‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ (Netflix) (1 Viewer)

superchuck500

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Written and directed by political dramatist Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing), the movie presents Sorkin’s take on the trial of “the Chicago Seven”, leaders of various activist groups that protested the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

It’s a Netflix release out today and given my love of 1960s history and famous court cases, I put it on. But it’s actually a good watch - it moves with good pace and the cast is just outstanding. Sasha Baron-Cohen and Jeremy Strong as Hoffman and Rubin really carry the entertainment portion of the film (as the two also did in the real event). Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young federal prosecutor and Mark Rylance as civil rights attorney William Kunzler are outstanding. And the sub-issue of the treatment of Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers is well presented.

And the piece seems to have relevance to today as one could certainly argue that 2020 is the closest thing any American under 50 has had to 1968 in their lifetimes.




 
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Written and directed by political dramatist Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing), the movie presents Sorkin’s take on the trial of “the Chicago Seven”, leaders of various activist groups that protested the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

It’s a Netflix release out today and given my love of 1960s history and famous court cases, I put it on. But it’s actually a good watch - it moves with good pace and the cast is just outstanding. Sasha Baron-Cohen and Jeremy Strong as Hoffman and Rubin really carry the entertainment portion of the film (as the two also did in the real event). Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young federal prosecutor and Mark Rylance as civil rights attorney William Kunzler are outstanding. And the sub-issue of the treatment of Bobby Seale and the Black

And the piece seems to have relevance to today as one could certainly argue that 2020 is the closest thing any American under 50 has had to 1968 in their lifetimes.






This sounds great. I'm intrigued. Thanks for the heads up.
 
I was only familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedic expression which for whatever reason left a little bit to be desired, raunchy comedy only goes so far but I did find a Netflix movie called the spy where he plays a spy that infiltrates The Palestinian portion of the West Bank, I was very impressed with his acting talents. I’ll have to check this one out.
 
I was only familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedic expression which for whatever reason left a little bit to be desired, raunchy comedy only goes so far but I did find a Netflix movie called the spy where he plays a spy that infiltrates The Palestinian portion of the West Bank, I was very impressed with his acting talents. I’ll have to check this one out.

Yeah, saw the spy a few months ago and I thought he was excellent. So I'm hoping this is good as well.
 
Written and directed by political dramatist Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing), the movie presents Sorkin’s take on the trial of “the Chicago Seven”, leaders of various activist groups that protested the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

It’s a Netflix release out today and given my love of 1960s history and famous court cases, I put it on. But it’s actually a good watch - it moves with good pace and the cast is just outstanding. Sasha Baron-Cohen and Jeremy Strong as Hoffman and Rubin really carry the entertainment portion of the film (as the two also did in the real event). Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young federal prosecutor and Mark Rylance as civil rights attorney William Kunzler are outstanding. And the sub-issue of the treatment of Bobby Seale and the Black

And the piece seems to have relevance to today as one could certainly argue that 2020 is the closest thing any American under 50 has had to 1968 in their lifetimes.





One of the few, possibly crucial things that separates 2020 from 1968 is that there's no war in Vietnam or any major deployments of U.S. troops that are stationed in any major parts/regions of the world save for perhaps Afghanistan or Iraq but even compared to 5-10 years ago, our presence there is substantially less and significantly smaller then it was even under President Obama's presidency. Trump supposedly being a neo-isolationist does trend to us being far less likely to intervene or take a proactive involvement in a protracted guerrilla war against armed insurgents. Covid-19 also does make the planning, shipping and deployment or large amounts of ground troops, air force, or special forces to a possible war zone far more difficult. Now, apart from that, 2020 has been a very difficult, trying year and probably still would've even if we had a more competent, intelligent, take-charge President who actually listened to the CDC scientists, epidemiologists, immunologists, and experts. A Covid-19 caused economic recession or reaction is probably unavoidable, too. Maybe not as bad or extensive, but some things are hard to avoid when you're trying to deal or understand how to fight a new viral super flu pandemic that the Western or entire world hasn't had to face, endure or deal with in over a century. Even Dr. Fauci has repeatedly said that Covid-19's potency is mild compared to the H1N1 "Spanish Flu" virus that decimated the entire world and made Walter Reed Hospital one, large, uncountable cemetery from 1918-20. You can only hope to try and mitigate some of the worst, most excessive damages.

