By CAMERON GORDON, Student Reporter
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” depicts the riots of the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the trial that came after.
Despite the name of the movie, eight men were put on trial for conspiracy to cross state lines in order to incite violence, also known as the Rat Brown law.
The men were Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, Jerry Reuben, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Lee Weiner, John Froines and Bobby Seale.
The questions was: Who started the riots? The demonstrators or the police?
This quickly turned into one of the biggest trials of the past century. People gathered outside the courthouse chanting, “The whole world is watching.”
As the movie goes on, it becomes clear that the entire trial was an attempt to silence the leaders of activist groups.
The judge in the case, Judge Julius Hoffman, is clearly biased against the defendants.
Numerous counts of contempt of court were given out, and Bobby Seale was forced to stand trial without his attorney present. His attorney was in the hospital.
The defendants decided to use this national trial as a platform to get their message out. Their message was that there is a problem with the establishment.
Not only with the Vietnam War, but with the government as a whole. It becomes evident they have a point.
The film also touches on the issues of racism in the country at the time. All of these issues with the country were on full display during this trial.
The director, Aaron Sorkin, chose to lay out the film as a story being told in and out of court months after the riots with flashbacks to the events of the Democratic National Convention.
The story transitions between the present day and the riots. The flashbacks were done extremely well. They moved seamlessly between the characters and their back stories.
The path of the story was easy to understand and powerful. The directing style and wardrobe made it easy to believe it was the 1960s.
The story truly immerses you into the conflict between the government and the people at the time.
The movie also stars a fantastic cast, including: Sacha Baron Cohen (Abbie Hoffman), John Carroll Lynch (David Dellinger), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (prosecuting attorney Richard Schultz) and Eddie Redmayne (Tom Hayden), among others.
Cohen, whom most may know as Borat in the film “Borat,” does an outstanding job in a role that is more serious than most of his others.
He still has witty humor, but also gives a moving performance that depicts a man whose whole purpose is the cause he is fighting for.
Another enchanting performance came from Mark Rylance, who played William Kuntsler, the attorney for the Chicago seven. His handling of the judge’s egregiously one-sided handling of the case was chilling.
This movie not only serves as a way to learn about and immerse yourself in history, but also as entertainment.
Whoever said learning about history isn’t interesting, hasn’t seen “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”