Sorkin’s Blast From The Past: The Trial Of the Chicago 7 – Forbes

The Trial of the Chicago 7 revisits a flashpoint in American history as written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and now available on Netflix.

Poster for The Trial of the Chicago 7

Sorkin is a master of the courtroom drama whose films often build to one climatic speech. Sorkins work includes the screenplays for A Few Good Men (You cant handle the truth), Malice (I am God!), The American President (I am the President), as well as The Social Network (Wheres your Facebook?) and his recent directorial debut Mollys Game (Because its my name!).Sorkin is also justly praised for The West Wing, where Walk and Talk shots became a signature Sorkin feature.

Sorkin does his best work when he finds a way to make the central issue personal when he finds a story with no obvious connection to him that nonetheless mirrors his own deepest beliefs or serves as the forum to relitigate his own private personal emotional dramas, arguments and wounds.

In 1968, The Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago. Following the murders that Spring of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, the Convention was seen as a referendum on the Vietnam War. Or at least protesters wanted it to become that. Three different protest groups, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Youth International Party (Yippies), and the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE), all called upon their supporters to come to Chicago to protest at the convention.

The Convention became the scene of violent riots, with Chicago Police beating protesters. Hubert Humphrey received the Democratic nomination but lost the election to Richard Nixon who campaigned on a Law and Order platform. Once Nixon was in office, his Attorney General John Mitchell ordered the prosecution of the protest leaders: Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden of the SDS, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin of the Yippies, Dave Dellinger of the Mobilization Committee as well as two other protesters. Bobby Seale, chairman of the Black Panther Party was also indicted.

Judge Julius Hoffman was chosen to hear the case. William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass were the defense attorneys for the defendants other than Bobby Seale whose lawyer could not make it to Court. Seale was unrepresented and Judge Hoffman would not allow Seale to represent himself. Eventually after Hoffman ordered Seale bound and gagged to end his outbursts, a mistrial was declared for Seale, who left the case.

Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman with Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin in Netflix's The Trial of the ... [+] Chicago 7

Sorkin sets up conflict among the characters as well as against the Judge and Nixons Justice Department. In Sorkins telling (which is based on the actual trial transcripts), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) are political activists hoping to change the system in many ways more establishment and more respectful of the judicial system than Abbie Hoffman (Sascha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), who are set up initially as attention hungry anarchists who care more about publicizing themselves than ending the war; and Dave Dellinger, who is the adult in the room, a pacificist believer in non-violence who wants to bring about the end of the war in Vietnam. There appears to be hostility between Hayden and Hoffman as to how best to win their case or, for that matter, how best to end the Vietnam War.

Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) comes off as biased, short-tempered, and perhaps senile. William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) appears as earnest, sincere, and mostly trying to keep the peace among his defendants and find a way to make their case in court.

Sorkins magic act is such that after setting up Hayden as the voice of reason for most of the movie, it is Hoffman who saves the day. Likewise, Sacha Baron Cohen who steals the movie in what is his best dramatic performance to date. Sorkins reveal is that Hoffman is the one who sees the clearest, who early on understands that this is a political trial, and that the case and its impact would be made both in court and outside among the protesters and the press. On the witness stand, it is Hoffman who gives the answers that best frame the movie. And true to Sorkins predilections, it is Hoffmans explanation of Haydens grammatical vagaries upon which the movie hangs (Its true, I swear!).

All in all, Sorkin makes a crackling drama out of what was a lengthy and laborious trial and does so in a way that has great resonance to today and the recent Black Lives Matter protestsand, more generally, concerning the Trump administration.

So my review, in short: Watch the Trial of the Chicago 7 youll learn lots and its worth watching for Sacha Baron Cohens performance.

Now, putting that all aside, when a narrative piece of entertainment is fashioned about real people there is always that question of how true the performances and characterizations are to the actual people. Certainly the actors can study film and tape, but most of them never had the opportunity to see these people, in person, in their prime. I did.

Over the course of time, I had the chance to hear speak many of the people portrayed in this movie including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Dave Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden and William Kunstler. And although Sorkin is faithful to the trial transcript, the personalities of the characters were different than what we see onscreen. So, for example, Ryland plays Kunstler with a certain modesty, reticence and seriousness of purpose. Kunstler was more of a firebrand, more passionate, more full of himself. Hayden was like his screen character, aggressive and somewhat professorial, but more blue collar in affect than Redmayne. Rennie Davis was more commanding when he spoke. Dave Dellinger was about right, although he had more gravitas. Jerry Rubin was a bright light, high energy and fun (Sorkin diminishes him in this telling). And as for Abbie, Sacha Baron plays him as a stand-up comic, but a very intelligent one (Closer I would say to Cohen himself than Hoffman).I would say Abbie had more testosterone. He was more combative, more provocative. With Abbie there was always a level of engagement and aggression amid his brilliance that is not evident in the screen performance.

Some 40 years ago, youthful political organizers were put on trial by a US government set on curtailing their rights and punishing them for speaking out in what was more political spectacle than legal proceeding. If the passage of time has sought to blunt that memory, and to forget the names of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, Dave Dellinger, Bobby Seale and Bill Kunstler, Aaron Sorkin has done them the tribute of giving them new life in his very watchable and superbly acted film, The Trial of the Chicago 7.

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Sorkin's Blast From The Past: The Trial Of the Chicago 7 - Forbes