That's just the reality of the nature of the beast we're fighting here. Having one or several effective coronavirus vaccines being developed and released and shown to be consistently reliable long-term will really start to bring some relief.

The real William Kunzler was a good attorney and could be very entertaining, colorful, and creative with his arguments or final arguments making his cases for his celebrity, high-profile clients, some of them guilty as hell NYC mobsters in late 80's and 90's, but in reality, he was so shameless and such a partisan hack when he said "I only defend my friends" his people, the special clientele of people worthy of his exalted status and insight, struck me as a bit pathetic. Boondocks really did a great job of lampooning his showboating arrogant arse years ago in a R. Kelly sex tape episode. Something about his type of celebrity-seeking lawyers have always bothered me. You got this impression it was as much about gratifying his ego and need for more publicity then defending his clients innocence.
 
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Written and directed by political dramatist Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing), the movie presents Sorkin’s take on the trial of “the Chicago Seven”, leaders of various activist groups that protested the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

It’s a Netflix release out today and given my love of 1960s history and famous court cases, I put it on. But it’s actually a good watch - it moves with good pace and the cast is just outstanding. Sasha Baron-Cohen and Jeremy Strong as Hoffman and Rubin really carry the entertainment portion of the film (as the two also did in the real event). Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young federal prosecutor and Mark Rylance as civil rights attorney William Kunzler are outstanding. And the sub-issue of the treatment of Bobby Seale and the Black

And the piece seems to have relevance to today as one could certainly argue that 2020 is the closest thing any American under 50 has had to 1968 in their lifetimes.





even though i hate you, thank you. great watch. thanks pal!
 
I was only familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedic expression which for whatever reason left a little bit to be desired, raunchy comedy only goes so far but I did find a Netflix movie called the spy where he plays a spy that infiltrates The Palestinian portion of the West Bank, I was very impressed with his acting talents. I’ll have to check this one out.

Yeah his ability to transform into his character is strong - no matter who the character is. He was a perfect choice for Abbie Hoffman, who had that same sort of air of subversive political comedy. They’re even somewhat physically similar.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen, who plays Bobby Seale, is from New Orleans.
 
Something else that I just remembered, weren’t they going to cast Sacha Baron Cohen for the lead role as Freddie Mercury and Queen? But the producers backed out because they were under the impression that he would bring too much of a comedic touch to the character. At least that’s how I remember it not that leak wasn’t a good choice. He didn’t win the Oscar so There’s that.
 
Yeah his ability to transform into his character is strong - no matter who the character is. He was a perfect choice for Abbie Hoffman, who had that same sort of air of subversive political comedy. They’re even somewhat physically similar.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen, who plays Bobby Seale, is from New Orleans.
Little known fact about Abbie Hoffman. At the 1969 Woodstock concert, during a brief lull between songs in the Who's legendary set as the sun was rising, a disoriented, stoned-on-acid Abbie Hoffman rushed on to the stage and screamed "I think its pile of sheet that John Sinclair, (radical counterculture/political Detroit activist, rock promoter/manager) sits in prison." Hoffman kind of allowed Woodstock's epochal-cultural defining moment of the late 1960s to go to his head and he thought politically-laced obscenities would stir up the ground.

Well, Pete Townsend didnt agree with Hoffman's schtick interfering in the middle of the band's set and he whacked Hoffman with his guitar and pushed him hard way off to the side off-stage while saying "fork off my forking stage".
 
It is a great movie. I was anticipating it form months now and watched it already.

Abbie Hoffman is my personal hero. He was a true patriot and what America is all about.

I would recommend to anyone reading his book “Steal this Book”

There was a great biopic called “Steal this Movie” about him. Vincent D’onofiro plays him and is great.

He and the Chicago 7 are all Great Americans who have been vilified and have been purposefully removed from most mainstream discussions of the era.

