Aaron Sorkin may be a genius screenwriter, especially when it comes to court drama, but I'm sure even he hadn't foreseen the connotations this 2020 film has in 2022, not in the States but on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
Another war is now being waged, and now another country thinks that sending its citizens to die for nothing but imperial ambitions of a delusional leader is something it can do and will get away with. The only difference is that now, more that 50 years after the events depicted in this film, the government doesn't even bother to have a trial for those who protest. They are just auto-convicted by people who would make Judge Julius Hoffman shed a blissful tear.
One could argue that The Trial of the Chicago 7 is too much of a black and white story, where (almost) every bad character is a total scumbag and (literally) every good character is, apart from a few antics, a true patriot and almost a saint. One could claim that it deprives the story of essential depth and relatability, that a really good film mandates having complex and controversial characters. But reality is sometimes simpler than the laws of fiction prescribe it to be. And some people are just generally good, probably because that the members of Chicago 7 were brought together not by some master plan but by their own personal ideas, values and principles, and those just so happened to be genuine.
Maybe (but I'm just assuming) the modern States aren't what they used to be during the Nixon time, so a story of a bunch of civil activists being prosecuted, wrongly convicted but then acquitted might not make a big splash. But until there remain to be parts of the world where such prosecutions keep taking place, it's important that we don't forget what fighting for something that matters looks like, and can keep the hope that truth can - and will - prevail alive. 50 years ago, the real Chicago 7 and their defense kept the hope alive for their generation. Today, it's Sorkin's turn to help our generation remember. That, and Sorkin's signature storytelling prowess, is enough to give this film all the love it can carry.
Another war is now being waged, and now another country thinks that sending its citizens to die for nothing but imperial ambitions of a delusional leader is something it can do and will get away with. The only difference is that now, more that 50 years after the events depicted in this film, the government doesn't even bother to have a trial for those who protest. They are just auto-convicted by people who would make Judge Julius Hoffman shed a blissful tear.
One could argue that The Trial of the Chicago 7 is too much of a black and white story, where (almost) every bad character is a total scumbag and (literally) every good character is, apart from a few antics, a true patriot and almost a saint. One could claim that it deprives the story of essential depth and relatability, that a really good film mandates having complex and controversial characters. But reality is sometimes simpler than the laws of fiction prescribe it to be. And some people are just generally good, probably because that the members of Chicago 7 were brought together not by some master plan but by their own personal ideas, values and principles, and those just so happened to be genuine.
Maybe (but I'm just assuming) the modern States aren't what they used to be during the Nixon time, so a story of a bunch of civil activists being prosecuted, wrongly convicted but then acquitted might not make a big splash. But until there remain to be parts of the world where such prosecutions keep taking place, it's important that we don't forget what fighting for something that matters looks like, and can keep the hope that truth can - and will - prevail alive. 50 years ago, the real Chicago 7 and their defense kept the hope alive for their generation. Today, it's Sorkin's turn to help our generation remember. That, and Sorkin's signature storytelling prowess, is enough to give this film all the love it can carry.
