somehow manages to not be as schmaltzy as it could’ve been probably because the outcome feels earned. While Sorkin’s directing is more pedestrian when compared to his writing (and I mean come on, comparing anything to Sorkin writing is pedestrian), he still does a commendable job at bringing all these disparate events and characters together to form a clear picture of a fractured system.
In the end, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 makes for an entertainingly informational watch. In a way, while the film could just as easily fall in line with court dramas of other past years, the film also operates like those entertaining educational videos I saw back in school based on historical events. One could easily call THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Oscar bait and to be honest, they’d probably be right in that classification, but it never hurts to watch a movie so entertaining yet urgent.
4/5
