The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Directed by Aaron Sorkin
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.
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15 films that influenced The Trial of the Chicago 7
What critics say influenced The Trial of the Chicago 7
It’s a flashback structure reminiscent of the one the filmmaker adopted in The Social Network but also of an earlier film on this subject, Brett Morgen’s exhilarating agitprop documentary Chicago 10 , which tackled the same events with a mixture of archival footage set to modern rock and animated reenactments adapted from the court transcripts.
Morgen’s “Chicago 10” documentary filled that gap with a rotoscoped cast (including an inspired Hank Azaria as Hoffman) and wielded more cinematic ambition when it came to representing the events at hand.
The Chicago Seven chapter has inspired numerous films, from Haskell Wexler's docu-fiction treatment of the DNC protests, Medium Cool, through Woody Allen's satirical take on the trial in Bananas, to Brett Morgen's mix of archival footage with animated scenes based on court transcripts, Chicago 10.
He even weaves in footage from Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool.
Throw in the civic importance of Medium Cool as a cherry on top.
The Chicago DNC protests began peacefully and erupted into stunningly brutal violence, and Sorkin captures its horror here, weaving in some archival footage in the mode of Haskell Wexler’s groundbreaking 1969 fiction-nonfiction blend Medium Cool.
Sorkin’s camera doesn’t move a lot; he’s a front-and-center, time-for-a-closeup technician, and the way he stages and films the riot footage (interpolated with archival video from, among other sources, Haskell Wexler’s “Medium Cool” ) it’s routine chaos, desperately overscored by composer Daniel Pemberton.
Sorkin’s didacticism is often his own worst enemy, but he mostly keeps his worst instincts in check here, and there are times when he almost seems to channel the great Otto Preminger, whose Anatomy of a Murder is perhaps the gold standard for courtroom dramas.
My only real problem with “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is that it tells a story that kind of calls out for a slightly bolder and more adventurous treatment than it has been afforded here—it might have been interesting to see what Paul Greengrass, whose films include such true stories as “Bloody Sunday,” “United 93” and “22 July,” might have made of it.
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As someone who misses the heyday of 90s’ courtroom dramas and devours John Grisham adaptations whether good or bad (“A Time To Kill” remains an all time favorite) watching “The Trial of the Chicago 7” was therapeutic.
Sorkin, nominated for an Academy Award for “Moneyball” (2011) and “Molly’s Game” (2017), winner for his script on the biting take on Facebook’s ignominious Harvard origins (“The Social Network,” 2010) and the creative force behind “The West Wing,” takes on double duty here as director as he did on “Molly’s Game,” in which Jessica Chastain was a high-stakes poker host.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 cuenta con todos los sorkinismos que caracterizan al creador de The West Wing y guionista de A Few Good Men o The Social Network: diálogo rápido y brillante, largos monólogos en los que los personajes manifiestan su ideología, romanticismo político, pasión democrática, secuencias en las que se camina y habla a la vez y falta de personajes femeninos.
Sorkin, who won the Oscar for writing “The Social Network” and managed to enchant both liberals and conservatives with the iconic television series “The West Wing,” was introduced to the Chicago 7 story by Steven Spielberg over 13 years ago.
That Sorkin sense that everyone knows exactly what to say and do in any given situation, even as they express doubt with perfect diction and vocabulary, fits perfectly for a story like the invention of Facebook in “ The Social Network ” or even the birth of Apple in " Steve Jobs ," but the protest movement and the government’s attempt to quell it should be more organic than this film ever even flirts with being.
But as was already clear from “A Few Good Men” and “The Social Network,” the legal drama has always been Sorkin’s sweet spot, the most natural fit for his pugilistic, process-oriented writing style.
Just as he did in The Social Network – though by many measures much more terrifying – Sorkin languishes around in the dirty tactics and legal chicanery of the central circus.
My only real problem with “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is that it tells a story that kind of calls out for a slightly bolder and more adventurous treatment than it has been afforded here—it might have been interesting to see what Paul Greengrass, whose films include such true stories as “Bloody Sunday,” “United 93” and “22 July,” might have made of it.
Obviously not as tightly contained as something like 12 Angry Men, there are stand-ins from each faction which take up the largest spaces, one of them being Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffmann.
Sprinkling in nods to “12 Angry Men,” “The Verdict,” and “A Few Good Men” though also structured in the vein of “The Rainmaker” and “The Firm” to help elevate the picture to mainstream status.
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Sprinkling in nods to “12 Angry Men,” “The Verdict,” and “A Few Good Men” though also structured in the vein of “The Rainmaker” and “The Firm” to help elevate the picture to mainstream status.
A Few Good Men: Aaron Sorkin ’s gargantuan film project on the Chicago 7 has been in the works since 2007, starting out as a Spielberg-directed joint with Will Smith as Bobby Seale and Heath Ledger as Tom Hayden; that it’s taken till 2020 to come to fruition feels sickeningly apropos for our current political moment.
Movies like A Few Good Men and The American President reaffirm a belief in our institutions, and The West Wing is essentially a fairy tale of good-hearted people committed to good governance.
Aaron Sorkin knows his way around a courtroom, as evidenced by his play “A Few Good Men” and its 1992 cinematic adaptation starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise.
Shot by Phedon Papamichael (Payne’s Nebraska, 2013), the look of the period is mostly well-administered, though an early montage set to a portion of Daniel Pemberton’s (Steve Jobs, 2015) score sets the film off on a hokey note, The Trial of the Chicago 7 might not reach the heights of some of Sorkin’s other political or courtroom scripted dramas, from “The West Wing” to A Few Good Men (1992).
The Trial of the Chicago 7 cuenta con todos los sorkinismos que caracterizan al creador de The West Wing y guionista de A Few Good Men o The Social Network: diálogo rápido y brillante, largos monólogos en los que los personajes manifiestan su ideología, romanticismo político, pasión democrática, secuencias en las que se camina y habla a la vez y falta de personajes femeninos.
Throughout his career writing for film, television and the stage, from The West Wing, Charlie Wilson's War and The Newsroom to A Few Good Men and To Kill a Mockingbird , Aaron Sorkin has shown a consuming fascination with the trembling institutions of American politics and justice.