Believe me, if you don't know much about the history of America in the 1960s and the present in America, watching "The Trial of the Chicago Seven", you will miss a lot of important information and even be a little tormented.
Writer and director Alan Sorkin's style is so obvious! The amount of information is huge, as if the lines have been opened at double speed, the unstoppable preaching during the dialogue, the light-hearted and very neat narrative rhythm, the "blind" optimistic American humor... The play of more than two hours, do you understand the history of the United States? The guided viewing experience is completely different.
Clearly, Alan Sorkin has no intention of educating the audience too much. The film begins with a 7-minute, high-spirited background music interspersed with a large number of real historical images - President Lyndon Johnson signing the Vietnam Act, black civil rights leader Martin Luther King being stabbed The death of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.
Taking this as a trigger, before the Democratic National Convention held in Chicago in 1968, student organizations, hippies, Black Panthers, and civil anti-war activists took to the streets to express their demands and ambitions. Unexpectedly, the peaceful protest eventually turned into a bloody conflict. All the protesters were therefore given a common name-"radical leftists" who "intended to destroy American society", and were accused after the new government came to power after a lapse of one year. Conspiracy to incite violence.
This is equivalent to a prequel to the whole story. In the next two hours, the film centers on the trial court, revolving around the core question of "who caused the riot, the protesters, or the police", to restore the truth of the riot.
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Alan Sorkin mentioned in an interview that he likes to compress time and space in his works, "When you bring a new puppy home, people will say, prepare a crate of an appropriate size so that the dog can Turns over, but if the space is too big, it gets scared. So when I write, that's what I do with it. That's why I love courtroom dramas, everything is ready in the house, you don't have to go out. "
The limited space may reduce the difficulty of the scene scheduling, but on the other hand, how to make the story in the limited space not boring, especially in the group portrait scene, it will test the skills of the screenwriter and director.
But even the less important members of the "Seven Gentlemen" were accurately portrayed by Sorkin with a few strokes. For example, Lee Wyner joked that although he did not understand why he was accused, he participated in the protest circle. Oscar prize. Civil anti-war activist David Dellinger was a gentle father. After he accidentally beat the bailiff in court, he said sorry twice, once to the bailiff and once to his son in the gallery.
"Little Freckles" Eddie Redmayne plays the student democracy leader Tom Hayden, and the hippie youth International Party founder Abbie Hoffman, who are the most fleshed out characters in this film. Role.
The diversity of Abby Hoffman lies in the fact that he seems to be bohemian on the surface, smoking marijuana, saying that he went to Chicago to "play a gun", and using the media to attract attention, but in fact he is the most transparent one among the trial personnel. It was pointed out from the beginning that this was the nature of a "political trial". Abby's line design, such as the prosecutor asked Abby if he despised the government, he responded "far less than the government despised me"; when asked by the prosecutor if he wanted conflict when he came to Chicago, he answered after a few seconds " Let me think about it, my mind has never been tried"...all almost nakedly present Sorkin's positioning of the hippie group--
His outrageous, absurd, and cynical behavior is actually a resistance to the authority of the system, and the use of media power is regarded as a necessary means to realize the cultural revolution. To a large extent, Abby is a middle-aged Hayden who lost his confidence in the system. He has read Hayden's "Port Huron Declaration" and admired Hayden's talent. He is as patriotic as Hayden. The brief settlement at the end of the court testimony.
As a comparison with Abby, Tom Hayden's character growth arc is more obvious. Looking back, it is completely predictable for him to summarize his speech and read the names of more than 4,000 American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War. In the first half of the film, Hayden showed a very different attitude from the other defendants: he cut his hair to win the judge's good impression, thinking that the hippies were tricks and would make the revolution out of focus. The judge broke the agreement when he stood up to salute. And all of these goals are to avoid prison.
The mutation occurred when the president of the Black Panther Party branch was deliberately "executed" instead of being shot to death. The Black Panther Party leader exposed this fact in court, which led to beatings and silence. The camera flashed over Hayden's face. He thought of the day of the riot, The actions of the bailiffs to take off their badges and nameplates. Both scenes symbolize the injustice and disparity of power confronting the two sides. At the same time, Hayden's respect and illusions for the system are slowly disintegrating.
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The advantages are also the disadvantages, and Sorkin's political intentions are too obvious.
If the trial in the movie is a "political trial", "The Trial of the Chicago Seven" is also a political trial of current politics. The problem with the film is that it overemphasizes the opposition of the "decent-villain" binary values. When all the decent characters are so peaceful and thoughtful, while the villains are stupid and bad, it will lead to a more complicated presentation that could have been presented. Issues tend to be single, and characters tend to be labelled.
