The summer of 1968 had been brutal, with more than 1,000 American soldiers were dying each month. And when the Black comedian Dick Gregory was called to testify, Hoffman hastily tried to dispel rumors of his own racism: “I would want this very nice witness to know that I am not [racist], that he has made me laugh often and heartily.”. It was first exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in the summer of 1970 and has since been exhibited in museums around the world. ", Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman and Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin. I know it in my heart. Here's who you shouldn't confuse her with. Sassy and snarky, actress Alice Kremelberg breathes life into the character of telephone operator-cum-assistant Bernardine, who answers a crass caller in Aaron Sorkin's film, 'No sir, I am a White woman' This article contains spoilers for The Trial of the Chicago 7. The Trial of the Chicago Seven: The real story behind the Netflix movie. Thousands began gathering in Lincoln Park on Monday the 26th to camp out, defying an 11:00 pm curfew set by the mayor. Aaron Sorkin's new Netflix film revolves around a real-life trial from 1968. In reality, they continue to promote watered-down and unrealistic depictions of history for the sake of comfort. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a 2020 American historical legal drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. (He had no relation to the defendant Abbie Hoffman.). Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix: Where are the real-life players now? Aaron Sorkin’s new Netflix movie The Trial Of The Chicago 7 centers around the drama that followed of one of the most significant antiwar protests in American history. Aaron Sorkin's new movie depicts the 1969 Chicago Seven trial, in which eight anti-Vietnam war activists were charged with conspiring to incite a … The comparisons between America in 1968 and America in the past 12 months are easily drawn: mass protests, brutal clashes with police, calls for racial equity, a contentious presidential election, and a general feeling that the soul of the nation is at stake. There are very few female characters in The Trial of the Chicago 7, which, frankly, makes sense. In the five decades since those violent days at the Democratic Convention, Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, and David Dillinger have all passed away, while Bobby Seale, Rennie Davis, John Froines and Lee Weiner are still alive. The contempt charges were retried before a different judge, who found Dellinger, Rubin, Hoffman, and Kunstler guilty of some of the charges, but did not sentence them with any fines or prison time. All Rights Reserved. (April 5) (All in all, he assigned a staggering 175 counts of contempt, a number of which are depicted in the movie.) In the film’s climactic finale, Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) rebuffs Judge Hoffman’s insinuation that he will receive a lighter sentence if he shows remorse, and instead starts reading the names of the thousands of Vietnam War soldiers who have died since the trial began. He admonished defense attorney William Kunstler (Mark Rylance), for leaning on the lectern. The Trial of Chicago 7—a new courtroom drama from writer/director Aaron Sorkin that began streaming on Netflix today—tells a story that will be … "He is special counsel for pro bono initiatives at a … Though there were police officers named in the indictments, the media attention focused almost wholly on the trial of the eight protestors: The trial began on September 24, 1969 and was presided over by Judge Julius Jennings Hoffman, United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Could Ibogaine Become a New Treatment for Addiction? Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix: Where are the real-life players now? Les Sept de Chicago (The Trial of the Chicago 7) est un film américain réalisé par Aaron Sorkin, sorti en 2020 sur le service Netflix. As for the other seven defendants, five were convicted for inciting riots. The film stars Mark Rylance, Eddie Redmayne, Frank Langella, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Keaton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Strong, Yahya Abdul … Sorkin's latest, The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix, is similarly rooted in real events. You’re the country’s top Yippie.”. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. But two years later, on November 21, 1972, all of the convictions were reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which deemed that Judge Hoffman had been biased in not permitting defense attorneys to screen prospective jurors for cultural and racial bias. You know that conversations that he writes can't happen in real-life, it almost feels like music the way everything is paced. We are not dealing with babies here.”