With the US election still two weeks away, Netflix released a film with obvious political intentions, "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago". In the summer of 1968, the Chicago Democratic Convention was held, and seven civil rights activists organized a protest and were charged with conspiracy. In 1969, they underwent a six-month trial that became one of the most important civil rights movements in U.S. history.
Many people have linked the film to the reality of the United States to discuss its impact on the election. I would rather talk about the historical context of The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago— in the 1960s, young people around the world seemed to be wrapped up in a certain passion and engaged in all kinds of movements. Overnight, the world seemed to be going crazy.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Vietnam War</h1>
The events in The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago are caused by the expansion of the Vietnam War, and more young people are sent to the battlefield. At the end of the film, Hayden, one of the Seven Gentlemen, holds a notebook and reads out the names of one young man after another who died on the battlefield in Vietnam, most of them between the ages of 18 and 25, and such young people are still being transported to the battlefield by the U.S. government to participate in a meaningless war that has lasted for 14 years and will last for 6 years.
The Vietnam War was the longest-running war in U.S. history and had a profound impact on society as a whole. In addition to spending a lot of money, causing tens of thousands of deaths, and leading to a sharp economic downturn, the Vietnam War also exacerbated racial and civil rights problems in the United States, and the vigorous anti-war movement was surging at home, and the country was in a state of extreme division and pessimism. Since then, the ongoing economic downturn has spread.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > hippies</h1>
Hemingway created the "lost generation" in Still The Sun Rises, the generation that came after World War I; after World War II, Kerouac, who wrote On the Road, proposed the "Beat Generation"; and in the sixties, they became hippies. Whether it is the confused generation, the Beat generation, or the hippies, they are all people who are dissatisfied and disappointed in real life. Hippies pursue communal and wandering lifestyles, enjoy sex, love music, oppose mainstream culture, oppose the Vietnam War, are born rich, praise poverty, yearn for a simple and casual life, and they fight the world with an attitude of indifference and banter. Many hippies arrange flowers in their hair or hand out flowers to pedestrians, hence the name flower boy.
Abby Hoffman and Rubin in the play are representatives of hippies, who are exaggerated, maverick, cynical, ridicule the system, grandstanding, and are an important force in the anti-war movement. Abby and Rubin had burned paper money in front of the New York Stock Exchange, stuck daisies in the barrels of guns, and recommended a pig as a Democratic candidate... Although these behaviors attract attention, they also dissolve the seriousness and value of sports to a certain extent. On the bench, two men dressed in judge's and police uniforms, called Judge Dad (two with the same surname), fearless and cynical.
I love Abby's Q&A in court: "Do you have contempt for your government?" (Do you despise your government)" - "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)")
More than a decade later, Hoffman died of an overdose of phenobarbital (the police closed the case by suicide), and Rubin was hit by a car while crossing the street.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > civil rights movement</h1>
1968 was a magical year. France has a May storm, the Czech Republic has a Prague Spring, and the United States has a vigorous civil rights movement.
In 1955, Rosa Pax, a black woman who had been working hard all day, refused to give way to white people, kicking off the black civil rights movement. The bus boycott, which took place in Montgomery, Alabama, lasted a year and spread across the country. In 1957, the Southern Council of Christian Leaders was founded, the most influential organization of the civil rights movement, chaired by Martin Luther King Jr.
In August 1963, a crowd of 250,000 people gathered in the plaza in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., who listened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech, "I Have a Dream." Under pressure from public opinion, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, and policies of racial segregation and discrimination were deemed illegal. The civil rights movement reached its peak, and Martin Luther King Jr. became a thorn in the eye. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated while planning a strike, bringing to an end the black movement in the United States.
In "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago", there is another person, The Black Panther Party President Searle. Founded in 1966, this Black American society worshipped Chairman Mao, had a red book in his hands, and many of them joined the Communist Party of the United States. In contrast to Dr. King's nonviolent protests, the Black Panthers advocate countering violence with violence, buying guns and ammunition, arming themselves, and being a radical political community. In the film, Searle, who spent only four hours in Chicago and gave a speech to fight for black rights, was "incidentally" arrested. Throughout the trial, as a black man, he had neither a lawyer nor a voice, because contempt of court was covered, a stark reflection of the discrimination against blacks.
In addition to the black civil rights movement, there was also a thriving student movement.
There are two main organizations, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Student for Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In the film, Hayden, played by "Little Freckles", is the representative of SDS, and Abby Hoffman mentions that the Port Huron Declaration was written by Hayden and is one of the important declarations of the New Left. SDS is growing very fast, with more than 100,000 people, all over the country's major colleges and universities, and they are mostly white elites. During the Vietnam War, the SDS organized a large number of anti-Vietnam War protests, but did not receive a response from the government. Some members therefore advocated the use of violent means to achieve the goal, and there was disagreement and disagreement on this. In July 1969, after the trial in the film, another organization, the Weathermen, was split, an anti-war terrorist organization. After organizing several bombings, the group vanished.
In 1994, the United States made a classic film "Forrest Gump", the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, hippies... They all appear in this film. It was a typical Oscar-favorite film about the American spirit and dreams. 26 years later, "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago" was also scheduled to be an Oscar seed, and the middle of the poster reads "In 1968, democracy refused to back down", and the ideals and beliefs still exist.