Peter Viney's Blog

The Trial of The Chicago Seven
Directed by Aaron Sorkin
Music by Daniel Pemberton

2020
Netflix

Filmed in late 2019, this was due a major release. They sold it on to Netflix instead. There are some major films coming up on Netflix and Amazon Prime – the major films made in late 2019, early 2020. What happens after that?

CAST:

The Seven
Eddie Redmayne – Tom Hayden (SDS – Students for a Democratic Society)
Alex Sharp – Rennie Davis (SDS – Students for a Democratic Society)
Sacha Baron Cohen – Abbie Hoffman (Youth International Party – Yippies)
Jeremy Strong – Jerry Rubin (Youth International Party – Yippies)
John Carroll Lynch – David Dellinger (Mobilization To End The War)
Noah Robbins – Lee Weiner
Daniel Flaherty – John Froines

The others
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II – Bobby Seale (Black Panthers)
Kelvin Harrison Jnr – Fred Hampton (Black Panthers)
Mark Rylance – William Kunstler (Defense Counsel)
Ben Shenkman – Leonard Weinglass (Defense Counsel)
Frank Langella- Judge Julius Hoffman
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Richard Schultz (Federal Prosecutor)
J.C MacKenzie – Tom Foran (Federal Prosecutor)
Michael Keaton – Ramsey Clark, US Attorney General under President Johnson
John Doman – John L. Mitchell US Attorney General under President Nixon
Caitlin Fitzgerald – Daphne O’Connor, undercover cop

The film was suggested back in 2006 by Stephen Spielberg. It was on and off for thirteen years. Earlier in the year, I did a long review of the 1969 film MEDIUM COOL (LINKED) about the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention and the riots. This film carries on the story of what happened to The Chicago Seven. These guys were from three disparate unconnected groups, and Bobby Seale of The Black Panther Party was on trial at the same time … though he had only been in Chicago for four hours. The Nixon presidency decided to make them scapegoats with a show trial. Not only that, they intervened and rigged aspects … getting rid of liberal-leaning jury members by dirty tricks.

I’ll avoid plot spoilers. it’s out now. You can see it on Netflix. The major roles to me are Mark Rylance as Kunstler, the defending counsel, and Frank Langella as the judge, Julius Hoffman. One of Britain’s finest Shakespearean actors v one of America’s finest Shakespearean actors. An early review expressed surprise at Rylance’s low key almost gentle approach with sudden staccato blasts of suppressed fury … they haven’t seen Rylance on stage. It’s the key to his power. Kunstler indeed had 24 charges of contempt of court by the end of the trial, and Rylance brings them out in a subtle way.

Langella towers as Judge Hoffman … geriatric (we’ve seem him on stage as King Lear), nasty in the extreme, spewing pomposity … a conservative judge thought totally inept by his peers, but prepared to run a kangaroo court. If Julius Hoffman were around today he would be Trump’s perfect Supreme Court appointment. If Trump had enough attention span to watch it through, he’d appoint Frank Langella to the Supreme Court. As the fact / fiction interface is hard for Trump to suss, he probably will.

Then there’s that trio of British major actors in American roles. Rylance differs from the others, in that he went to High School in the USA. Sacha Baron Cohen was said to be cast as Abbie Hoffman right from square one. There’s good reason … as well as flashbacks to 1968, we have flash forwards to Abbie Hoffman as a stand up act, commenting on the story. It’s a comedian’s role in holding an audience. He also looks extraordinarily like the original.

Eddie Redmayne is perfect as Tom Hayden. Straighter than the others, a wannabe career politician (which indeed he became). He cut his hair for the trial. He’s “more respectful” in the judge’s words.

Cohen and Strong, as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, are the Yippie counter-culture double act, in contrast to Hayden. This reflected the culture of 1968 politics for me … the counter culture types versus the political types, briefly reunited. Hoffman and Rubin also prove to be just as erudite as Hayden.

