When a nation's judiciary wants you guilty – The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago

There is an old Saying in China that Xiucai rebelled, and it didn't take three years, and "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" is exactly the story of such a group of Xiucai rebelling and then being publicly tried. I also went out of my way to search for the "Seven Gentlemen of Chicago", but according to Baidu Encyclopedia, it was more like a farce. It seems that the composition of film art processing is still very large, of course, this does not affect my strong recommendation of this movie, how to say that it is also a big hit at this year's Oscars, at least the best screenwriter and best supporting actor can not run.

A brief introduction to the film, the story takes place in Chicago in the United States in 1968, when it was decided to elect the president of the United States. A group of people with lofty ideals decided to come here to rally and march, hoping that the government would end the Vietnam War. Riots broke out during the rally, and the local government arrested seven people who took the lead for trial. The beginning of the film is to introduce the current situation of the US authorities and several important people who will be tried, although nominally "seven gentlemen", but in fact eight people were tried, and a black brother was mistakenly pulled in and tried together, and later found that it was not a file of things to temporarily withdraw his trial, which is also funny. In addition, two of the seven people on trial belonged to the dragon runner characters and were eventually acquitted, so more scenes in the film were left to the remaining five people.

Of course, in addition to the five judges, there are also three people who have more shots, one is a judge who can do whatever he wants, his acting skills are very good, in addition to the characters in the movie who want to beat him, I, an outsider, also want to donate some bricks to those who want to beat him. The second is richard, the involuntary prosecutor, a figure of the tangled type, on the one hand, his position determines that he wants to be a prosecutor, but deep down he is on the side of the indictee. The last one is Bill, a defense lawyer with a strong sense of justice, an old pedantic figure who thought the law was just.

The film is mainly about the trial process, so the main scene is in the courtroom, and the other is the memory scene when the witness statements. There was not much verbal conflict between the prosecution and the defence, the main conflict focused on judges and prisoners, as well as lawyers. Although the defense counsel justifiably showed that the defendant did not incite the riots, and later proved that the police moved first, the defendant was finally found guilty with the joint efforts of the Justice and other authorities.

The story is probably the content of this, the before and after changes in the characters' thoughts and behaviors are a major point of view, here is a brief description of the changes before and after the characters: (serious spoilers)

First of all, let's talk about Tom, who represents the student group, this character belongs to more ideas, but the courage is smaller. He had an opinion and wanted to change the status quo in the United States through revolution. At first, I looked down on the hippie duo, thinking that they just wanted to gain attention and profit through this demonstration. Tom's idea should always be to protect himself, and there are two plots in the movie that show this. However, after seeing his friend injured by the police, the previous concept changed, especially at the end of the movie, when the judge frantically implied that he could take care of him as long as he closed the case mildly and cut it short, he took out the list of Vietnam War deaths that his friend had been recording, began to read it aloud, and then the court boiled, and the judge's crazy hammer made him stop, but to no avail.

The second person whose thinking changed more before and after was the defense lawyer Bill, a pedantic defense lawyer who initially denied the so-called political crimes, and felt that he could completely use his own knowledge to make the indictees retreat. But when he saw the removal of jurors who favored them, the justices turned a deaf ear to the obvious evidence, and refused to appear in court as witnesses in his favor, he finally believed in the claim of political crimes. To express his displeasure, he angrily slammed the thick code on the table, but instead received a warning of contempt of court, and the steadiness he showed at first was suddenly gone, and some were only angry.

Another contrast is David, the leader of the anti-Vietnam War mobilization, who at the beginning of the film always tells his son that it is non-violent and advocates peaceful means to solve the problem. But when the judge refused to testify before the former U.S. Attorney General, he finally couldn't bear to stand up and accuse the judge of his unfair practices. When he was stopped by the guards, he hit the guards with his hands, and after the beating, he found that it was not right, and he quickly apologized. Then look at the son in the audience, overwhelmed. It seems that in the face of injustice, the good old man will not be able to bear it. However, it is said that this actor looks familiar, as if he is the bald prison guard in "Prison Break".

The last thing to say is the hippie Huffman, who is the funny guy in it, and finally became a witness to help Tom attend. On the witness stand, he changed his usual hip-hop image to become a philosopher, and cleverly avoided the prosecutor's problems by using roundabout tactics, and finally helped Tom escape the disaster. The character's image as a witness and as a defendant is very different, and he admires Tom, although at first he doesn't look at each other.

Well, let's say so much, and finally remind me, because there are many characters, a lot of dialogue you may not be able to resist, and if you are not careful, you may not know what the person just said. Therefore, when watching this movie, it is recommended to pay attention, otherwise you may look at it and you will be in the clouds and do not know what to do. Yes, it was like that when I first started watching it, so much so that a few times in the middle I had to fall backwards.