Five years ago, to put it lightly, I was slightly obsessed with the Chicago Seven. Every school report of choice somehow miraculously resulted in writing about this protest of the Democratic party’s support for the Vietnam War that took place in 1968 outside of the National Democratic Convention in Chicago. Eight left wing radicals of different groups were charged for conspiracy of crossing state lines to incite violence. This led to a long and arduous trial of show, pompous and political theater which was basically a culmination of the establishment vs. the ‘cultural revolution’ of the sixties. I watched every documentary and movie related to the event and also became a follower of one of the main actors of the trial, Abbie Hoffman (played by Sasha Baron Cohen in the film). I carried his book Steal This Book around in my backpack, just in case I needed some quick tips (I guess). In saying all this, I am not trying to flex how niche leftist nerdy I was in 2016, I am simply letting you in to my bias on how invested I am in the story and therefore cannot truly discern if this was a good movie. Instead I will discuss some themes that Aaron Sorkin played with in the retelling of the trial.
If you clicked here thinking you would get a review, The New York Times said “I don’t think, on balance, that this is a very good movie” and it has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s up for you to decide from there.
One of the strongest themes that stood out to me in the film was police-sanctioned violence in the face of dissent from civilians. After this summer of seeing firsthand police barricades and the National Guard on the same streets as shown in the film, it was hard for me to not draw parallels. With the addition of real footage of police beating the protesters in 1968 in tandem with the dramatization of the protest, it added to the hard hitting reality of police violence that went on. While Sorkin started working on the film a decade ago, the last touches of this film were clearly made with the police violence from this summer in mind.
It felt slightly out of line that a story about white protesters was the story to show the reality of police violence. This overstep may have been undercut with the most revealing scenes of the film being the storyline of the mistreatment of Bobby Seale, the leader of the Black Panthers, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. When Seale was gagged and tied to his chair after insisting on receiving representation, it was clear that the treatment of the other seven white people being charged was nothing compared to racial struggles going on then, and now.
Another lesson I took away from the film is the need to put aside egos to unite the left. A great scene in the film took place after the two left wing rivals Tom Hayden (played by Eddie Redmayne) and Hoffman consistently butt heads. While listening to a tape of Hayden the night of the riot, Hoffman admits that he has read all of Hayden’s published work and thinks he is brilliant. The protagonists understand at that moment that they are more similar than they originally thought and are able to work together for a common cause. When us students on campuses — well, at home now — are spending our time ripping apart other leftist causes, it’s important to realize that maybe it’s not worth canceling each other on Twitter for the clout.
Throughout the film people would mention that because of the young radicals’ actions Nixon became president. There were many times when characters would say that there is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans. It is unclear if this movie is going full Biden 2020 in its subtext by critiquing these 1960s radical groups, such as the Yippies who nominated a pig named Pigasus for president, but Sorkin is definitely making us think about how young people are choosing not to vote this month. It seems that popular groups within our generation such as the Sunrise Movement and Democratic Socialists of America have learned a lesson from SDS and the Yippies and now spend their time organizing for candidates.
Lastly something that stood out to me was the humanizing of the other side consistently through the film. Most scenes of flashbacks on the streets of Chicago during protests had remarks about the police officers humanizing them, such as “I wonder how many of them have sons in Vietnam?” There was one scene that seems to have been completely fabricated just to humanize the defense in the trail. During a recess of the trial, Hoffman and Jerry Rubin (played by Jeremy Strong) are in Grant Park and run into the prosecution lawyer Richard Schultz (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) with his daughters. Hoffman tells Schultz that he is still a good person, even though he is representing the wrong side. In the final scene Schultz stands when they read the names of the American soldiers that were killed in Vietnam, showing that opposing sides want similar things and with more collaboration from all sides of the political spectrum real change can be made.
This idea of good intentions coming from the other side is radically different than what we have today. I often hear Smithies say they hate all Republicans and see my social media blasted with ACAB infographics — clearly Sorkin does not subscribe to the idea of a monolithic bad guy.
The showing of all sides and the demonstration of police brutality may seem like a formula for a Spike Lee film, but Sorkin takes these ideas that we have seen a lot recently and creates an engaging story filled with humor and thought-provoking ideas. Definitely this is not a perfect movie, with the last scene being complete fiction and overdramatic for my taste. But the story of the Chicago Seven never stops being relevant, in my mind, and I am glad that it has been told on another platform where even more people will get to engage with it.
