The Trial of the Chicago 7 - Netflix - Aaron Sorkin

Agent Coulson · 14-09-2020 9:34am #1

Written & Directed by Aaron Sorkin starring an all star cast of Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Frank Langella, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Jeremy Strong, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Michael Keaton, John Carroll Lynch and Alex Sharp

Drops October 16th along with selected cinemas.

What was intended to be a peaceful protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention turned into a violent clash with police and the National Guard. The organizers of the protest—including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale—were charged with conspiracy to incite a riot and the trial that followed was one of the most notorious in history.

brevity · 14-09-2020 9:55am

That is a cracking cast. Excellent trailer too.

mikhail · 14-09-2020 1:23pm

The Chicago 7... wasn't The Dude of The Big Lebowski supposedly modelled on one of them?

ShineOn7 · 14-09-2020 1:42pm

I didn't know Netflix had bought this. This is the same one that was previously in development by Spielberg for many years

pixelburp · 14-09-2020 4:35pm

Aaron Sorkin writing AND directing eh; not sure that's a transition that always works out the best. I have seen his first go at directing with "Molly's Game" though that I can't recall much of that first attempt probably says his directing wasn't showy.

S.M.B. · 14-09-2020 7:14pm

I really liked Mollys Game, it was no The Social Network but director /writer combinations like that don't come around too often.

JP Liz V1 · 14-09-2020 9:17pm

Sacha's hair

Dades · 14-09-2020 10:20pm

mikhail wrote: »

The Chicago 7... wasn't The Dude of The Big Lebowski supposedly modelled on one of them?

That was the Seattle 7.
Jeff Dowd was one of them and a friend of the Coens.

pixelburp · 23-09-2020 1:46pm

Another, more story driven trailer popped up;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVb6EdKDBfU

JP Liz V1 · 25-09-2020 7:49pm

Ali G getting Oscar buzz for this

branie2 · 30-09-2020 12:27pm

I'm seeing it in the cinema on Friday

Agent Coulson · 16-10-2020 2:32pm

Dropped on Netflix today.

branie2 · 16-10-2020 6:02pm

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Sacha's hair

He looks like Carry On actor Bernard Bresslaw

branie2 · 16-10-2020 8:37pm

The film was very good

[Deleted User] · 17-10-2020 9:20am

Thought it was decent but underwhelming. Cohen I felt was trying too hard in his role and it didn't seem very authentic. Much preferred him in the Spy where he was outstanding.
There were some good performances from others but at the end I wasn't left with any feeling of gravity which you should after seeing something like this. A touch of lameness to it overall.

titan18 · 17-10-2020 1:10pm

Watched it last night and thought it was very good. Quite liked Cohen, Redmayne and Rylance's performances

Caquas · 17-10-2020 7:41pm

I was riveted - the cast, the setting, the script. It brings back to life an extraordinary period in American history which resonates on so many levels today, a half century later. It is hard to believe that people in 1968 were closer in time to World War I than to to us but the issues facing America today stem from this era. Donald Trump and Joe Biden are both products of that time.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale was the outstanding performance in a great cast. He was a magnetic presence in the courtroom and his battle of wills with the Judge was pivotal. His basic defence - I shouldn’t be here - seemed to embody the African-American experience.

I can’t understand this snarky review by Donald Clarke. He hates Aaron Sorkin and uses this review to vent, exactly what critics are supposed not to do.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7-plodding-and-pedantic-reading-of-the-1968-riots-1.4367582

Caquas · 18-10-2020 12:36am

Two quibbles.

The ending is corny, but Hollywood insists that political movies should end with a unifying scene.

The Kennedy assassination is barely mentioned. Hayden says Chicago would have been different because “the Irish guys would have fixed things with Mayor Daley”. Things would have been different because the Democrats would have unified around Kennedy, an anti-war candidate.

Kingp35 · 19-10-2020 12:29pm

I enjoyed it, was entertaining throughout however as usual it played fast and loose with the facts.

ShineOn7 · 19-10-2020 3:31pm

Kingp35 wrote: »

I enjoyed it, was entertaining throughout however as usual it played fast and loose with the facts.

For the lazy; what are the biggest facts it changed or left out?

errlloyd · 19-10-2020 3:38pm

ShineOn7 wrote: »

For the lazy; what are the biggest facts it changed or left out?

It changes Eddie Redmayne's character a lot. He is made out to a leftist trying to peacefully generate change from inside the system. In real life, he was a little bit eccentric like the rest. Mad goatee, stupid hat, riling up protesters on his way into court every day.

I can't find evidence of the previous AG testifying.

