THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 IS HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED
On August 26, 1968, the Democratic Party was scheduled to begin its national convention at the Chicago Hilton and was expected to nominate as their presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey, who was expected to continue American involvement in Vietnam. Protesters from several different groups called upon their supporters to attend and protest. Violence broke out. Richard Nixon was elected president with a “law and order” theme in his campaign. Yet, as The Trial of the Chicago 7 makes clear, none of the leaders of the groups were arrested in 1968 because the outgoing Attorney General, W. Ramsey Clark (played by Michael Keaton), received an investigation report that the Chicago and Illinois police were the aggressors.
As soon as John Mitchell (John Doman), Nixon’s nominee for Attorney General, was confirmed, he decided to accuse eight leaders of assisting, inciting, organizing a violent riot and assigned the prosecution to a career Department of Justice prosecutor, Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who expressed some initial reluctance about the evidence but answered the call because of his commitment to “law and order.”
With many flashbacks and re-enactments, The Trial of the Chicago 7 presents a summary of a trial that took several months. Several high points emerge from the docudrama: (1) Many defendants did not know each other before the Chicago event. (2) The original trial was for eight persons, including Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) of the Black Panthers, who was not in Chicago for the incident but was added to put all the “radicals” on trial. (3) The judge, Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), was clearly prejudiced against the defendants and would not even allow Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), to defend himself. (4) After Seale repeatedly protested in court and even had a gag put over his mouth, Schultz succeeded in having the judge remove Seale from the panel of defendants. (5) The most damning evidence presented by the prosecution was a taped statement by Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who reacted to an incident of police brutality in Chicago by saying that there would be “blood in the streets,” which led to a violent incident. Hayden meant that the bloodshed would be those of protesters, but they interpreted his off-the-cuff remark as incitement. (6) Much testimony presented by the prosecution came from undercover police. (7) Jurors perceived to be sympathetic to the defendants were removed by the judge. (8) The judge would not allow former Attorney General Clark to present testimony. (9) In the final statement by the defense, Hayden stood up to begin listing the names and ages of all those in the American army who had lost their lives during the long trial. The courtroom then erupted into so much cheering that Schultz rose to his feet to show respect to the slain soldiers, his co-counsel left the courtroom, and Judge Hoffman exited, unable to maintain order in the court.
Titles at the end indicate that the case was rejected by an Appeal Court, remanding the case back for a second trial, which was never held. The fate of some defendants was also indicated. Not mentioned was the fact that the jury rejected conspiracy charges but convicted five of the seven defendants with intent to incite a riot. Hoffman also sentenced the defendants and their attorneys for contempt of court for their theatrics in response to his biased rulings.
Besides Hayden, the other defendants were SDS’s Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp); Youth International Party (Yippies) founder Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and member Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong); David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), leader of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam; Chicago-born Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins), a research assistant at Northwestern University and anti-war activist; and John Froines (Daniel Flaherty), Goddard College chemistry professor and anti-war activist. Froines and Weiner were found not guilty of the charge of making “stink bombs.”
The film’s screenplay, which Aaron Sorkin wrote in 2017, was intended to be directed by Steven Spielberg, but for various reason Sorkin ended up as the director. Filming took place in Chicago and New Jersey, and was delayed due to the lockdowns of some cinemas until last September and finally arrived in Los Angeles this month. Although the evident purpose was to demonstrate that the country has matured beyond the “law and order” opposition to protests of the 1960s, what happened on January 6, 2021, provides a new perspective.
The Political Film Society has nominated The Trial of the Chicago 7 for awards as best film promoting human rights and peace. MH