"The Trial of the Chicago 7" : Dramatic True Story

Aaron Sorkin's "Trial of the Chicago Seven" as one of the main contenders for this season's Oscars. And the point is not even that this is a film that is relevant for the United States, echoing the events of 2020, it is just a very good movie, well written, well shot, well played. And, by the way, it is relevant not only for the United States, but even more so for Ukraine.

Aaron Sorkin needs no introduction, but if someone suddenly forgot, remember that this is the man who wrote the scripts for such films as A Few Good Men / "A Few Good Men", Charlie Wilson's War / "Charlie Wilson's War", The Social Network / The Social Network, Moneyball / The Man Who Changed Everything, Steve Jobs / Steve Jobs ; and is also responsible for the series The West Wing / "The West Wing" and The Newsroom / "News". Sorkin's directorial debut, Molly's Game , based on the memories of an athlete and organizer of illegal poker games, Molly Bloom, did not go unnoticed either.

The idea of ​​\ u200b \ u200bthe protests during the congress of the US Democratic Party in Chicago in August 1968, an important event in the fight for civil rights in the United States, stuck in Sorkin's head back in 2006, after a conversation with Steven Spielberg, who was interested in filming such a film. ... In the summer of 2007, Sorkin had a script ready, which he proposed to Spielberg.

The famous director agreed to film and produce the film. Even then, Sacha Baron Cohen was approved for the role of Abby Hoffman, the leader of the Black Panthers Bobby Seal was to be played by Will Smith, and the role of Tom Hayden, one of the leaders of the National Mobilization Committee to End the Vietnam War (Mob), was to go to Heath Ledger ... Unfortunately, a US Writers Guild strike in November 2007 suspended work on the film. Heath Ledger died in early 2008.

Aaron Sorkin did not abandon the idea of ​​launching the film according to a ready-made script. He continued to communicate with Steven Spielberg, turned to Ben Stiller (Zoolander, Tropic Thunder) and Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, United 93, Captain Phillips), but the film stuck firmly in the limb. Only in 2018, after the success of Molly's Game, which garnered excellent reviews from critics and a good harvest of awards, Sorkin decided to revive the film and took up directing himself. As it turned out, not in vain.

However, the problems of the film about the trial of civil activists did not end there. The shooting of the film with a budget of $ 35 million ($ 11 million was spent on fees for the stars involved) ended in the fall of 2019, the premiere was scheduled for September 2020 ... and then the pandemic began.

Against the backdrop of the closure of cinemas, the financing of the film Paramount Pictures was helped by Netflix, who was interested in buying the picture, which could potentially bring the service several Oscars at once. As a result, in the summer of 2020, Netflix and Paramount Pictures agreed on a figure of $ 56 million, and finally the picture appeared on the streaming service. As expected, closer to the nominations season.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 recounts the anti-war protests during the August 1968 US Democratic convention in Chicago, brutally suppressed by the police and the military, and the trial of leftist activists involved in those events. And although formally most of the time there were eight people in the dock, this process went down in history as the trial of the "Chicago Seven", tk. the proceedings against the eighth defendant, Black Panther leader Bobby Seal, were eventually taken to a separate case.

The trial lasted 11 months from March 1969 to February 1970 and was accompanied by numerous violations. You will be surprised, but at the end of the 60s. justice in the United States sometimes did not differ from justice in modern Ukraine. Even physical restraint measures were applied to one of the defendants, and during the trial, the defendants and their lawyers received 150 warnings for contempt of court.

Naturally, such a high-profile process attracted the attention of the press and the public. Many considered the court to be politically biased, a kind of revenge of the Republicans who came to power against the Democrats who had occupied offices for the previous 8 years.

In addition, the Chicago Seven affair has had a significant impact on American and British music, for example, Graham Nash's composition Chicago / We Can Change the World is dedicated to these events, as well as 25 other songs by famous rock and folk artists. Naturally, many books have been written and dozens of films have been made about the protests and the process. Only after 2000 there were at least five of them.

Police brutality and judicial lawlessness are the same at all times. The way in the film the police disperse a demonstration in a park in Chicago is no different from the beating of students on the Independence Square on November 30, 2013. The same techniques, the same cruelty, the same disregard for other people's lives.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 by Sorkin turned out to be very rich, multifaceted, deep. Here is the confrontation between America of the 50s and America of the 60s, and the eternal enmity of Democrats and Republicans, and an anti-war message, reaching an incredible crescendo in the scene of Tom Hayden's last speech. Again, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is not just an actual movie, it is also a very good movie. Well written, well shot and well played. One of the best films of 2020

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