The Trial of the Chicago 7 Quotes

  • Richard Schultz: On top of everything, we're giving them what they want: a stage and an audience.

  • Abbie Hoffman: That's right, we're not goin' to jail because of what we did, we're goin' to jail because of who we are!

  • Lee Weiner: This is the Academy Awards of protests and as far as I'm concerned it's an honor just to be nominated.

  • Tom Hayden: If blood is going to flow, let it flow all over this city!

  • [after being informed of Fred Hampton's murder]

    Bobby Seale: [to Tom Hayden] You've all got the same father, right? 'Cut your hair, don't be a fag, respect authority, respect America - respect me.' Your life, it's a 'fuck-you' to your father, right? A little?

    Tom Hayden: Maybe.

    Bobby Seale: Maybe. And you can see how that's different from a rope on a tree?

    Tom Hayden: [quietly] Yeah.

    Bobby Seale: Yeah. He was shot in the shoulder first. You can't aim a gun if you've been shot in the shoulder, you can't squeeze the trigger. Second shot was in his head. Fred was executed. Anything else?

    William Kunstler: No.

    [Bobby leaves the room without another word]

  • Bernadine: [answering the phone] Conspiracy Office, how can I help you?

    [pause]

    Bernadine: No sir, I am a white woman.

    [pause]

    Bernadine: Yeah, I've slept with several in my life so far, and on balance, I'd have to say yes, it is better, and to tell you the truth, I think that's a big part of what's got you worked up.

    Leonard Weinglass: Hang up the phone.

    Bernadine: It's not even so much that it's bigger, it's just better, you know what I mean?

    Leonard Weinglass: Hang up the phone.

    [she does]

    Leonard Weinglass: Was that a parting gift for Bobby?

    Bernadine: No. That was just for me.

  • Judge Julius Hoffman: And the record should reflect, that defendant Hoffman and I are not related.

    Abbie Hoffman: [sarcastic] Father, no!

    Judge Julius Hoffman: [bangs his gavel] Mr. Hoffman, are you familiar with contempt of court?

    Abbie Hoffman: It's practically a religion for me, sir.

  • Sondra: You can't give this speech in Chicago!

    Bobby Seale: Fred Hampton wants me there. Plane ticket.

    Sondra: Let Fred give the speech!

    Bobby Seale: Between Hayden and Hoffman there could be 5'000 people. It'd be nice to talk to 5'000 people.

    Sondra: Not while you're in trouble in Connecticut.

    Bobby Seale: Yes, well I'm in trouble - I'm the head of the Black Panthers, Sondra! When the hell am I not gonna be in trouble? Travel bag.

    Sondra: You're going to be in a lot more of it if you stand up and say 'Fry the pigs!'

    Bobby Seale: IF they attack me. You're taking it out of context.

    Sondra: So will every white person in America! Cops won't give a shit about context, and you don't have enough protection in Chicago.

    Bobby Seale: There's no place to be right now but in it.

    Sondra: But 'Fry the pigs'?

    Bobby Seale: IF they attack...

    Sondra: Dr. King...

    Bobby Seale: Is dead! He has a dream? Well now he has a fucking bullet in his head! Martin's dead, Malcom's dead, Medgar's dead, Bobby's dead, Jesus is dead. They tried it peacefully, we're gonna try something else.

  • John Mitchell: Richard, Chicago was more fucked up than any ten things I've seen in my life.

  • Bobby Seale: I'm the head of the Black Panthers, Sondra. When the hell am I not gonna be in trouble? Travel bag!

    Sondra: You're gonna be in a lot more of it if you stand up and say, "Fry the pigs."

    Bobby Seale: If they attack. You're takin' it out of context.

    Sondra: So will every white person in America. Cops won't give a shit about context, and you don't have enough protection in Chicago.

    Bobby Seale: There's no place to be right now but in it.

    Sondra: But "fry the pigs"?

    Bobby Seale: If they attack...

    Sondra: Dr. King...

