The Trial of the Chicago 7..Now on Netflix...Sasha Baron Cohen as Abby Hoffman

[asiliveandbreathe]

Excellent, smart, funny, and disturbing..actual footage included in the making by Aaron Sorkin..although only half way thru, I can feel the racism in the courtroom jump off the screen..1968, the shooting of MLK, Bobby Kennedy..and the escalation of the VN war, by way of the increase in the draft numbers ..DNC convention Chicago IL

I have included links - Where are they now..

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12940050/who-chicago-7-where-they-now

and was Bobby Seal really bound and gagged in courtroom...

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trial-chicago-7-fact-check-162653175.html

BTW..what happened in '68, is happening in so many cities this year..

[underpants]

1. I knew this was Sorkin but Cohen????

Oh that looks great.

[asiliveandbreathe]

2. Cohen is masterful...n/t

[eleny]

3. I'm glad they did a good job

Been looking forward to it.

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. The actual footage of them working the draft lottery, like bingo balls ..

[eleny]

5. I forgot about that!

[catchnrelease]

6. Reviews

I heard some reviews of this on local public station this morning and they raved about Cohen's part in it. Said it is the first time he's been given a real, serious part to play and he apparently nailed it. The whole thing was given thumbs up. I'm looking forward to watching.

[asiliveandbreathe]

7. Sasha Baron Cohen is just so talented..another serious Cohen is in the

movie "The Spy"...based on the life of Israel spy Eli Cohen...enjoy....

[OAITW r.2.0]

10. He channeled Abby Hoffman, IMHO.

As did the guy who played Jerry Rubin.

This will be 2 shows in one week where I will watch Cohen and be totally amazed...

[bif]

8. Really enjoying it.

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through it.

[OAITW r.2.0]

9. 1/2 way through it and took a break.....

Last edited Tue Oct 20, 2020, 11:33 PM - Edit history (1)

to see if anyone had started a thread yet. Truly an inspirational film and is so relevant to our world today. Really great acting and the film draws out what the trail was all about. Nixon's 1st shot at creating a fascist state.

Paused it on the scene when Kuntsler meets Ramsey Clark. Should be an epic moment!

On edit: Micheal Keaton as Ramsey Clarke!

Should be a must watch for every Democrat today....

[catchnrelease]

11. Stunning

I watched it last night and it blew me away! I couldn't believe how the trial was run. Frank Langella was excellent as well as the rest of the cast. Now I want to go read more about it all and see how true to events the film is.

I would have been around 19 when this happened and when watching I kept thinking 'how did I not know about this at the time?' I was just starting college and I guess was overwhelmed with all of that and it didn't register with me. I do remember campus protests and Kent State etc but somehow this trial was not on my radar. It almost doesn't seem like we've come very far since then.

[nuxvomica]

12. Entertaining, rousing and relevant

This movie boasts juicy Andrew Sorkin dialogue and wonderful acting, especially by Cohen who steals the show as the very reincarnation of Abbie Hoffman. Sorkin makes the central dramatic conflict between the impudent cultural revolution of Hoffman and the more respectful politics of Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), a conflict played out against the horrifying treatment of Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) almost like a book-club argument near a war zone. There's a great exchange where Hayden ridicules Hoffman for being the guy who trades the cow for the magic beans and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong, whom I was late to recognize as the rich heir from Succession) pipes in that there really was a giant at the end of the beanstalk after all -- that's progressive politics in a nutshell. I swear the leading point of all this was for a scene where Judge Hoffman (Frank Langella) worries about having former Attorney General Ramsey Clark (Michael Keaton) testify about a conversation he had had with President Johnson, and Clark's instructive response. But what was most disturbingly familiar to the present day was a scene where the defendants stop arguing with each other to watch a list of Vietnam casualties scroll down a TV screen, reminding me of our solemn daily reckoning of COVID victims. It's like we are always fighting the same battles even though the heroes and villains look surprisingly different in every era.

[KarenS]

13. I'm late to the party on this,,,, We watched The Trial of the Chicago 7 last night,,,,

what a fantastic movie,,,, sad & scary & so very applicable to today,,,, He who sets the narrative controls the conversation.

[NRaleighLiberal]

14. just watched it tonight. brilliant movie - and chilling to how similar things are now and then, in

various ways.

What really is clear is that republicans and democrats - conservatives and liberals - simply see the world, humanity, people - very very differently.