Author: Li Xiaotian
In 2020, Hollywood has become a good wasteland, no matter how the sichuan boss exaggerates, the film industry cannot be hidden.
In this case, "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" has become a rare masterpiece in recent times.
The United States is in the election, just right, and "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen in Chicago" is also the story before the election.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the things that happened in the U.S. election</h1>
The time was 1968, and it was also an election year. We now know that the final election that year was richard Nixon' eventual victory and that he went on to become a very accomplished president.
At the time, Nixon won only narrowly. Moreover, the Democratic Party still controls Congress.
That year was a difficult year for the Democratic Party and for the United States as a whole.
That year, the Vietnamese campaign was still raging. The Viet Cong's New Year's offensive in January, although tactically unsuccessful, dealt a great blow to American public opinion. As a result, then-President Lyndon Johnson gave up his re-election campaign and announced his withdrawal from the campaign. Then, Rob Kennedy, the younger brother of former President John F. Kennedy, announced his candidacy. Just as he was making a smooth progress in the pre-selection, he was suddenly assassinated in Los Angeles. Senator Eugene McCarthy then gained support on college campuses for anti-war appeals and won a nomination caucuse for New Hampshire. But the bigwigs in the Democratic Party are not optimistic about him.
It's August. The Democratic Party decided to hold a congress in Chicago on August 25-30 to elect a presidential candidate. As a result, the venue was chaotic, and the outside was even more chaotic. Outside the Democratic Convention, anti-war activists from all over the country, as well as hippies and yuppies, gathered to stage demonstrations.
As a result, the general assembly finally nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a staunch Supporter of the New Deal, from Minnesota.
The meeting was very uneventful, and there were many stories inside and outside the venue. Within the Democratic Party, Alabama's Democratic Governor, George Wallace, decided to run independently.
Demonstrations outside the venue sparked riots, with many people arrested and then approved. "Chicago Seven Gentlemen Approval" tells the story of the approval of the 8 opinion leaders who were arrested this time.
The election went on, and the final pattern became a trilateral contest between The Democratic Party's Hubert Humphrey, republican Richard Nixon, and independently run by George Wallace.
In the end, due to George Wallace's vote, Hubert Humphrey lost to Nixon by a slight disadvantage.
Republican Richard Nixon ended up winning with a slight margin, but democrats still controlled Congress.
In fact, George Wallace in that year was very much like the current sichuan boss. Wallace was one of the leading political figures of his time who insisted on apartheid and confronted the American civil rights movement. Like the Sichuan bosses, they all inspired an aversion to the political system in the American populace and blamed it all on people of different races, beliefs, religions, or origins who were "not American." Wallace, like the chuan boss, did the same thing: attacking journalists, attacking other candidates, using racism, insulting people, and there were sometimes fights in his rallies.
If Wallace had not been an independent candidate that year, but one of the two major parties in the United States, he would have won. Even after nixon's bargain, Wallace won 46 electoral votes and lost.
In contrast to George Wallace and Richard Nixon, the Democratic Party's Launch of Hubert Humphrey is the most obscure in history.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, what about that demonstration</h1>
In the history of the United States, around 1968, it was an era full of violence, disagreement, and riots, when social differences had not yet merged and the spirit of the law had not yet taken root.
At that time, the United States ended the Korean War and fell into the Vietnam battlefield, and the ongoing war filled the country with a strong anti-war sentiment.
Moreover, the rise and fall of the civil rights movement in China, coupled with the noisy and noisy scenes of hippies and yuppies, was the most active era of social thought.
The demonstrations in Chicago in mid-1968 were part of many of the farces of the time.
The protagonist of the demonstration was Abbie Hoffman. He was the founder of the "Yippies". For "Yippies", the word comes from Hippies, that is, the initials have been changed to show the difference, and there is no real meaning.
Abby Hoffman founded "Yuppys" in early 1968, when he played with Jerry Rubin. These two are the two of the "Chicago Seven Gentlemen".