When the forefoot partner proposed to read the list of victims when he proposed to summarize the statement, Hayden said with embarrassment and emphasized that "the judge will sentence us, this is a trial", we can almost be sure that he will slap himself in the face and become the representative of everyone. The person who summarizes the statement (the details of the reading list do not exist in real history). For another example, Lee Wyner didn't understand why he was accused, and Abby was arranged to explain at the end of the film. There is also David Dellinger's apology for accidentally hitting the police in court, which also echoes his promise to his son at the beginning; Hayden taunted Abby "Without war there would be no Abby Hoffman", followed by two people Dialogue and understanding. Every plot has questions and answers, neat like obsessive-compulsive disorder, as if afraid that the audience will have a little misunderstanding of those "decent characters".
The most typical is the revelation of the rioters. Seeing that his companion was beaten by the police, Hayden said to his followers "if it is destined to bleed, let the blood flow all over the city", causing the crowd to riot. But in fact, the subject of "Blood" is the protesters themselves, not the police. His original intention is that if the protesters are beaten by the police, they should be seen by the public. This kind of design makes sense, but think about it, the people who are the most reluctant to violent revolution and the most respectful of the system have caused a bloody conflict. This is such a tense and speculative film material, but it is captured by a text The game is "washed out" in an absurd, understated way.
In contrast, Judge Julius Hoffman is a complete villain. Banning black people from speaking, deleting interrogation content that is beneficial to the defendant, manipulating jury members, giving the defendant a "contempt of court" warning at every turn, and even from the very beginning, he showed a state of unprovoked provocation- In order to clarify that there were two Hoffmans in court, he interrupted the prosecutor's speech.
But contrary to the movie clip, the real Julius Hoffman is not a conservative. When he was a judge, he once wrote an article severely criticizing the "McCarthyism" that wanted to frame and persecute citizens, and asserted, "Even if we are facing a huge threat, we should find a better response than giving up our rights. If you voluntarily give up our rights in order to catch those who threaten our rights as soon as possible, it is like looting a person’s property first to prevent him from being stolen in the future.” McCarthyists, who have become courtrooms, also have more room for discussion.
In fact, in reality, the first person to attack is not a judge. According to the data, in the political atmosphere at that time, the defendant did not intend to regard the court as a trial venue at all, but turned the trial into a "political show" with the help of mass media and auditors. At the beginning of the trial, the defendant Bobby Seale insulted the judge as "stupid pig" and "fascist dog".
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As a veteran screenwriter, Sorkin is unlikely to be unaware of the labelling problem of villains. A common view is that Sorkin wants to design this way, and the narrative of history is not the point, the important thing is to talk about the past and the present.
According to Sorkin's interview, in 2006, director Spielberg invited him to participate in the scriptwriting of "The Trial of the Chicago Seven", and wanted to promote the release of the film before Bush's re-election in 2008. "But, we have now 12 years late. But again, this time before a crucial election." According to rumors, in order to be released before the polling day of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, "The Trial of the Chicago Seven" gave up its theatrical release and switched to online streaming.
In Sorkin's eyes, Trump "is a cartoon thug, a stupid hooligan, and a visible psychopath." Trump tweeted: Incitement to violence across state lines is a federal crime, He didn't add that there has only been one time in American history that someone has been charged with that crime (the one depicted in the movie)," noting the sign people held up in 1968 had been heard many times over the past three years.
Obviously, the United States in 1968 has many similarities with the United States today, such as fishing enforcement by law enforcement agencies, the "Black Lives Matter" movement triggered by the Floyd case, and the President taking the opportunity to appoint new justices, etc. Sorkin makes such a film, it is a well-planned tactical attack, trying to use a story from fifty years ago to make his position (anti-authoritarian patriarchy, anti-racism, refer to the Black Panther Party leader Bobby West. Conversation with Hayden), changing the direction of the votes.
Sorkin's wish came true, and Trump didn't win re-election, though it's unclear how much his film played a role in it.
But what is certain is that in order to achieve this, Sorkin's perception of Trump has been attributed to Judge Julius Hoffman, who has repeatedly warned others in exasperation of "contempt of court". Trump tweeting frantically. Including the end of the film, it should also be one of Sorkin's means to realize his wish-the list of more than 4,000 victims of the Vietnam War, Hayden read one by one. It is very commercial and sensational enough. Like the audience, many audience members in front of the screen could not help but cheer.
References:
Insights, "Losing Both Judge and Defendant: The Trial of the "Chicago Seven"
Poison, it's really important that "Spielberg: The Trial of the Chicago Seven" can be released before the US election! 》
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