. Magazines. Very few of soldiers’ names were said aloud before the judge cut off the endeavor. Digital William Kunstler was given four years in prison for addressing him as "Mr. Hoffman" instead as "Your Honor;" Abbie Hoffman received eight months for laughing in court; Hayden got one year for protesting the treatment of Seale, and Weiner two months for refusing to stand when Judge Hoffman entered the courtroom. It features an ensemble cast including Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, That night, armed police in gas masks swept through the crowds, in a sign of what was to come. When Ginsberg was prodded to continue his testimony, he said, “I am afraid I will be in contempt if I continue to Om.” Ginsberg was also subject to a homophobic line of questioning from prosecutor Thomas Foran (J.C. MacKenzie), who made him read his poems that alluded to gay sex. That day, Abbie also swore at the judge, who was also Jewish, in Yiddish: “You schtunk. The Trial of the Chicago 7 true story reveals that they had gone to Chicago mainly to protest American involvement in the Vietnam War and the fact that the Democratic presidential nominee, Hubert Humphrey, did not staunchly oppose the war. How The Trial of the Chicago 7 Ended In Real Life. (One defendant would have his trial severed from the rest, and the Chicago 8 became the Chicago 7.). True story behind Trial of the Chicago 7 – how the Netflix film is pretty accurate. In true Sorkin fashion, The Trial of the Chicago 7 features a lot of whip-fast, razor-sharp dialog, which helps it build to its crescendo where the remaining five of the Seven who face sentencing, after John Froines (Daniel Flaherty) and Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins) are both acquitted, as predicted earlier in the movie. But the court transcripts of the Chicago Seven Trial prove that sometimes history hardly needs embellishing when it comes to onscreen drama. Avedon called the group of defendants "heroic." “Whatever decoration there is the courtroom will be furnished by the government and I think things look alright in this courtroom,” he said. The Chicago Seven came together to protest the war in the 1960s. However, a different judge overturned all convictions partially based on Judge Hoffman’s biases, and the Justice Department decided not to retry the case. Abbie blew the jury a kiss; the judge told the jury to “disregard the kiss.” When Abbie said he resided in “Woodstock Nation,” the judge demanded he give a “place of residence…Nothing about philosophy or India, sir.” At one point, Abbie even renounced his last name. Seale argued this was illegal and racist, and Judge Hoffman ordered Seale to be bound, gagged, and chained to a chair. The Nixon Justice Department's prosecutors were U.S. Attorney Thomas Foran and Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Schultz. Sorkin's latest, The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix, is similarly rooted in real events. Abbie Hoffman—who blew a kiss to the jury when introduced—also once verbally equated Judge Hoffman with Adolf Hitler. Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 revisits one of the most notorious American trials of the 20th Century, as retold by The Social Network and The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin. Journalists were also clubbed by police and had their film taken or camera gear destroyed. The writer Norman Mailer showed up to offer some poetic descriptions of the police’s aggression during the protests: “They cut through them like sheets of rain, like a sword cutting down grass,” he said. In this article, we will be discussing all the details of the project, including the real story of the project and how it is manipulated in the movie. Phil Ochs, Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie were all brought to the stand but silenced when they started singing. The Chicago Seven came together to protest the war in the 1960s. Ahead of the convention, protests were organized by members of the Youth International Party (known as "Yippies") and the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE). Seale appeared this way in court for several days, horrifying many onlookers. The trial also included testimony from a long line of 1960s cultural icons, who were brought by the defense to describe their movement and the protests that unfolded outside the convention. “As shocking as the chains and gag were, even more unbelievable was the attempt to return the courtroom for normalcy.”. Anne Cohen. Early on, Hoffman refused to let Seale either have his preferred lawyer or represent himself, and then admonished and silenced him when Seale said his constitutional rights were being violated. Two (Froines and Weiner) were acquitted completely, while the remaining five were convicted of crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot. Seeking to tamp down dissent, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley denied all protest permits except one: to hold an afternoon rally at the old bandshell at the south end of Grant Park. The film—with Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt leading the cast—dramatizes the infamous trial of eight anti-Vietnam war activists in the aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which had seen violent encounters between police officers and protestors. (“We don’t allow any singing in this court,” Hoffman told Collins.) Tweet. In 1970, Daniel L. Greenberg