The Trial Of The Chicago 7 is the kind of mid-budget crowd-pleaser made for adults we don’t really get anymore. Courtesy of Netflix and writer/director, Aaron Sorkin, as the title suggests, the film follows the sensational trial that kicked off following the protests and riots that occurred during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The titular seven being Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), John Froines (Daniel Flaherty), and Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins). Though, included among them in the early stages of the trial was Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).
Obviously, in telling a story that involves protests, riots, police brutality, and the struggle between institutional forces and progressives fighting for social justice, it’s hard not to see Sorkin drawing parallels to things that are happening right at this very moment. The film certainly doesn’t lay it as thick as you’d expect, especially since oddly enough, the presence and perspective of people of color is quite limited. Seale and the other Black Panther characters such as Fred Hampton (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) are gone about as quickly as they’re introduced, and you don’t get a strong sense of their characters.
As a follow up to Sorkin’s directorial debut, Molly’s Game, I would say this is an improvement. He’s by no means the most visually dynamic director out there, his greatest strengths tend to be on the page, and in tackling something like a courtroom drama, it plays to all his best impulses – the fast banter, the play on words, people talking over one another, the speechifying, lots of boys being boys, etc. While the film is not necessarily the most accurate possible portrayal of the events, he gets enough right, and I think he captures the feeling of that era really well for the most part.
A lot of it naturally rests on the cast. Some characters get a bigger spotlight than others, Hoffman and Hayden are probably given the most material since they represent two extremes of the same ideal – Hoffman being more than willing to take an abrasive approach to get his point across even if it ends up biting him, while Hayden still has a fundamental respect for the system and believes in the necessity of respectability politics. It’s a strong dynamic that allows for some solid dynamic character work, even it pushes some of the other characters to the side. With a supporting cast that includes folks like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, Mark Rylance, you know you’re getting solid work regardless of how much time they each have.
That said, many at least get a moment to shine. Given Sorkin’s flair for dialogue, his style of direction allows the actors to make the most out of what they’re given. For much of the time, it works. It’s exactly as big as a movies like this should be. Showy performances are often criticized, but I think there is a place for it, and with a story like this, I think it works perfectly well. The big performances also get heightened by these sequences where the film will cross-cut between two different places in time, building and building to a crescendo, and it’s quite effective.
Once it’s all said and done, what you see is what you get. It’s an Aaron Sorkin film, it has all his Sorkin-isms on full display, and it’s a handsomely made production that rides a line between relevant and respectable that ultimately leans towards respectable. One would hope that a film about radical people with radical ideals would be…you know, more radical, but that is not what Sorkin is going for, which is fair enough, I suppose, but I will say that it makes for a somewhat less interesting film as a result. It is elegant, energetic, and entertaining, but I also found the film and its messaging a bit hollow. I do hope it encourages people who may not have known a lot about this event to look it up and read about these people and what they went through since I’m positive it will paint a more thorough picture than this film did. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching it, but I doubt it will stick in my mind in the coming weeks.
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 is still out in select theaters, and it now available on Netflix.