• Reviews
    • Watch This
    • VODepths
  • Humor
  • On the Marquee
  • Looking Back
    • Classic Corner
    • Anniversary
  • Film Fests
Crooked Marquee
  • Reviews
    • Watch This
    • VODepths
  • Humor
  • On the Marquee
  • Looking Back
    • Classic Corner
    • Anniversary
  • Film Fests
Home
Reviews

Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7

Oct 15th, 2020 Abby Olcese
Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7

“Aaron Sorkin writes and directs a movie about the Chicago Seven trial” sounds like a pitch tailor-made to attract an audience of liberal-minded boomers (I speak from experience; my parents are currently on their third viewing of The West Wing). And that’s exactly what The Trial of the Chicago 7 is: classic Sorkin, down to the courtroom setting. It’s a fairly traditional, all-star telling of a radical moment in history that aims to please and mostly does. Based on the content, it’s clear that the time is right to be reminded of a story like the 1968 DNC riots. But while the format is enjoyable, it may not be the right one for this moment.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 recounts the epic trial of the activists charged with inciting the 1968 riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. There are eight defendants: Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) head Students for a Democratic Society. Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) lead the Yippies. They’re joined by anti-war activist David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), and protesters John Froines (Danny Flaherty) and Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins). Black Panther leader Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is lumped in, just for being in town on the day of the riots. (Seale is eventually tried separately.)

(NETFLIX © 2020)

Young prosecuting lawyer Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a decent guy stuck in a tight ethical spot. William Kunstler (Mark Rylance), a soft-spoken but idealistically-driven lawyer, represents the defendants. Overseeing the whole affair is Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), who’s hell-bent on getting the men convicted, impartiality be damned. Sorkin follows the action in the courtroom and the defendants’ deliberations outside of it, intercut with flashbacks of the 1968 riots themselves.

Sorkin’s script is peppered with whip-smart dialogue and idealistic speeches, and the film is stacked with solid ensemble performances that make the most of his writing. Strong is sweetly charming as the stoned Rubin. Baron Cohen is genuinely impressive as Hoffman, giving an intelligent, nuanced performance of a character that could easily have been over-the-top. It probably comes as no surprise that Rylance steals the whole thing without even trying, doing the understated and dryly funny work he typically excels at.

(NETFLIX © 2020)

The film struggles a bit, however, with tone. This is an issue almost from the opening moments, as images of the Vietnam draft lottery and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy–intercut with scenes of the main characters preparing to go to Chicago–play over a distractingly upbeat Daniel Pemberton score. The film’s most dramatic element is Seale’s astoundingly unfair treatment at the hands of the court, but short of a few key moments, he’s treated as something of an afterthought and drops out completely after he’s removed from the trial.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 feels like such a genre throwback (we don’t see courtroom dramas like this much anymore) that it feels more at home amongst 90s fare like A Time to Kill and Sorkin’s own A Few Good Men. The story and its themes, however, are extremely appropriate to today, and deserve an edgier telling than they get. It’s an entertaining film, but still feels like a softened, high school history class-friendly version of events. With all the parallels writers like to draw between 2020 and 1968, I do hope this period in history will warrant a slightly different kind of telling 50-plus years down the line.

B

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” streams tomorrow on Netflix.

 
  • Tags
  • movie review
Facebook Twitter Google+
Abby Olcese

Abby Olcese

Abby Olcese is a film critic and pop culture writer. In addition to writing for Crooked Marquee, she is also the film editor at The Pitch magazine. Her work has appeared in Sojourners Magazine, Birth. Movies. Death., SlashFilm and more. She lives in Kansas City.

Related Posts
Review: <i>The White Tiger</i>
Abby Olcese

Review: The White Tiger

Jan 21st, 2021
Review: <i>News of the World</i>
Abby Olcese

Review: News of the World

Jan 14th, 2021
Review: <i>One Night in Miami...</i>
Craig Lindsey

Review: One Night in Miami...

Jan 14th, 2021
Subscribe to our Newsletter:
* indicates required
Trending
Jan 26th 9:00 AM
Looking Back

Mock Heroics: Richard Lester in the ’70s

Sep 7th 9:00 AM
Movies

How to Be Someone Else: Transgender Themes in the Work of Charlie Kaufman

Mar 4th 1:38 PM
Humor

At Netflix, We Want Everyone to Have Access to the Cinema of Netflix

Aug 14th 9:00 AM
Movies

Dinosaurs in the Theater: Lisbon’s Dying Cinema Landscape

Oct 15th 10:00 AM
Looking Back

Y2Kinema from Last Night to Relaxer

May 12th 11:00 AM
Looking Back

Twenty Years Later, the Modernizations of Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet Provide a Peculiar Nostalgia

Jun 1st 9:00 AM
Movies

Hazy Nightmare Visions: Dream Logic in the Cinema of Robert Altman

Jun 30th 11:00 AM
Looking Back

Sixty Years Later, The Apartment is Still the Romantic Comedy Blueprint

Jul 14th 9:00 AM
Looking Back

The Sly Subversion and Unbridled Rage of The Legend of Billie Jean

Jul 17th 9:00 AM
Movies

Watch This: Greyhound

blank
cmpopcorn_white3.svg
  • Company
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Writers Guidelines
  • Members
    • Login
    • SignUp
    • Forums
telephone icon [email protected]
envelope icon [email protected]
© 2014-2020 Crooked™ Publishing
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
blankblank