and two friends immersed themselves in the transcript of the infamous trial of the Chicago 7, eventually becoming editors of a published edition. With the past feeling less and less distant, the release of Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7—a movie that revisits a pivotal episode from 1968—on Netflix last fall felt particularly timely. If I have to lose my license to practice law and if I have to go to jail, I can’t think of a better cause to go to jail for and to lose my license for than to tell your Honor that you are doing a disservice to the law in saying we can’t have Ralph Abernathy on the stand…, I am going to turn back to my seat with the realization that everything I have learned throughout my life has come to naught, that there is no meaning in this Court, and there is now law in this Court.”. TV networks abandoned the convention coverage for live footage of the street clashes, as a shocked nation looked on. And unfortunately for the Chicago Seven (originally the Chicago Eight), provisions of the 1968 Civil Rights Act had … He was convicted of 16 counts of contempt of court, leading to a four-year prison sentence, but the charges were later dismissed. Liz Cantrell is the assistant to the Editor in Chief of Town & Country, covering arts and culture, and has previously written for Esquire. Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, reflecting after a long day in court. Whenever anyone in the courtroom referenced race, Hoffman bristled: “I don’t think it is proper for a lawyer to refer to a person’s race,” he told Kunstler when the lawyer observed that only Black spectators were being thrown out of the courtroom. 0. It surrounds the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, the story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges. “The Trial of the Chicago 7” should be more than Sorkin’s attempt at “social justice” through the rose-colored glasses of Hollywood. (Seale later had his trial severed during the proceedings, lowering the number of defendants from eight to seven; thereafter, the group became known as the Chicago 7.). The film follows the Chicago Seven, a group of anti–Vietnam War protesters charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is among the Best Picture nominees. Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7—widely praised by critics, including yours truly—arrives on Netflix today. Subscribe for just 99¢. “His eyes and the veins in his neck and temples were bulging with the strain of maintaining his breath,” Tom Hayden is quoted as writing in Jon Weiner’s book Conspiracy in the Streets. Later that year, a comprehensive review by the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence found that the police responded to taunts with "unrestrained attacks," and the episode came to be called a "police riot.". The verbal fireworks that dance through Aaron Sorkin’s newest movie, The Trial of the Chicago 7, seem too explosive to be true. With Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” launching Friday on Netflix, here’s a quick synopsis of how the trial truly went down, with archival photos from the case and the streets. Subscribe for just 99¢. What Happened with the Gardner Museum Art Heist? Conflict erupted when police used tear gas and batons and protesters retaliated by throwing rocks and bottles. Please attempt to sign up again. Schande vor de goyim, huh? * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Town & Country participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. On Oct. 29, when Seale lost his temper and called him a “rotten racist pig racist liar,” Hoffman responded: “Let the record show the tone of Mr. Seale’s voice was one of shrieking and pounding on the table and shouting.” When Kunstler pointed out that the prosecutor Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) had also shouted, Hoffman defended him, saying, “If what he said was the truth, I can’t blame him for raising his voice.”, Shortly thereafter, Seale was dragged out of the courtroom by half a dozen marshals and came back bound and gagged. Here's what's true, and what was changed, in The Trial of the Chicago 7. "The Trial of the Chicago 7" took the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards 2021, while Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis earned acting honors. ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’: Was Conspiracy Office's Bernardine real? You have 3 free articles left. So to me, in The Social Network (not sure if you've seen that), that worked out perfectly because I think David Fincher found a way to make Sorkin's "music" really pop off the screen. On March 20, 1969—after calling nearly 200 witnesses—a grand jury indicted eight protesters with various federal crimes and eight police officers with civil rights violations. At one point, the defendants draped a Viet Cong flag over the defense table. Aaron Sorkin's new Netflix film revolves around a real-life trial from 1968. While soldiers’ names were read by the defendants, it happened earlier in the trial: on Oct. 15, 1969, when Vietnam Moratorium Day was being observed by millions of Americans across the country.