Born on November 30, 1936, after graduating from high school, he was admitted to brandeis University, the home of the famous left, with a bachelor's degree in psychology. He then went to the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a Marxist. As a result, he naturally became a radical revolutionary, having led several student demonstrations and becoming the leader of the East Coast branch of the famous Student For Democratic Society (SDS).
One day in June 1967, SDS leaders gathered in a small town in Michigan for a meeting to discuss what to do next. Halfway through the meeting, 3 hippies suddenly burst in, dressed strangely and behaving strangely. When they broke into the venue, they directly knocked over the seats of the venue.
One of the leading men stripped naked in public, jumped onto the podium, and began to speak to the stunned delegates: "What is your position for those of you middle class who could have gone to be doctors or lawyers?" Without Vietnam, without Cuba, you New Left are worthless. The Kremlin is as hopeless as Alabama. Don't think about organizing student marches and inciting black riots, the only thing worth doing in this world is to liberate yourself! Personal property is the greatest enemy, burn them, throw them away, everything should be free, this is the way out for mankind. ”
This is the typical hippie, who do not advocate changing society, but pursue individual freedom, the liberation of individuality.
As a result, the venue of the leftist event was caused by hippies, and the SDSs in the audience were stunned and did not know why. As a result, Abby Hoffman, who was sitting on the side, opened his mind. He suddenly realized that this society needed a deep-rooted change, a change from the soul.
But how can it change? Abby Hoffman felt that it was necessary to do things, with the help of the media, to let the public know.
As radio and television technology evolved, Abby Hoffman felt the need to take advantage of it. He believed that the power of the media must be relied upon. "What the media didn't report was the same as it didn't happen." He often put it this way, "And once something has been reported by the media, it must have happened, even if the opposite is true." The revolutionary movement in modern society should take place on television, not in factories. ”
So he teamed up with Jerry Rubin, the leader of the Berkeley branch of SDS, to get it together.
At first, they operated several performance arts together. It's like throwing money on a stock exchange, deliberately letting the TV broadcast capture it, and even deliberately running to the camera to burn a few bills. Subsequently, he contacted 70,000 hippies, played anti-war games around the Pentagon, and invited astrologers to do a lot of magic on the spot.
Hoffman has a bigger plan. He followed the astrologer's advice and planned to rent a plane to scatter flowers on the Pentagon, using the "power of love" represented by the flowers to drive away the demons stationed in the Pentagon.
He bought a truckload of daisies beforehand and advertised in the newspaper to rent a plane. But he never imagined that the caller was an FBI spy! As a result, Hoffman was guarding a truckload of daisies on the day of the parade and did not know what to do. In the end, he had to drive the chrysanthemums to the front of the Pentagon and distribute them to everyone. So the reporters finally snapped a "very symbolic" picture of a female protester holding a small chrysanthemum flower facing the soldiers' cold bayonets. This photograph later became a hallmark of the 1960s.
This little flower is also shown in "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago".
After the previous few experiences, Hoffman felt that the Democratic Convention was a great opportunity not to be missed.
After the decision was made, he announced through the media that "Yuppis" would go to Chicago to attend the congress and promulgated a series of programs of action that were extremely exaggerated. For example, they claimed to distribute hallucinogens free of charge to all Chicago residents, and even planned to add hallucinogens to the water system. They applaud love in the streets and vow to fight to the death with the police who dare to stop them. Most interestingly, they intend to emulate the Democratic party's practice of putting forward a presidential candidate, and they are also going to nominate a candidate, and the winner will be a piglet, and they plan to eat the pig after the election. Their theory is that usually the outcome of all such elections is that the victor eats the people, and they want to reverse the process.
Before the opening of the conference, Hoffman brought thousands of "yuppies" and "hippies" to Chicago, occupied Chicago City Park, and announced that they would hold a "life festival" here, where participants could either listen to rock music and smoke drugs, or choose to meditate and chant with the "spiritual teachers".