ETA- re: Woodstock. that is not a little known fact about Abbie. That is what most people know him for. Or if you know how to use Google
 
It is a great movie. I was anticipating it form months now and watched it already.

Abbie Hoffman is my personal hero. He was a true patriot and what America is all about.

I would recommend to anyone reading his book “Steal this Book”

There was a great biopic called “Steal this Movie” about him. Vincent D’onofiro plays him and is great.

He and the Chicago 7 are all Great Americans who have been vilified and have been purposefully removed from most mainstream discussions of the era.

ETA- re: Woodstock. that is not a little known fact about Abbie. That is what most people know him for. Or if you know how to use Google
Well it's an incident that doesn't necessarily make him look good, at least in terms of him getting his arse hit over the head by a famous rock guitarist of the Who who didnt take too kindly too random idiots or people he assumed were running on-stage mid-concert hijacking their set at a cultural, historical, musical landmark concert like Woodstock. That's one occasion where his absurdist black comedy political act backfired on him a bit.
People can also find that too if they know how to use Google or find an audio-only version of it on YouTube. Apparently, according to Woodstock's film director, the incident occured while they were in the middle of changing film reels while covering the Who's concert very late night/early morning set where the sun rose towards the end.

Funny thing is, film version was a huge commercial and critical success but for the four concert promoters, they took a huge financial bloodbath and had a very tense, awkward meeting the day after concerts ended with a major NYC bank that loaned them a good portion of the money used to promote the event. Woodstock occured in an era before major, outdoor rock festivals or stadium concerts were subject to more and more regulations to control rioting, rapes, stabbings, drug overdoses or shootings that unfortunately do happen sometimes at these events. It took 19 years in fact for Woodstock to finally see a profit.
 
Written and directed by political dramatist Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing), the movie presents Sorkin’s take on the trial of “the Chicago Seven”, leaders of various activist groups that protested the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

It’s a Netflix release out today and given my love of 1960s history and famous court cases, I put it on.
Thanks, Chuck. I'm the same, I love the 1960s history and court cases but I wasn't sure if I was going to watch this. I prefer documentaries rather than dramatizations so that I can see it for myself. I do enough yelling at the TV these days.

For instance, it's not the '70s but I LOVED the "Milk" documentary (was going to say that wasn't a court case but I guess it was since Dan White is where the Twinkie Defense came from). Then when Sean Penn did the movie, I hated it. They did a lot of dramatization of the doc when the doc and seeing Harvey for myself was MUCH better.
 
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Thanks, Chuck. I'm the same, I love the 1960s history and court cases but I wasn't sure if I was going to watch this. I prefer documentaries rather than dramatizations so that I can see it for myself. I do enough yelling at the TV these days.

For instance, it's not the '70s but I LOVED the "Milk" documentary (was going to say that wasn't a court case but I guess it was since Dan White is where the Twinkie Defense came from). Then when Sean Penn did the movie, I hated it. They did a lot of dramatization of the doc when the doc and seeing Harvey for myself was MUCH better.

I totally get what you mean - I usually prefer the true docs as well. But a well-done historical drama is usually appealing and this one is for sure. A drama will always be a bit hokier but I usually enjoy them anyway. But I think Sorkin and the great cast get this pretty right.

From what I know of it, the actual trial was a sheet show. Judicial misconduct. Regular outbursts and theater from the defendants and a prosecution founded on political interests. What a mess.
 
Before it was the Chicago 7 it was the Chicago 8 and included Bobby Seale. He wouldn’t be quiet so they taped his mouth shut and tied him to the chair. He was ultimately removed and given a separate trial.
 
Before it was the Chicago 7 it was the Chicago 8 and included Bobby Seale. He wouldn’t be quiet so they taped his mouth shut and tied him to the chair. He was ultimately removed and given a separate trial.

True.

But also true that Seale had not been involved in any pre-protest planning and had only been in Chicago to represent BPP leadership because Eldridge Cleaver couldn’t make it.

Seale’s attorney was hospitalized for emergency surgery but the court denied both Seale’s motion for continuance due to the unavailability of his counsel and Seale’s motion to represent himself. Frustrated with these events, Seale elected to try to express himself.
 

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