The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Netflix

Release date: 10/25/2020

My IMDb Rating: 7/10 

#whatonwhatsgood Fan Club Rating: 77%

Directed by

Aaron Sorkin

Written by

Aaron Sorkin

Produced by

Stuart M. Besser, Matt Jackson, Marc Platt, Tyler Thompson

Starring

Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden

Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman

Alex Sharp as Rennie Davis

Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin

John Carroll Lynch as David Dellinger

Noah Robbins as Lee Weiner

Daniel Flaherty as John Froines

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale

Mark Rylance as William Kunstler

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Richard Schultz

Ben Shenkman as Leonard Weinglass

J. C. MacKenzie as Tom Foran

Frank Langella as Judge Julius Hoffman

Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Fred Hampton

Michael Keaton as Ramsey Clark

John Doman as John N. Mitchell

Wayne Duvall as Paul DeLuca

Caitlin FitzGerald as Daphne O'Connor

Max Adler and C. J. Wilson as Officer Stan Wojohowski and Sergeant Scott Scibelli

Damian Young as Howard Ackerman

Alice Kremelberg as Bernardine

Alan Metoskie as Allen Ginsberg

Cinematography

Phedon Papamichael

Edited by

Alan Baumgarten

Music by

Daniel Pemberton

Social Media

#TrialOfTheChicago7

Writer-Director Aaron Sorkin discusses a conversation with Steven Spielberg 

“Steven told me he really wanted to make a movie about this crazy conspiracy trial that happened in Chicago in 1969, and I said, ‘Wow, I’ve wanted to write a movie about this crazy conspiracy trial that happened in Chicago in 1969 for a long time.  Count me in.  As soon as I got in my car I called my father, and said, ‘Dad, was there a crazy conspiracy trial that happened in Chicago in 1969?’ I didn’t know anything about it.”

“When I started out, I had the trial transcript, a half-dozen books about the riot and the trial, and one eye-witness — Tom Hayden. [Who passed away in 2016.] It was from Tom that I got a sense of the friction that existed between him and Abbie. But with all this information, I still didn’t quite know how to make it much more than a dramatized Wikipedia page.” 

Sorkin discusses a conversation with director Paul Greengrass

“I’d been working on the script for two years at that point, but it was the first time anyone asked me to tell them the story. I talked about the riot and the trial that followed and said, ‘In the middle of this were these two guys — brothers separated at birth — who couldn’t stand each other even though they had the same goals, but in the end they come to respect each other.’ Paul said, ‘Write about the brothers.’ That’s when things began to get organized in my head.”

Award-winning actor Sacha Baron Cohen discusses the role of Abbie Hoffman 

“I was always interested in Abbie Hoffman. When I was in university my undergraduate thesis was about radical Jews in the civil rights movement in the ’60s. I found out that a lot of the Jewish radical students who went down to Mississippi to campaign for voting rights for the African American community then went on to other radical causes. One of those guys was Abbie Hoffman.”

“He was a clown who was deeply passionate.  I think he said that the modern revolutionary should head straight to the television station. There’s no way that a group of hippies are going to win against the National Guard and police and armed vehicles. The only way they can win is by winning over the American public and the only way to do that is to get in front of the cameras.”

“Somehow this script has grown into the time period, or the time period has meant that the script is suddenly more powerful. I just thought it was completely captivating.”

Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne describes his character Tom Hayden

“Within the context of this film and this story, Hayden wanted to work within the system.  He believed in democracy. He believed that the people in charge were rotten, but he believed in the system.”

John Carroll Lynch discusses his character Dave Dellinger 

“Dellinger is arguably the best person I will ever play. He was morally incorruptible. He protested against injustice of any kind that he saw.”

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II discusses his character Bobby Seale

“Bobby’s a very charismatic figure, but also a very important person in the Oakland community.  Aaron wrote a character who is extremely passionate, smart, witty, and stands up for himself.”

“I looked at interviews of Bobby when he was incarcerated. His back was never against the wall. He

wasn’t a guy who was going to lose or was going to allow someone else to see defeat in his eyes. I was really attracted to the opportunity to bring that to the camera.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt discusses his character prosecutor Richard Schultz

“I feel that Aaron has done a really smart and interesting thing in creating a character on the antagonistic side, on the prosecutor’s side, that isn’t just a bad guy.  Schultz isn’t a character who would say the American government is flawless.  But he’s proud to be working for the government, and ultimately believes that the principles of the country are good at heart.” 

“I have a personal connection to this story because it’s part of my family upbringing. My parents were peace activists in the ’60s and ’70s, so I grew up knowing who Abbie Hoffman was, knowing who the Yippies were, knowing about the Mobilization and the war in Vietnam, knowing about the Black Panthers. My parents were excited to say the least when they heard I was doing this film, and then intrigued, if not dismayed, that I would be playing the prosecution!”

Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee Frank Langella discusses playing Judge Julius Hoffman

“Judge Julius Hoffman was a 5’6” Jewish man, so it was absolutely right that he should get a 6’3” Italian to play him.  He had no interest in listening or in any way abiding by the law.  He overrode everything, he had simply no interest in being fair, none.”

“I’m the only person in the cast who lived through it. I was in a play at Lincoln Center at the time and we were following it quite strongly. Aaron has caught the terror of that time, and the humor of that

time. He obviously brings a brilliant writer’s mind and an incredible sense of structure that reminds me very much of a movie Charles Laughton made called Witness for the Prosecution, where you keep breaking away from the court, going to live action.”