Director: Aaron Sorkin
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance, Michael Keaton
Language: English
Oscar-winning writer/director Aaron Sorkin’s trysts with words in courtroom dramas are legendary. And The Trial of the Chicago 7 (streaming on Netflix) where he dons the director and writer hat, is no exception. The movie follows the real-life incidents that happened during the 1968 Chicago riots and the infamous trial that followed. Aaron Sorkin takes us into the courtroom of the trial of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Bobby Seale, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Lee Weiner and John Froines who were charged by the Federal government with crossing state lines and conspiracy to incite riot. The Trial of Chicago 7 not only gives us a front seat at the trial but also gives us background of the riots itself and the events that led to the riots.
What we get from this legal drama is a nail-biting sequence of events that give us a peek into American politics and the justice system in the United States then which strangely yet surely bears a resemblance to the current state of affairs. Sacha Baron Cohen plays the role of Abbie Hoffman with so much of ease and pride. He is a proud liberal who is anti-war and some of the best sarcasm and witty one-liners are dedicated to him. Eddie Redmayne scores as Tom Hayden, the studied scholar who yearns for a change. Switching between emotions is a cake’s walk for this actor and he proves that time and again in this movie. Mark Rylance as William Kunstler, the defendant’s lawyer aces in his performance of being fed up with the system. Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin is splendid especially during the riot scenes.
The casting for this drama is something that needs special mention. Each character is specifically crafted to match the real events and we can see Sorkin’s writing that gives that extra edge to their performance. Sacha’s witty one-liners, Eddie Redmayne’s steadfast political theories and Judge Hoffman’s (Frank Langella) frank dismissal are all extremely well-written and courageously portrayed.
There are so many mic drop moments in this courtroom drama and Aaron Sorkin’s snippy writing combined with this star cast reiterates and underscores the importance of the issue at hand. One of the highlights of the movie is the few minutes of Abbie Hoffman taking the stand to answer some questions. He starts off by making a hilarious counter on the American education system and then switches on to more pressing matters. On being questioned whether he knew why he was on trial; he explains about how they carried certain ideas across State lines and not machine guns or little girls or drugs. A particularly goosebump inducing moment is when Abbie Hoffman says, “I’ve never been on trial for my thoughts before,” to a silent courtroom.
But it is when Black Panther party’s founder Bobby Seale played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen is gagged and kept tied up in a court for attempting to exercise his right of wanting to defend himself, that things hit rock bottom. An extremely sobering picture in an otherwise fast-paced drama, those few scenes can easily rile up anyone’s emotions with the simple truth of its uneasy relevance even today. The Trial of the Chicago 7 can easily be praised as one of the best legal dramas in recent times. But it is also one that we need to ponder upon in the current climate.
Rating: 4/5
