Chicago, 1 9 6 9. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner and John Froines are seven left-wing activists on trial for inciting a riot, which ended with a police crackdown. An 8th defendant, the African-American Black Panther member Bobby Seale, is lumped in together with them, even though he is not represented since his lawyer is recovering from sugery. The Chicago 7 are represented by lawyer Fred Hampton, but the judge Julius Hoffman, is visibly biased against them and hampers their proceedings. When Hampton dies under mysterious circumstances, Seale is tied up to his chair, and two jurors are eliminated by Hoffman, the Chicago 7 protest and ask for a mistrial, claiming they only traveled to Chicago for a protest against the Vietnam War. Judge Hoffman sentences them to 5 years in prison, but this is overturned in the appeal verdict.
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin was always interested in exploring political themes in his screenplays ("A Few Good Men", "The American President", "Charlie Wilson's War"), and thus chose wisely when he picked the rarely talked about real-life legal case of the political trial of the "Chicago 7" for his second directorial work. Sorkin has a knack for inspired dialogues, and thus his sophisticated sense for writing gives the static story a dynamic charge—there is no empty walk despite the long running time, since almost every scene seems important, and instead the viewers will actually feel the story is almost too short. Of the seven people on trial—or eight, if Bobby Seale is included, before his proceedings were separated from the rest—at least three feel only as extras, since there was not enough time to give everyone enough character development, but the four most notable defendants stand out with ease and cover for any omission, especially the two "hippies" with huge hair Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, played brilliantly by Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong.
In one delicious moment, as the trial is about to commence and Abbie Hoffman's name is brought up, judge Julius Hoffman turns towards the stenographer: "And the record should reflect that defendant Hoffman and I are not related!", upon which Abbie looks at him from the bench and jokingly says: "Father, no!" Another fantastic moment is when a reporter and Rubin have this sharp exchange: "Why won't Bobby Seale let anyone represent him?" - "You've posed that question in the form of a lie." Since numerous obstacles are artificially created during the trial, including that judge Hoffman is obviously biased against the Chicago 7, to such an extent that defense counsel Kunstler jokingly says that the judge has "been handing down rulings from the bench that would be considered wrong in Honduras", the movie contemplates about this legal malfunction and democratic deficiency in the US during the Vietnam War, when the government tried to intimidate and hush up the (left-wing) anti-war opposition, standing as a warning that these kind of mistrials can happen even in democracies. It is a very conventionally directed film, except for the neat gimmick that the riot is only presented later on in the film, yet it is ambitious, intelligent, noble and measured, a surprisingly quality experience.
Grade:+++
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