The interplay between the slightly priggish Hayden and the two Yippies is a centrepoint of the drama. It took me back to our own very modest university sit-in of 1968 (which is heavily fictionalised in The Women Came and Went (LINKED). There was just such a division, usually friendly. Not always. I was with some others making posters (with cartoons) and the ultimate politco, Tom Fawthrop came over. He lived on our floor in the Halls of Residence. His room was decorated with pictures of Chairman Mao. He was an avowed communist, but refused to participate in communal activities like washing up or working together to make a communal meal. He said, ‘Just do the words. Don’t play about.’ Someone said jokingly, ‘After the revolution, artists will be important you know.’ Fawthrop stared at him and said, ‘After the revolution artists will be the first up against the fucking wall.’ We realized he meant it.

Not that Hayden is like that, but he was a serious left of centre politician (who married Jane Fonda). Redmayne gets the sincerity, and also the seriousness compared to Hoffman and Rubin who clown around. At one point they come into the court wearing copies of the judges robes. An online review points out that happened in reality, but in 1969 they had yellow concentration camp Jewish stars on them. The review criticizes the film for not daring to go there. They also greeted the judge with Nazi salutes back then.

As in any reconstruction you could spend pages checking against the real events. I followed them avidly at the time. It’s near enough for me.

John Carroll Lynch is David Dessinger, the moderate, older protestor against the Vietnam War, who was a conscientious objector in World War II, and as a peace-loving guy got suddenly caught up in violence.

Lee Weiner and John Froines were on trial as makeweights – they wanted a pair they could acquit to “prove” the fairness of the trial.

Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a powerful performance, and these are some of the strongest moments of the drama … no plot-spoilers but he is denied counsel, and physically abused. Fred Hampton, the local Illinois Black Panther gets (shot / murdered) by police while Seale is on trial.

Then we have the two US Attorney Generals, Michael Keaton as Johnson’s appointment, Ramsey Clark, and John Doman as John Mitchell. It’s a true story so no giveaways, but Kunstler’s breakthrough (we thought) was subpoenaing Clark to testify the Johnson administration’s investigation found (a) no conspiracy and (b) the police started the violence. Watch to see how far that one runs.

The overpowering feeling watching all this is that America has NOT moved on politically from 1968-1969. The same issues are still there. Worse, in many ways.

The flashbacks to 1968 use new footage of the riots (“police riots” is my phrase), and intercut some original footage in black and white. I suspect they’re the real footage which was used in Medium Cool in 1968. Those were colour, but the intensity of modern cameras is so different, it was wise to switch to B&W to mark the archive material. The chilling point is as the police remove their badges and numbers before wading in to club the protestors. I still remember seeing the Metropolitan police wade in to people on a Friday night … and they’d taped over their numbers too.

It’s a must-see film, with at least three performances that deserve an academy award for best actor … Rylance, Redmayne and Langella. Sacha Baron Cohen and Jerry Strong deserve a best supporting actor apiece too.

I wish I’d seen it in the cinema. At the end, one defendant may speak. They choose Tom Hayden. He starts to read the list of nearly 5000 Americans killed in the Vietnam War during the five months since the trial started. Slowly people start to stand as the judges beats his gavel. Then Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) the prosecuting counsel stands too … ‘respect for the fallen.’

I’ll tell you what, if I’d seen it in the cinema, I’d have stood up too at this point. This is how much I felt involved in it.

COINCIDENCE

On Monday morning I posted a link to my 2018 review of the play “Eyam” (LINKED) at Shakespeare’s Globe. That ends with a roll call of the names of the dead, just like this. To add to that, Mark Rylance (a former Globe Artistic Director) was standing, watching the play just a few yards from us.

LINKS ON THIS BLOG
Medium Cool, 1969 directed by Haskell Wexler

MARK RYLANCE
Nice Fish by Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins
Farinelli & The King, by Claire Van Kampen, Wanamaker Playhouse, 2015
Richard III – Apollo 2012 Mark Rylance as Richard III
Twelfth Night – Apollo 2012  Mark Rylance as Olivia
Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, West End
La Bête by David Hirson, West End, 2010
+ film and TV
Wolf Hall, TV Series (as Thomas Cromwell)
Bridge of Spies, directed by Steven Speilberg
Dunkirk, directed by Christopher Nolan

FRANK LANGELLA
King Lear, Chichester Festival Theatre 2013 (King Lear)

JEREMY STRONG
Selma

SACHA BARON COHEN
Les Miserables

EDDIE REDMAYNE
Les Miserables
The Theory of Everything