    Bobby Seale: --Is dead. He has a dream? Now he has a fuckin' bullet in his head. Martin's dead, Malcolm's dead, Medgar's dead, Bobby's dead, Jesus is dead. They tried it peacefully. We gonna try something else.

  • Richard Schultz: Who started the riots? Was it the protesters or was it the police?

    John Mitchell: The police don't start riots.

    Richard Schultz: They'll have witnesses who say they started this one.

    John Mitchell: And you'll dismantle them, and you'll win, because, Mr. Schultz, that's what's expected of you.

  • Tom Hayden: What is that?

    Rennie Davis: I've been keeping a list every day. Americans who've been killed since the day we were arrested.

    Tom Hayden: Why?

    Rennie Davis: With the trial starting, it might get easy to forget who this is about.

  • Judge Julius Hoffman: Mr. Hoffman, are you familiar with contempt of court?

    Abbie Hoffman: It's practically a religion for me, sir.

  • Reporter Jack: Why won't Bobby Seale let anyone represent him?

    Jerry Rubin: You've posed that question in the form of a lie.

  • William Kunstler: Maybe you don't want to call it the Conspiracy Office.

    Bernadine: They understand the irony, and appreciate the humour.

    William Kunstler: I wouldn't count on it.

    Bernadine: Most people are smart, Bill.

    William Kunstler: Well, if you believe that, you'll get your heart broken every day of your life.

  • Reporter Jack: How much is it worth to you? What's your price?

    Abbie Hoffman: To call off the revolution?

    Reporter Jack: What's your price?

    Abbie Hoffman: My life.

  • William Kunstler: We've dealt with jury tampering, wiretapping, a defendant that was literally gagged, and a judge who's been handing down rulings from the bench that would be considered wrong in Honduras, so I'm a little less interested in the law than I was when this trial began.

  • Abbie Hoffman: Winning elections, that's the first thing on your wish list? Equality, justice, education, poverty and progress, they're second?

    Tom Hayden: If you don't win elections, it doesn't matter what's second. And it is astonishing to me that someone still has to explain that to you.

  • William Kunstler: Do you know why you're on trial here?

    Abbie Hoffman: We carried certain ideas across state lines. Not machine guns or drugs or little girls. Ideas. When we crossed from New York to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Illinois, we had certain ideas. And for that, we were gassed, beaten, arrested, and put on trial.

  • Abbie Hoffman: This is a political trial that was already decided for us. Ignoring that reality is just weird to me.

    William Kunstler: There are civil trials, and there are criminal trials. There's no such thing as a political trial.

    Abbie Hoffman: [scoffs] Okay...

  • Richard Schultz: Do you have contempt for your government?

    Abbie Hoffman: I think the institutions of our democracy are wonderful things, that right now are populated by some terrible people.

    Richard Schultz: Please answer the question.

    Abbie Hoffman: Tell me again?

    Richard Schultz: Do you have contempt for your government?

    Abbie Hoffman: I'll tell you, Mr. Schultz, it's nothing compared to the contempt my government has for me.

  • Abbie Hoffman: In 1861, Lincoln said in his inaugural address: 'When the people shall grow weary of their constitutional right to amend their government, they shall exert their revolutionary right to dismember and overthrow that government.' And if Lincoln had given that speech in Lincoln Park last summer, he'd be put on trial with the rest of us.

    William Kunstler: So, how do you overthrow or dismember, as you say, your government peacefully?

    Abbie Hoffman: In this country, we do it every four years.

  • Tom Hayden: Are we using the trial to defend ourselves against very serious charges that could land us in prison for ten years, or to say a pointless "fuck you" to the establishment?

    Jerry Rubin: Fuck you!

    Tom Hayden: That is what I was afraid... Wait, I don't know if you were saying "fuck you" or answering.

    Abbie Hoffman: ...I was also confused.

  • William Kunstler: Of course, because you took that black guy and you made him a sympathetic character.

    Judge Julius Hoffman: Mr. Kunstler, I have lived a a very long time, sir, and you're the first person ever to suggest that I have discriminated against a black man!

    Leonard Weinglass: Then let the record show that I am the second.

