As Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of The Chicago 7 recounts events in the United States in 1968 and 1969, it tells a very American story about t...
As Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of The Chicago 7 recounts events in the United States in 1968 and 1969, it tells a very American story about the Vietnam War and the counterculture movement. And yet, the ideas highlighted in the film about the importance of dissent and the imperative to stand up against injustice, especially when committed by the government, have universal resonance.
The Netflix original film is based on the trial of eight activists of various political persuasions who had gathered in Chicago with thousands of others in August 1968 to protest against the Democratic National Convention. The protesters were part of the larger anti-Vietnam War movement that was roiling America in the late 1960s. The American President, the Democrat Lyndon B Johnson, was being intensely criticised for persisting with an increasingly meaningless war, one that was claiming the lives of numerous young American soldiers.
On August 28, 1968, violence broke out during a face-off between protesters and the Chicago police. In 1969, a new American president was sworn in – the Republican Richard Nixon. Under him, the Justice Department set out to make an example of the eight activists arrested for allegedly inciting the violence.
The trial unfolded in 1969 before a deeply prejudiced judge,...
