Sorkin takes a radical view of the Sixties

ALONG with Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods film, which echoes the spectre of the Vietnam war, aaron Sorkin’s new film the trial Of the Chicago 7 is likely to resonate in a world roiled by the turmoil of the Covid-19 virus and social unrest. the court case, which started in the autumn of 1969 and lasted for five months, sprang out of the 1968 demonstrations at the Democratic Party convention in Chicago.

Initially, eight people were charged with conspiring to incite the riots. they included right-on hippie leaders abbie hoffman and Jerry Rubin — portrayed in Sorkin’s film by Sacha Baron Cohen and Succession star Jeremy Strong; Black Panther chief Bobby Seale (Yahya abdulMateen II); and political activists tom hayden (who became

Mr Jane Fonda; played by eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (alex Sharp). John Carroll Lynch plays oldie liberal David Dellinger, while noah Robbins and Danny Flaherty round out the defendants’ line-up as Lee weiner and John Froines respectively.

the radicalism of the era crept into the courts. Seale disrupted the trial to such an extent that Judge Julius hoffman (Frank Langella) had him bound and gagged. he was sent for a separate trial, which is when the Chicago 8 became the Chicago 7 (pictured with their lawyers).

abbie hoffman called Judge hoffman ‘Julie’ and mocked him by wearing judicial robes, which he then removed and stamped on. Sorkin cast Mark Rylance and Ben Shenkman as defence lawyers william Kunstler and Leonard weinglass.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays Richard Schultz, one of the two prosecuting attorneys. ‘I was arguing a case that I would never feel ethical arguing — but it makes for a very interesting acting job,’ Gordon-Levitt told me.

he added that with hindsight, the trial was ‘deeply un-american and not about justice and equality at all but rather about a political agenda’. the actor called the film, which will air on netflix before the U.S. Presidential election in november, ‘incredibly relevant’.