When the meeting came, Hoffman and they applied to the city government for a peaceful protest rally near the venue. The mayor rejected the application. However, demonstrators, mainly "hippies" and "yuppies", protested on the day of the meeting.
The mayor of Chicago, seeing no good, immediately declared martial law and brought in more than 20,000 police officers and Members of the National Guard to patrol the streets of Chicago all night. The "yuppies" ignored this and gathered as usual.
When the meeting came, they shouted slogans, sang rock and roll, stormed the venue, and engaged in large-scale clashes with the police. The police used not only tear gas and high-pressure water dragons, but also batons and leather whips. The fight resulted in hundreds of arrests, more than 1,000 injuries and one death.
As a result, Hoffman and eight other leaders were arrested by the police for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This is the "Chicago Eight".
Their trial officially began on September 24, 1969.
The above is the story background of "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago", all adapted from real people and real events.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, is it "eight gentlemen" or "seven gentlemen"? </h1>
After the arrest of the "Eight Gentlemen", at first, the remaining President Lyndon Johnson and the Minister of Justice Ramsey Clark did not agree to prosecute the "Eight Gentlemen". As a result, the case was shelved at the prosecution stage.
But it was a period of regime change, and President-elect Richard Nixon and new Attorney General John Mitchell were hardline conservatives who focused on "law and order."
After Nixon came to power, the authorities quickly initiated the trial of the "Eight Gentlemen".
However, by this time the time had reached the year 1969.
At the beginning of the film", "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago", it is the determination of the new Justice Department, John Mitchell, to let the arrestees sit in jail.
Mitchell felt that the era of Democratic control was over, and it was time to usher in a great era under Nixon.com. And those troublemakers, just go to prison and stay honest.
In the line, Mitchell said: That decade is over.
The question is: Which decade ended?
The answer is that the decade of bottom-up self-organizing social movements is over, the era of "peace" is over.
That is, the 60s, a civil rights movement that called for anti-war, racial equality, equal rights, etc., came to an end.
Therefore, Mitchell summoned the best prosecutor in the country at that time to handle the case, and his heart was clear:
I want them to go to jail. I'm going to kill chickens for monkeys to see.
So the trial was unjust from the start, it was a political one.
The trial, the prosecution, and the defendant all know what the outcome of this trial will be. Abby Hoffman knows this even more clearly. From the beginning, he knew it would be a political trial.
Of course, Abby Hoffman will not easily concede defeat. After all, he cares more about the outcome than the process, and what better eye-catching occasion than this high-profile trial? He decided to turn the trial into a "yuppie" show, to get as far out of place as possible and attract more people to pay attention to them.
Therefore, this trial, from the very beginning, was destined not to be ordinary.
Both sides, each pregnant with a ghost fetus.
But the program always has to go.
Perhaps, in the process, new changes will occur. Indeed, change began.
Attorney General Mitchell approached prosecutor Richard Schultz, who was liberal and less determined in his ass.
In "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago", Richard Schultz is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is very handsome and very atmospheric, which is a rare performance of Shef in recent years. Unfortunately, there are not too many scenes, and the role is somewhat flat, which limits his play.
On September 24, 1969, the trial began. The presiding judge is Judge Julius Hoffman of the Federal District Court. In fact, Judge Hoffman is not a conservative. During his tenure as a judge, he wrote a harsh criticism of the "McCarthyism" of wantonly planting stolen goods and persecuting citizens, and asserted: "Even if we are facing a great threat, we should find a better way to deal with it than to give up our rights." If we voluntarily renounce those rights in order to catch those who threaten our rights as soon as possible, it is like robbing a person's belongings in the future in order to prevent them from being stolen in the future. ”
However, in the political atmosphere at the time, Judge Hoffman only wanted to cooperate with the attorney general to turn the trial into a "political show".
