An epoch-making moment in history demands precision and accuracy for the way its story be told. The gruesome niceties leading up to the event and the zeitgeist of those times need to retold in the manner which doesn’t distort history while keeping the viewer engrossed in the narrative. The trial of Chicago 7 is about a pivotal point in the culture of America, its war within self. While America tries to find itself, shedding the old norm of oppression and racism in 2020, there are glaring similarities between 1968 and 2020. The eight defendants charged for title X to cross state lines with the intent to incite a riot belong to an America losing hope amidst death of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X & an American President being murdered. Its bedlam in America while they keep the war alive in Vietnam.
It is a Sorkin story from the word go, there is a pace with which the story moves, the dialogue delivery of the characters is suave and swanky. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin played by an impeccable Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong of succession fame, represent the hippie revolutionary idea sowed stereotypically to draw out the people behind the clothes. These are smart men, undeterred by their image perceived by the world. Mark Rylance playing the lawyer of these defendants is flawless, with strong punctuated lines and courtroom drama sequences, Sorkin is a master of this kind of storytelling right from the times of “A few good men” . Frank Langella plays a judge implicitly biased towards the white men. A man so deep entrenched into the prevalent racism of the system that he cannot make right from wrong denying the only black man Bobby Seale played by Yahya Abdul Mateen with nuance and grit it deserved. During the first few minutes of the film, Bobby Seale talks about the lawlessness of the state within the bounds of rules with hard hitting sentences — Martin Luther King is dead, Jesus is dead & its on them to fight for themselves. This is the America they have inherited, there is only way he knows to change it.
Grandstanding scenes are reserved for the sharp rebuttals in the courtroom between the smart characters you begin admiring. A classic trope used by Sorkin in The Social Network as well, there are scenes where you can hoot, scenes where you may shed a tear. The sheer apathy for the man of colour and clarity of bias for the white man is indignant and ignominious. Eddie Redmayne and Sacha Baron Cohen’s perspective on the trial, the counter politics, their vision of America is a scene which we shall keep coming back to go, years after the film fades away. At 130 mins, the film is squeezed to perfection, with Michael Keaton’s swagger appearance, the film packs in enough to keep you interested enough. One of the more important films this year, given a racist POTUS holding the oval office and the relentless crimes committed against black people. Watch it on Netflix for Sorkin, Sacha and the tragedy that the world was watching.
