The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Has anyone watched this movie? It played briefly in theaters and has now been on Netflix for a couple months.
The reviews have generally been good and the film is expected to be an Academy Awards contender. One Oscar prediction site has the movie a virtual lock for a Best Picture nomination.
https://www.goldderby.com/odds/combined-odds/oscars-nominations-2021-predictions/
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 is also expected to get multiple Best Supporting Actor nominations for it's nearly all male cast that includes many memorable lines of dialogue written by the noted screen and tv author Aaron Sorkin, well as nominations for screenplay and possible a best director nod for Sorkin.
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If you like Aaron Sorkin's style of screenplay , which is heavy on characters making "speeches" instead of a more normal sounding fast moving back and forth dialogue you will probably really like this movie. Sorkin has quite the knack for expounding on social and political issues, and a freedom of speech trial related to the riots at the 1968 Democratic convention is a natural platform for his take on the material.
Sacha Baron Cohen , in a rare dramatic role as the Yippie protest leader Abbie Hoffman, is likely to get award nominations, as is Mark Rylance as the Chicago 7's well known radical lawyer William Kunstler. People who are not familiar with what happened (and who is 50 years later) will likely be wondering how the judge got away with acting so unprofessionally. In reality the actual judge was worse than he is portrayed in the movie. Judge Hoffman gave out over 130 contempt of court citations to the defendants and their lawyers, only a handful of which there is time to show in the movie.
I like Aaron Sorkin's movies very much. And I'm a big fan of Mark Rylance. He doesn't get enough work as far as I'm concerned.
I will watch it
I saw it and I thought it was excellent. It was well-acted and the pace of the storytelling was excellent. In a time forgotten, it really showed how our legal system could screw you over.
Boy Howdy.
Many of the 'older kids' cut school that day and we were in Grant Park on one side. My father, a police officer, was there too. I got out of there before dark, unscathed. Dad, not so much...
Best line - Abbie Hoffman , on the witness stand , "I've never been on trial for my thoughts before".
Sorkin created the TV series The West Wing, so I would expect this movie to be equally as good.
I think I'll do a movie article for the Everyone Loves Movies - Classic to Current group, and call it "Steal This Movie".
Sorkin also wrote and directed (I think) "A Few Good Men". He adapted the film from his play.