  • Lee Weiner: It's almost hard to believe the seven of us weren't able to end a war.

  • Ramsey Clark: I'm in private practice now, and if John Mitchell wants to cut me in half, he can and he will.

    Tom Hayden: You have to find some... Sir, you have to find some courage now.

    Ramsey Clark: Find some courage? Yeah.

    Tom Hayden: Yes. You have to find some courage, and...

    Leonard Weinglass: [silencing him] Tom.

    Ramsey Clark: [points at Kelly and Ackerman] That's what those two men came to tell me, that if John Mitchell wants to cut me in half, he can and he will. So I wanted them in the room when I said 'When do you want me in court?'

    Howard Ackerman: [standing in surprise] Mr. Clark?

    William Kunstler: I'm sorry?

    Ramsey Clark: Swear me in, Bill.

    Howard Ackerman: It is against the law for you to testify, Ramsey. It is as simple as that.

    Ramsey Clark: It's General Clark. And arrest me or shut the fuck up.

    Ramsey Clark: [turns to Hayden] Found some.

  • Abbie Hoffman: You think we were responsible?

    Richard Schultz: I think you got the result you were looking for.

    Abbie Hoffman: So did Nixon.

    Richard Schultz: How about that.

  • Richard Schultz: When you came to Chicago, were you hoping for a confrontation with the police?

    [pause]

    Richard Schultz: I'm concerned you have to think about it.

    Abbie Hoffman: Give me a moment, would you, friend? I've never been on trial for my thoughts before.

  • Detective Deluca: [to Tom] Don't fuckin' move.

    Detective Bell: [also to Tom] On your feet.

    Tom Hayden: Those are two contradictory instructions.

  • Agent Daphne O'Connor: Jerry, do you know why the French only eat one egg for breakfast?

    Jerry Rubin: No.

    Agent Daphne O'Connor: Because in France, one egg... is un oeuf.

  • Abbie Hoffman: [to Dave, Jerry , Rennie, Daphne and their supporters about the crowd behind them] Keep 'em movin'. Dave and I are gonna to stay and make Tom's bail.

    Rennie Davis: [shouting to the crowd] Back to the park.

    Abbie Hoffman: [quietly to Dave] I don't carry money, do you?

    David Dellinger: I do. I'm a grown man.

  • [last lines]

    Crowd: [voice over, shouting] "The whole world is watching."

  • [first lines]

    Lyndon B. Johnson: I have today ordered to Vietnam the Airmobile Division, and certain other forces which will raise our fighting strength from seventy-five thousand to one hundred twenty-five thousand men almost immediately. This will make it necessary to increase our active fighting forces by raising the monthly draft call from seventeen thousand to thirty-five thousand.

  • Walter Cronkite: A Democratic Convention is about to begin... in a police state. There just doesn't seem to be any other way to say it.

  • Abbie Hoffman: A guy once said, "I am come to set a man at variance with his father. And the daughter against her mother." You know who said it? It was Jesus Christ. Matthew 10:34"

  • Abbie Hoffman: I don't carry money, do you?

    David Dellinger: I do. I'm a grown man.

  • Lee Weiner: Think it's possible that there were seven protesters in Chicago last summer leading 10,000 undercover cops in protest?

Extended Reading
  • Martina 2022-03-26 09:01:05

    I wrote the news about this film seven years ago. Sorkin began to write the script in 2008. The first time he was going to shoot it for Spielberg, he even changed three major directors. . It has been delayed until the eve of this year's general election, and it just happened to have a new era significance. The film does not show the crazy performance art of Epis, and almost all of the space is devoted to his best literary and opera lines, and the machine gun-like intensive shooting. "The way is different but the direction is the same", "If our blood is gonna flow, let it flow all over the city", "Do you want to overthrow the government peacefully? We do it every four years", "Compared to the government's treatment of me Contempt, my contempt for it is not worth mentioning", "All world is watching!" Closing statement read 4752 names

  • Alexandrine 2022-03-24 09:01:43

    It is too difficult for the United States to engage in political persecution and trials of its citizens.