At the beginning of the trial, Bobby Sear, from the Black Panther Party, insisted that he did not attend the rally at all. He just happened to be in Chicago for four hours, giving a speech that was considered by the police to be one of the culprits of the chaos in the rally.
William Kustler, played by Mark Rylance, is the defense attorney for Abby Hoffman and others, but he is not Bobby Sear's defense lawyer. Searle wanted to defend himself, but Julius Hoffman insisted that William Kusterler was also Searle's lawyer and never let Sear speak.
Bobby Ciel was so angry that he insulted Judge Hoffman, calling him a "fascist dog," a "stupid pig," and a "racist." Hoffman's performance was also extreme, and he asked the bailiff to tie Up Searle, cover his mouth with gauze, and then expel him from the courtroom and deal with another case.
The "Eight Gentlemen" then became the "Seven Gentlemen".
Later, Sear was sentenced to four years in prison for contempt of court. The length of the sentence set a record for the sentencing of similar crimes in the United States.
Judge Hoffman thought that the act of binding Searle would have the effect of "killing chickens and monkeys", but it turned out to be counterproductive.
The next day, Abby Hoffman and Jerry Rubin actually walked into the courtroom in robes, and Judge Hoffman ordered them to take them off, and they took off their robes as instructed, and they were wearing police uniforms inside, which made the judge cry and laugh. Other defendants were wrapped in Vietnamese flags, some wore clothes printed with the israeli flag and wiped their feet from time to time. Compared with well-dressed prosecutors, defense lawyers are also dressed like "yuppies", dressed casually, with long hair, chewing gum and smelling of marijuana.
Judge Hoffman's decision-making behind clearly has elements of hostility and "gambling". He frequently rejected motions filed by lawyers and did not even allow key witnesses to testify in court. In the months-long trial, Hoffman became the only object of ridicule and ridicule in the courtroom. One accused refused to call him "Your Excellency the Judge" but instead referred to him "Mr. Hoffman". The defendant suddenly called him Hitler's accomplice and suddenly mocked the court's filthy view of justice, no different from. The dock is the "Liberated Zone," "the ultimate challenge of the people to the evil judicial system." The defendants "sat down at the table and wrote the speech, which was read aloud as soon as it was finished." Someone slept in court, snoring loudly." The lawyer also did not listen to the order, and mocked the judge.
On 9 October, as protesters outside the courthouse mounted, the government sent a National Guard to maintain order. The media commented that the trial of the "Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" has become "the most comical trial in American history."
But in any case, this trial is very unfavorable to the "Seven Gentlemen". After all, tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), the seemingly calmest student leader of the seven, once chanted on the spot: "Let the blood flow all over the city!" "This is really naked incitement!"
Fortunately, there is always a skill in debating.
Or did Abby Hoffman come forward and say to Tom Hayden that by shedding your own blood. It is to let your blood flow all over the ground when the repression comes.
After all, Abby is also a high-achieving student, and this conversion has changed from active to passive. It is not to incite the crowd to take the initiative, but to passively accept the bullying that will come.
In the end, former Justice Minister Ramsey Clark, played by Michael Keaton, testified, confirming that the chaos had to be reversed before the police intervened, not by the demonstrators.
It was not until February 18, 1970, that the court officially pronounced the verdict. Of the "Seven Gentlemen," two were acquitted and five were sentenced to five years in prison and fined $5,000 for attempting to incite riots and contempt of court. After five appealed, the Federal Seventh Circuit overturned the first instance judgment in 1972 and criticized Hoffman for "the judge's clear bias, even confrontational attitude toward the defendant," especially the decision to tie the defendant up and shut his mouth, which was even more "appalling." After the case was retried, all the allegations of inciting riots were rejected, although the court still found that the actions of four of them constituted contempt of court and were exempt from criminal punishment.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >4, how did "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" shoot? </h1>
The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago, as the name suggests, is primarily about the trial.
