CHICAGO RIOTS SYMBOLIZE GENERATION

EVERYONE TOGETHER FOR FAMOUS RIOT TRIAL

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The Chicago Democratic National Convention riots were part of the anti-Vietnam war protests in 1968, but also part of a convergence of anti-establishment fragments using the world stage to showcase political causes.

Director Aaron Sorkin portrays that historically important event in the biopic film The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020).

Sorkin begins by introducing various anti-establishment leaders as they leave for Chicago, portraying each personality from distinct backgrounds, not necessarily working together, but drawn to a common discontent for American political affairs.

The individual narratives join the one main narrative of the trial proceedings. 

Sorkin then breaks the narrative apart with flashbacks to the 1968 demonstrations, and also with flash forwards to Abbie Hoffman giving political monologues after the trial.

Dramatized color scenes are seamlessly blended with black and white news reels of the riots.

Sorkin summons an ensemble cast of experienced actors, and then uses as a narrative device the various fragments of the anti-establishment movement coming together as one demonstration. 

Eddie Redmayne portrays Tom Hayden as the leader of university students for a democratic society. Redmayne won an Oscar for his performance in The Theory of Everything (2015) and then an Oscar nomination just one year later for his performance in The Danish Girl (2015).

Sacha Baron Cohen plays Abbie Hoffman, an outspoken advocate of a cultural revolution involving drugs and anti-authority figures. Jeremy Strong plays Jerry Rubin, Hoffman’s co-leader of militant, dope smoking Yippies. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II portrays Black Panther Bobby Seale.

Frank Langella plays Judge Julius Hoffman. Langella played United States President Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon (2008) costarring Michael Sheen as broadcast journalist David Frost.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the federal Prosecutor Richard Schultz. Gordon-Levitt has also played Edward Snowden in Snowden (2016), Robert Lincoln in Lincoln (2012) and Gotham Police detective Blake in the Dark Knight Batman Trilogy.

Mark Rylance is cast as Defense Attorney William Kunster. Rylance also played BFG in The BFG (2016) and a Russian spy in Bridge of Spies (2015).

The actors are cast well together, each showing acting acumen without taking screen time and the cinema ether away from the other actors.

Sorkin is able to bring all these actors together within the same script without losing sight of the overall vision of portraying justice on trial, while using the tone of the Sixties’ sit-ins in the deep background.

Langella portrays Judge Julius Hoffman as biased, and politically motivated, personifying a systemic problem that prevents defendants from obtaining a fair trial.

The film is a bit disjointed as a result of the effort to piece together representatives of all the different biopic characters involved.

Sorkin also spends too much screen time inside the courtroom for the trial when the more naturally compelling scenes were occurring at Hyde Park and the International Amphitheatre a year earlier.

Sorkin, who is known more for his writing, has just a few director credits. The dialogue explains the different sides of the anti-establishment movement, but the overall narrative lacks a bit of compelling substance.

The film though has a 129 minute runtime, and with all the different characters getting a piece of that time, the movie moves forward rather quickly.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is streaming on Netflix.