A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Trial of the Chicago 7”.
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating:
Certification:
US: R. UK: 15.
So, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is one which I was unfortunately unable to catch on its short “Oscar-nom” cinema release, but is now on Netflix. And boy, for older viewers who prefer historical drama over wham-bam action, this is definitely worth the watch.
Stand-up guys. Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong) stride in. (Source: Netflix).
A story I knew nothing about.
I know a decent bit of 20th century history, but this is a story I knew nothing about. At the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, anti-Vietnam protests resulted in a violent and brutal confrontation with the police. Eight of the ring-leaders were rounded up and charged with inciting the violence. What happens in the court with the eight convicted men, in front of an old and partisan judge (the wonderful Frank Langella), is simply amazing.
There’s a nice wiki article on the history here. But its worth watching the movie blind, since it’s a great rollercoaster ride.
The scene of the drama to unfold (for real) in 1968. (Original Photo: Bea A Corson).
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” has a cast to die for
If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that one of my favourite of the awards in award season is the “Ensemble Cast” award from the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG). I think a good measure of which movies might be good candidates for this award is when you find it difficult to single out particular actors for an individual award when they all work so well together. For this is a cast to die for:
- Sacha Baron Cohen, as Abbie Hoffman: an intelligent ‘straight’ role, poles apart from Borat and Bruno, that he delivers on 100%;
- Jeremy Strong as Hoffman’s buddy Jerry Rubin, doing an enormously entertaining turn;
- Eddie Redmayne as the apparently ‘sensible one’ Tom Hayden. A bit similar to his role in “Les Miserables”, but diving off in a different direction at a key point;
- John Carroll Lynch as the genuine ‘boy scout’ David Dellinger, so good in “The Founder” and here as the only family man under the judgmental stare of his wife and son;
- Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Panther member Bobby Seale – the “minus 1” from the title – in an astonishingly powerful performance;
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the prosecutor Richard Schultz – always quietly dependable;
Attorney with a conscience. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Richard Schultz. (Source: Netflix).
- And the fantastic Mark Rylance as the defense attorney William Kunstler. I appreciate I am having a tendency to gush in this review, but Rylance expresses such a range of frustration and disgust here that his performance is nothing short of electrifying.
There’s also a cracking cameo from Michael Keaton playing the former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clark.
I would think that any of these performances might be Oscar-worthy (somewhere in the Actor/Supporting Actor categories) but my personal choices would be Rylance for Best Actor and Baron Cohen and Langella for Best Supporting Actor nods.
Agent provocateurs facing the demonstrators. (Source: Netflix).
With “The Trial of the Chicago 7”, Sorkin keeps his mouth shut.
One of my issues with the scripts of Aaron Sorkin is that they tend to be overly dense and wordy. In epic TV like “The West Wing” he could spread the dialogue over a whole series, but in a feature film it can become very dense and verbose. I found that in both of his last two films – “Molly’s Game” and “Steve Jobs“.
Here, in “The Trial of the Chicago 7”, even though there’s a lot of speechifying, to me it never felt over the top. Although an epic courtroom drama (akin to his debut script “A Few Good Men”) the characters are given time to breath between the lines. And many of those lines are real zingers, particularly out of the mouth of stand-up anarchist Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen).
Black Lives Matter. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays the put-upon Bobby Seale. (Source: Netflix).
Could Sorkin get the double of a writing and a direction nomination?
Aside from the script being a zinger, the direction here from Aaron Sorkin is also top-notch. If you thought a courtroom drama was going to be static and boring, think again. The camera never rests, and inserted flashbacks (excellent film editing fromAlan Baumgarten) maintain the momentum of the story.
Overall, this is a movie tour-de-force from Sorkin, and a fantastic watch. I’m kicking myself that I wasn’t able to catch it on the big screen.
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating:
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVb6EdKDBfU.
