Aaron Sorkin writes and directs this courtroom drama based on real events. It follows the case of the Chicago 7, a group of people who were charged with conspiracy and inciting riots after they organised Anti-Vietnam war protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film soon explores the idea that this is a political trial with the group chosen for who they are by the Republican government.
As much as the film is described as a courtroom drama, I wasn't really expecting it to be so heavily based in the actual courtroom. We get a few scenes in between sittings and bits of flashbacks showing what actually happened but the majority is a court case where everyone really pisses off the judge and there are moments when it can get quite dry and repetitive.
There's a strong ensemble cast here which you can look up if you so wish but there were several performances which stuck out for me. Mark Rylance is always fantastic and should be cast in everything so it's no surprise that he's great as defending lawyer William Kunstler who becomes ever more exasperated at the nonsense that the case becomes. The MVP though is Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman. There's a hint of the actor's eccentricity to the character but it's still one of the straightest roles I've seen him play. He's superb here, a comedian on the outside who inside is a complicated and wise man- I'd love to see Baron Cohen gives us more straight roles because I'd be fascinated to see what else he could do.
I wasn't particularly happy with the ending of the film where we see the guilty verdict given and then captions explain that eventually the seven were allowed to go free. It seemed really odd to me to not end with the victory because ultimately the republican government lost.
I felt like the film struggled at times to really get across the themes it was wrestling with. There's a little on racism and police brutality that never comes on strong enough and I think the film fails to really explain the strength of feeling amongst the protesting crowds. Throughout the film characters talk about it not really being about them but the film inadvertently does make it about them. It's really easy to compare this to Steve McQueen's Mangrove which also a courtroom drama about people inciting violence within a protest but for me McQueen's work is so much more powerful and effective at getting across the strength of feeling and the emotion behind the trial.
The film certainly has it's moments including when one of the defendants starts reading out a list of the all the soldiers who had died in Vietnam is hugely powerful. Whilst the script is strong, sometimes it feels like it plays with real events too much to make them neatly fit into the story.
A decent courtroom drama with a strong script and a great ensemble performance but it lacks the passion and feeling that Steve Mcqueen's thematically similar film Mangrove delivered so perfectly.
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