For a writer, you can write about the good guys, you can write about the bad guys, you can write about the heroes, you can write about the opponents, but you can never write about someone who doesn't have a conscience.
--Alan Sorkin
Written and directed by Alan Sorkin and based on true historical events, The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago tells the story of eight anti-Vietnam War activists who were arrested for holding unapproved protests and subsequently tried. The film was launched on the streaming platform Netflix on October 16, 2020, and since its broadcast, it has been a word of mouth, once occupying the top of the Douban word-of-mouth list, and won the Best Screenplay Award at the 78th Golden Globe Awards in 2021 and the Best Collective Performance Award in the Film Category at the 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In 1968, when the Democratic Party of the United States held the 35th Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the anti-Vietnam War organization applied for a peaceful protest rally, and after the application was rejected, the anti-war activists still protested on the day of the meeting. During the protests, they clashed massively with the police, with 8 people arrested. Among them, Bobby Searle, the founder of the black organization "Black Panther Party", was sentenced first; the remaining seven people on trial, including Abby Hoffman and Tom Hayden, were called the "Seven Gentlemen of Chicago".
The film focuses on the trial after the 7 and another Black Panther leader are indicted, interspersed with behind-the-scenes operations of the prosecution, lawyers and witnesses, as well as flashback memories of the scenes of the conflict, with a huge amount of lines and information.
It profoundly exposes the oppression and unfair treatment of the Seven Gentlemen by the court (representatives of the conservative establishment), and also portrays the clash of ideologies represented by these seven people, such as the Violent Black Panther Party, the idealistic student brothers, the hippies with long hair and shawls, and the more mature leftist cadres, who are diverse, but one thing is common: they all oppose the Vietnam War and the ultra-conservative establishment forces.
The seven anti-Vietnam War political activists from various factions were charged with rioting, and they fought in court and under the court, which eventually led to the court having to acquit them four years later, and the seven gentlemen won a legal and moral victory.
The overall editing of the film is fast-paced, which is the generality of films involving law and litigation, and it is also the hard need to show the personality of 150 days of litigation and 8 protagonists (seven gentlemen plus a prosecutor) in 120 minutes, which tests the skills of the director and screenwriter, and also highlights the style of the creator.
In this regard, the director chose a large number of contemporary style rock music, combined with strings to string together each plot paragraph and character shaping, forming a paragraph like a MV, so that the audience is as happy as watching a rock music performance. At the same time, the director added a large number of plots and professional information to these MV-like paragraphs in a visual way, killing two birds with one stone.
Story Background:
In the 1960s, the United States was mired in the civil war in Vietnam. Many U.S. servicemen have crossed the Pacific Ocean and dedicated their precious youth and lives. The anti-war movement in the United States was also on the rise. Along with the awakening of the liberal consciousness of the younger generation, the civil rights movement also surged. At that time, various cultural groups were formed in the country, mostly composed of anti-war civil rights. Most of them appeared in the form of student movements. The flood of student movements and hippie culture has caused unprecedented trouble for the government, with the united States most concentrated in the Vietnam War.
In August 1968, the 35th Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago. Anti-war civil rights organizations across the country paid full attention to organizing rallies in Chicago, triggering a public opinion offensive and publicizing their anti-war civil rights ideas. The fact is that during the General Assembly, many police forces assembled to confront anti-war democracies, causing serious violent clashes. Later, the Nixon administration succeeded the Johnson administration, oppressed anti-war civil rights organizations, and designated the main leaders of the anti-war civil rights organizations that participated in the Chicago riots as Chicago rioters and brought them to court, which attracted national attention.
The Chicago Seven Gentlemen Trial revolves around the trial process of this event, recreates the history of history, shows the image of the government and prosecutors, defenders, spectators, defendants and the public at that time, and hides the whole picture of American social culture in the small court trial activities.
The film begins with not a majority of the narrative of objective antecedents and consequences of events, but cleverly connects characters, events, backgrounds, and their internal connections and clues within the film script through the exquisite configuration of important people, important discourses, and montage-like use. The rhythm is bright and there is no procrastination. Between simple languages, the characters' personalities become rich and three-dimensional.
Inside and outside the film, the Seven Gentlemen triumphed in the end. But the victory of the Seven Gentlemen is not so much the triumph of the anti-war and hippie movements as it is judge Hoffman's cocoon. The appeals trial in the United States does not do factual review, and most of the review focuses on the procedural compliance of the entire judgment, and it is Judge Hoffman's biased trial process at the first trial that makes the seven gentlemen "escape". Although the Seventh Circuit rejected the verdict and ordered a retrial, the Nixon administration was reluctant to provide a stage for the Seven Gentlemen to perform again, which ultimately brought the trial to a "successful" conclusion.
Director and screenwriter Aikin Sauron
Alan Sorkin was born in 1961 in Manhattan, New York, usa, to a Jewish family, the father is a lawyer, the mother is a teacher, the couple has three children, Sorkin is the youngest of them, the older brother and sister inherited the father's business, grew up to become a lawyer, Sorkin became a screenwriter with his interest in theater.
Sorkin grew up at Syracuse University, majoring in musical stage plays. His first play was performed on campus and received attention from the industry, but what really made him famous was his "Few Good Guys", which was a great success after being staged, and then adapted into a screenplay, directed by Rob Reiner, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, "Good Guys Few" can be said to be the starting point of Sorkin's brilliant career as a screenwriter.
Sorkin is good at adapting existing character biographies and real events into a script, discovering the little-known side of the character on the basis of the original story, and his wonderful dialogue writing and character portrayal make the film have a strong personal screenwriting style. And the screenplay he created, unsurprisingly, will become the favor of the film festival, various screenwriting awards to get soft, in 2011, Sorkin won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay with "Social Network"; in 2016, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay with "Steve Jobs"; the American drama "White House" was the highest single season winning record of 9 Emmy Awards when the first season was broadcast.
The Judgment of the Seven Gentlemen of Jia Ge
Awards
On October 16, before the start of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the "Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" aired on Netflix. The film not only won 6 nominations for best picture and best original screenplay at this year's Academy Awards, but also gained a good reputation, with a freshness of 90% and a popcorn index of 91% on the Rotten Tomatoes website, 7.8 points on IMDb, and 8.6 points on Douban movies in China.
Classic lines from The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago
1.I have been keeping a list every day. Americans who have been killed since the day we were arrested.
Every day I keep a list of Americans who have been killed since the day we were arrested.
2.This is a political trial that was already decided for us.
This is a political trial, and our sins have long been convicted.
3.I will tell you.it`s nothing compared to the contempt my government has for me.
My contempt is not worth mentioning compared to my government's contempt for me.
4.I am concerned you have to think about it.
You've had to think about this question for so long, and that worries me.
5.I have never been on trial for my thoughts before.
I have never been judged for my thoughts.
6.What we need in the United States is not hatred, but is love and wisdom.
What America needs is not hatred, but love and wisdom.
Part of the script for The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago