Directed by : Aaron Sorkin

This is the Academy Awards of protests and as far as I am concerned it's an honor to be just nominated.


Spoilers ahead.. 

Based on the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, 1968 that was met with protests resulting in riots from three groups, 1st was the leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society - Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) and Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), 2nd was leaders of the Youth International Party aka Yippies - Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and 3rd was the leader of the Mobilization to end the war in Vietnam - David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch). Then, there were Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins) and John Froines (Danny Flaherty) who had nothing to do with protests yet they were named in the trial. And there was 8th guy, Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), National Chairman of the Black Panther Party who also wasn't part of protest but got named for the obvious racist reasons. Defense Counsel was lead by William Kuntsler (Mark Rylance) along with Leonard Weinglass (Ben Shenkman).while the Federal Prosecution was lead by Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon Levitt) along with Thomas Foran (J.C MacKenzie). The story shows what happened, how the trial proceeds as you very much know with the tone of the judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) that its more a political trial (as Abbie believes) and the result is well known in advance. 

A very quick montage kind opening sequence with brilliantly inter-cut shots on dialogues and a lovely fast background music gives us a brief idea of the 8 guys we will be watching for the entire plot. The setting then immediately moves to the courtroom drama which is very riveting. Even if you are not into politics, it will be hard for you not to enjoy every minor thing and also feel anguish at how the proceedings seem to be in favour of Federal team (represnting the U.S Govt) all the time. Infact the entire court-room tussle could easily be compared to any past event anywhere in the world where justice isn't served and manipulation of laws done by the government, or you could look no where else but India itself how various riots end up with accused getting anti-national labels while the real culprits roam free, but depends entirely what side of story you believe is true.

There's judge Hoffman right away trying to clear out he is in no way related to defendant Abbie Hoffman to which Abbie sarcastically calls him father, both Abbie and Jerry often saying 'over-ruled' to irritate Judge, many times Judge would take wrong names of defendant or a defense lawyer (says a lot about either his efficiency or his behavior), Bobby managing without a lawyer in a trial he shouldn't be part of as day by day he is ridiculed by the judge on clear racist discrimination. Eddie Redmayne is wonderful as Tom and it took me a while to even recognise him, that final scene of his you would want to just standup and applaud (wonder if it was fiction or real). Also, it was interesting to see Tom and Addie's different ideologies while been on the same side.

Mark Rylance is brilliant, be it his take on been told 'he ain't serious about the case', or his anger (which almost everyone from Defense side and us audience felt) at the Judge taking wrong calls all the time handing everyone contempt of court for disagreeing with him. Frank Langella plays his part very well even if he's not a likeable character.  Also, its been a long time since I saw Joseph Gordon Levitt in a interesting role, maybe 'The Walk' was the last.


Totally feel for what Bobby goes through entire trial and then that hardhitting scene where he gets beaten and gagged, love how Schultz reacts to it who despite been from Federal side, often shows the signs of humanity prevailing in someone in the courtroom that doesn't belong to the Defense side. Lee and John's reference to Academy awards of protests is simply hilarious and so is the lady picking calls with 'Hello Conspiracy Office'. Also, we get a nice small cameo of Michael Keaton. 

Despite my hatred against Politics, I found The Trial of the Chicago 7 as filmmaking at its best, its engaging, entertaining, politically baised, questions the morals of everyone involved, manipulation of the government going to any extent and one of best court-room dramas I have seen even with a result that's not satisfying but thats the harsh reality. Reading some reviews it suggested that movie is not entirely accurate depiction of the real incidents, even in that case the fiction elements added doesn't affect the story much to me. Do a favour and give it a watch, but be attentive, as the dialogues are never ending (not complaining) and there's a lot to process in right at start of the film! 

My Rating : 8/10