By John Pickard
Without a doubt the best Netflix film I have seen in a long time is the Trial of the Chicago 7 and it is all the more riveting to know that it was based on real-life events.
The starting point of the film was the National Convention of the Democratic Party in August 1968, prior to the presidential elections of that year. The war in Vietnam was in full swing and as the US casualties and the stories of atrocities perpetrated against the Vietnamese population both multiplied, there was a growing groundswell of opposition to the War, particularly among young people.
A variety of meetings and protests against the war were held around the periphery of the Democratic Convention and some of the protests led to what was described in a later inquirty as a “police riot”, when demonstrators were clubbed and brutalized by police. (See scene from film above)
According to the Guardian at the time, “after four days and nights of violence, 668 people had been arrested, 425 demonstrators were treated at temporary medical facilities, 200 were treated on the spot, 400 given first aid for tear gas exposure and 110 went to hospital. A total of 192 police officers were injured.”
But it was only after the election of Republican Richard Nixon in November of that year that his new Attorney General decided to instigate court proceedings against some of those who had been in Chicago. The ‘Chicago 8’, some of whom had never even met each other, were charged with “conspiracy” and “crossing state lines with the intention of inciting violence”. It was only when the judge declared a ‘mistrial’ in the case of Bobby Seale, the Black Panther leader, that the defendants were reduced to seven.
The film is a crushing indictment of the US justice system
Bearing in mind that the film is based on transcripts of the court proceedings – in other words, these events really happened and what was said in the film was said in real life – the film is a crushing indictment of a ‘justice’ system that was heavily biased against those opposed to the War in Vietnam, the left. The trial judge was so biased that the proceedings and his rulings were almost comical and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.
There are quite a few comical moments in the film and Sasha Baron Cohen, as ‘hippy’ leader Abbie Hoffman, probably takes the accolades. But underlying the humour there is also the sombre realisation that this kind of bias and prejudice was real. That was no more so than as it applied to Bobby Seale, who in fact had only been in Chicago (spoiler: sorry) for four hours on the day of the riot.
The treatment of Bobby Seale by the judge was appalling and would not have been out of place in Russia in the 1930s, but worse was meted out to other Black Panther leaders present in the public gallery of the courtroom. I had been aware of the fate of Panther leader, Fred Hampton, but before seeing this film, I hadn’t linked it to the trial itself. But clearly there was a link.
The trial lasted for around six months, and verdicts were announced in February 1970. At the time, as demonstrators outside the courtroom chanted for months, “the whole world is watching.” Fifty three years after the events, you can watch the film yourself, to see the trial, the verdict and the subsequent events and the fate of the main characters in this real-life drama.
Apart from Sasha Baron Cohen, who plays an excellent part, there are other good performances, among others, from Eddie Redmayne as a defendant and Mark Rylance as the chief defence attorney. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays an excellent part as Bobby Seale. There is also a sensational (for the narrative of the film) appearance by Michael Keaton as Lyndon Johnson’s Attorney General.
If you are going to find something to watch some summer evening, you could do a lot worse than see this film. It is well worth viewing and remember…it all really happened.
