![]() Abbie HoffmanĪs played with resounding cynicism by Sacha Baron Cohen, Aaron Sorkin’s Abbie Hoffman convincingly proves you can turn contempt for court into a religion. That’s all well and good, but what happened afterward? A handful of freeze frames and sentences worth of bite-sized information tells us a little bit of what came next for each major player in the trial, but not enough. It doesn’t change anything, other than maybe Hayden’s sentence, but the audience can savor the good fight against corrosive authority, so perfectly personified by Langella’s judge. It’s a symbolic act of defiance, and a welcome one that sends the court into temporary pandemonium. Instead Hayden attempts to read off the names of every American who died in Vietnam since this sham trial began. Tom Hayden ( Eddie Redmayne) is all but promised a lenient sentence by the vindictive, and potentially senile, Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), provided he offers a contrite statement before the court. After spending more than two hours witnessing a gross miscarriage of justice that seemed to suggest the deck is stacked against those the establishment deems “radical” or “extreme,” Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 ends with the smallest of victories being given Hollywood heft. In February 1970, five of the seven were found guilty, but an appeals court overturned the convictions in the fall of 1972, citing Judge Hoffman’s procedural errors and his overt hostility to the defendants.It’s a strangely feel-good finale. The Chicago Eight thus became the Chicago Seven. In particular, Seale’s manner of conducting his own defense led to his spending three days in court bound and gagged his case was then declared a mistrial, and he was sentenced to four years for contempt of court. ![]() Prosecutor Thomas Foran and Judge Julius Hoffman clashed continually with the defendants. ![]() William Kunstler-lawyer for all the defendants except Seale-attributed the violence to official overreaction rather than conspiracy and brought singers, artists, and activists into court to explain what the demonstrators found troubling about American society. While Weathermen, (a splinter group) proclaimed “Days of Rage” in the streets outside, the prosecution stressed the defendants’ provocative rhetoric and subversive intentions. The five-month trial of the Chicago Eight began in September. In the end, some ten thousand or so demonstrators gathered-enough to trigger a week of violent confrontations with the police, including one later termed by a federal commission a “police riot.” Johnson, as a candidate for reelection and Chicago mayor Richard Daley’s increasingly threatening public statements about maintaining order, the appeal to “come to Chicago” became more muted. But with the withdrawal of their principal target, President Lyndon B. There were originally eight defendants: David Dellinger, a pacifist and chairman of the National Mobilization against the War Tom Hayden and Rennie Davis, leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, leaders of the Youth International Party John Froines and Lee Weiner, local Chicago organizers and Bobby Seale, cofounder of the Black Panther Party.Įxcept for the Panthers, who were uninvolved from the start, all the groups represented had planned massive demonstrations during convention week. In February 1970, five of the seven were found guilty, but an appeals court overturned the convictions in 1972. The case drew national attention for the artists and activists that testified as witnesses, as well as defendant Bobby Seale’s actions, which earned him four years in prison for contempt of court. ![]() During the five-month trial, the prosecution stressed the defendants’ provocative rhetoric and subversive intentions, while the defense attributed the violence to official overreaction. The Chicago Seven (originally eight) were political radicals accused of conspiring to incite the riots that occurred at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. ![]()
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