Focusing only on the trial itself is obviously not enough to understand the deep meaning of this film. You have to know something about the story behind it, and then you have to look at the film to really understand the subtle character relationships and the meaning behind each line.
As for how the movie is, look at who the director and the lead actor are.
Director and screenwriter Alan Sorkin, is the god of the Hollywood screenwriting industry, he wrote the script including "Social Network", "Steve Jobs", "Penalty Into Gold", "Richard Wilson's War", etc., all of which are dense lines, and can write the plot a thousand times by lines alone.
"The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" was originally written to director Spielberg 13 years ago, but due to the strike of the Hollywood Writers Guild (WGA), the film stopped working just before filming began, and Director Si did not direct. After much going, and with Spielberg's encouragement, it was finally decided that Alan Sorkin would direct it himself.
As for the actors, 13 years have passed, and naturally there have been a lot of changes. After all, 13 years ago, a wave of young actors like Little Freckles Eddie Redmayne were still not famous.
However, Sasha Byron Cohen, who plays Abby Hoffman, was the one old man had chosen 13 years earlier. Sasha Byron Cohen was also obsessed with the film, and when he learned that Sorkin got the script, he quickly called to make sure he could continue to star. In addition to playing a hippie leader, this film is a more serious performance of his own, with many speech lines.
In 2020, Sasha Byron Cohen also starred in Borat 2, the sequel to Borat, which made him famous. This year, it was a small harvest year for him, and the main drama and comedy were all played, and the performance was not bad.
As mentioned above, Abby Hoffman was actually the protagonist of the whole trial, because the demonstration was originally initiated by him. However, the crowd that came, not only his "yuppies", but also the student group led by Tom Hayden, and the "hippies" exceeded Hoffman's expectations. Moreover, Abby Hoffman and Tom Hayden originally looked down on each other. However, during the long trial process, the two people actually approached each other ideologically and helped each other.
Eddie Redmayne's performance this time is a loss, not particularly prominent in the group drama, but there are also many highlights. Among the Seven Gentlemen, Hayden, played by Little Freckles, is relatively calm and introverted, but there are also several impassioned dialogues that show the nature of young people's impulsiveness and anger, but in the end he is still the clearest among several people.
As for the other actors, Giremy Strong's performance is the most comedic, and in addition to the hippie costume, the role is also the most impulsive and emotional; "Luceff" is slightly buried, because his role is slightly dull, far less energetic and mouthy than the seven-man defense lawyer William Kustler, who plays Mark Rylance, who is basically the most golden sentence in the film. And Michael Keaton, just a few minutes of scenes, the performance is full of tension, very exciting.
More scenes and more outstanding performances are Mark Rylance and Sasha Byron Cohen, and then Judge Julius Hoffman played by Frank Langla. It can even be said that Frank Langla is the most brilliant character in the whole film, and the Hoffman judge he plays is too much of a scene-stealing, very funny.
Frank Langla, as an old drama bone, once won an Oscar nomination for Nixon played by "Foster Dialogue Nixon", and is a very powerful actor.
As a political satire, "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" is still quite good.
In reality, the trial of the "Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" has caused the united states to reflect on judicial ethics and court order, and the relevant controversy has continued to this day. Questions about the conduct of the accused in court and the neutrality of the judges deserve to be revisited.
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was involved in the investigation of Judge Hoffman as a young man. He later concluded that the "Chicago Seven Gentlemen" incident touched him greatly and made him pay more attention to the importance of judicial independence. In his view, any judge should be low-key, deep, introverted, maintain independence, and not be easily controlled by ideology and anger. In addition, both parties and lawyers should respect the authority of the court and abide by the order of the court, and if they only want to manipulate and use public opinion to exert pressure on the judiciary, it will only cause a lose-lose situation between the judge and the defendant.
Yes, whether from the perspective of the main drama or from the perspective of satirical comedy, "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" is worth a good taste.
(Image from the Internet, copyright belongs to the original author)