America on Trial in stunning drama
The Trial of the Chicago 7
(M, 130 mins)
Directed by Aaron Sorkin Reviewed by James Croot ★★★★★
If this had been made when Aaron Sorkin first wrote the screenplay, it would have had a very different treatment. It would have starred Will Smith and Heath Ledger and been directed by Steven Spielberg. Awriters’ strike and star salaries sadly put paid to that version, but the extra 13-year wait to dramatise the events that took place in a Chicago courtroom in 1968 and 69 appear to have been well worth it.
Sorkin has honed his reputation for razor-sharp and politically cutting dialogue to a fine point on the likes of Thenewsroom, shown he’s not just a screwball comedy and musical theatre-obsessive with incisive award-winning biopics such as The Social Network and Steve Jobs, and proved that he was not onlymore than competent behind the camera (thanks to 2017’s Molly’s Game),
but also that he could write a courtroom drama that could sustain the audience’s attention (thanks to his successful Broadway adaptation of
Harper Lee’s To Kill amockingbird).
Then there’s the change in America itself since 2007. It then had a President who had involved them in unpopular wars, and the elements that would cause the impending global financial crisis were falling into place, but there was nothing like the division and distrust in government institutions that there is now.
This Trial took place more than 50 years ago, but what Sorkin has crafted from the testimonies and tumult in and out of the courtroom has never felt more timely.
The case itself revolved around protests that took place in the Windy City at the time of the Democratic Party’s 1968 national convention.
Incensed that the party’s preferred candidate, vice-president Hubert Hhumphrey, seemed supportive of America’s continued
involvement in Vietnam, various social justice, youth and issues groups decided to descend on Chicago to voice their displeasure.
However, initially peaceful protests turned into bloody clashes with police, resulting in the calling out of the National Guard (is this sounding eerily familiar?) and Humphrey being officially nominated while the city was in a police state.
Despite five months and at least one grand jury into the incidents elapsing, it wasn’t until a new regime swept into Washington that chargeswere laid against eight protest ‘‘leaders’’ for conspiracy to cross state lines to incite violence.
As Sorkin tells it, via his trademark rat-a-tat dialogue, peppered with linguistic flourishes, prosecution draftee Richard Schulz (Joseph Gordon-levitt) was not at all convinced of the efficacy of bringing the case. ‘‘You’re giving them the stage and the audience they crave,’’ he warns.
For their part, the octet are divided in their views, some seeing it as another chance to challenge the establishment, others worried about the consequences.
In court without legal representation and having never met any of the others before, Black Panther leader Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-mateen II) concludes that he’s only there ‘‘to frighten the jury’’.
But while they are all assured that ‘‘there’s no such thing as a political trial’’, judicial decisions, rather than the prosecution’s weight of evidence, begin to convince them otherwise.
Two jurors the defence has identified as being sympathetic are quickly relieved of their duties because of fears for their and their family’s ‘‘safety’’, and Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) begins handing out contempt of court citations like candy.
So when a damaging audio tape emerges and a key defencewitness is ruled out on state security grounds, they all begin to wonder if the deck has been truly stacked against them.
As with The Newsroom and his much-loved White House drama Thewest Wing, Trial very much wears its (and Sorkin’s) politics on its sleeve. There are definitely goodies and baddies here, although Gordon-levitt is very much the audience’s cipher and bellwether.
Naturally, there are more than a handful of A Few Good Men- esque moments, as tempers fray and the witness box and defence side of the courtroom become pulpits. Flashbacks are used judiciously and events build and turn nicely towards a real cliffhanger, one that will put you on the edge of your seat and hanging off every word.
Then there’s the cast. It’s a fabulous and eclectic ensemble of players, which also includes recent Emmy winner Jeremy Strong ( Succession), Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne ( The Theory of Everything), Batman himself Michael Keaton, a virtually unrecognisable Mark Rylance ( The BFG), and one of Sorkin’s original 2007 cast members, Sacha Baron Cohen ( Borat). All have their role to play and their moments to shine.
Pandemic aside, it’s hard not to feel that the events depicted here could be contemporary, rather than from more than 50 years ago, and this Trial will leave you troubled and hopeful for America’s future, (which was surely Sorkin’s intention all along).
As Baron Cohen’s Abbie Hoffman so eloquently puts it, ‘‘the institutions of government are wonderful things, but right now are populated by some terrible people’’.
The race for the Oscars (and just maybe, in some small measure, the battle for the White House) starts here.
After screenings in select cinemas nationwide, The Trial of the Chicago 7 will begin streaming on Netflix on October 16.