They did not read out names in their closing statements.

Seale did get bound and gagged, but not the day after his friend's assassination, and not for telling the judge to "go **** himself". Instead, it was actually for commenting that the judge had portraits of Ben Franklin and George Washington in the courthouse, they were both slave owners, and that was how he was being treated (which for me is more badass).

Seale was bound and gagged for several days before declared a mistrial. But he did spend more than a few hours in Chicago (I think three days). There is no suggestion he took part in the riots, so I think Sorkin lied about the few hours to avoid having to explain everything he was up to for three days.

Joseph Gordon Levitt's character was not some reluctant liberal trapped on the wrong side. He did not stand for the statement or whatever the heck happens at the end. He was slightly less of a dick than the other prosecutor, but still pretty government.

There was no notebook full of names.

Kunstler got 4 years in jail for his 26 counts of contempt.

^^

I don't think any of this materially changes the text. But Sorkin's added dramatasiation around definitely served to produce propaganda in an election year intentionally. He knows no Trump voters are gonna have their minds changed by it, but he's hoping some democrats (who otherwise wouldn't) get out and vote because of it.

Aidric · 19-10-2020 8:24pm

An entertaining two hours that hurtled along. That said I found many of the main characters to be too cartoonish, Cohen, Langella and especially Strong.

Rylance stole the show and carried the movie on his back.

errlloyd · 21-10-2020 11:57am

Aidric wrote: »

An entertaining two hours that hurtled along. That said I found many of the main characters to be too cartoonish, Cohen, Langella and especially Strong.

Rylance stole the show and carried the movie on his back.

For the record. They're the three most accurately reproduced characters in the film. Langella lines are all entirely from the court records. Cohen was actually toned down, at one point in the real trial he did a headstand on the defense table

Caquas · 21-10-2020 5:49pm

errlloyd wrote: »

It changes Eddie Redmayne's character a lot. He is made out to a leftist trying to peacefully generate change from inside the system. In real life, he was a little bit eccentric like the rest. Mad goatee, stupid hat, riling up protesters on his way into court every day.

I can't find evidence of the previous AG testifying.

They did not read out names in their closing statements.

Seale did get bound and gagged, but not the day after his friend's assassination, and not for telling the judge to "go **** himself". Instead, it was actually for commenting that the judge had portraits of Ben Franklin and George Washington in the courthouse, they were both slave owners, and that was how he was being treated (which for me is more badass).

Seale was bound and gagged for several days before declared a mistrial. But he did spend more than a few hours in Chicago (I think three days). There is no suggestion he took part in the riots, so I think Sorkin lied about the few hours to avoid having to explain everything he was up to for three days.

Joseph Gordon Levitt's character was not some reluctant liberal trapped on the wrong side. He did not stand for the statement or whatever the heck happens at the end. He was slightly less of a dick than the other prosecutor, but still pretty government.

There was no notebook full of names.

Kunstler got 4 years in jail for his 26 counts of contempt.

^^

I don't think any of this materially changes the text. But Sorkin's added dramatasiation around definitely served to produce propaganda in an election year intentionally. He knows no Trump voters are gonna have their minds changed by it, but he's hoping some democrats (who otherwise wouldn't) get out and vote because of it.

Tom Hayden was an important intellectual leader of the New Left in America and the film fairly presents his disdain for the antics of Hoffmann and Rubin. The unlikely mix of the seven defendants (eight with Seale) made the charge of conspiracy implausible. No surprise Hayden was the one who had an enduring political career. Why did Sorkin resist any reference to Hayden’s marriage to Jane Fonda a couple of years later?

The former AG Ramsey Clark did appear at the trial but, as the film shows, after legal argument, he was not allowed to testify before the jury. Has any Irish judge ever refused to allow a defence witness?

Kunstler was sentenced to four years but this was quashed on appeal.

Naturally people read this movie in light of current events but Trump is no Nixon. He may become the only American President since Coolidge who didn’t start a war. (Has Obama given back that Nobel Peace Prize yet? Maybe he should donate the money to the suffering people of Libya and Sudan).

The White Wolf · 21-10-2020 7:46pm

I enjoyed this immensely, as Sorkin is really coming on a writer. I often find his dialogue and characters irritating but he showed an impressive amount of restraint here.

bnt · 20-02-2021 9:50pm

Netflix has posted the full movie to their official YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k9CIfJsONw

Caquas · 21-02-2021 12:50pm

bnt wrote: »

Netflix has posted the full movie to their official YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k9CIfJsONw

I get "This video is unavailable".

The Trial of the Chicago 7 - Netflix - Aaron Sorkin

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