History Film / TheTrialOfTheChicago7

* ChekovsGun: Rennie writing a list of the dead of the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar accumulating over the course of the trial. Hayden [[spoiler:reads all 5,000+ names collected by the end in his sentencing statement to frustrate the judge]].

* PetTheDog: Fitting with his AntiVillain status, Richard Schultz is shown to be a loving father when he’s not working.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether:
** The defendants are from a number of different movements on the left. They frequently argue over whether peaceful or militant tactics are more likely to actually achieve their goals, whether to try and work within the system or completely defy it, and whether presenting themselves as professionals or openly radical helps or hurts in getting support.

* DoubleStandard: Bobby Seale speaks out and gets a dehumanizing beating and gagging. David Dellinger ''beats up a guard'' and is otherwise treated much better. Take a guess why the former got the worse treatment.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_20200913_200359.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Whole World is Watching!]]

* BiggerBad: Attorney General John N. Mitchell, who orders Schultz to prosecute the Eight to make an example of them.

In 1969 Federal prosecutor Richard Schultz (Creator/JosephGordonLevitt) is bluntly ordered against his advice by the new Judge Advocate General of the UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Administration to make examples of a group of leftist troublemakers for their supposed role in causing trouble in Chicago in 1968.

'''''The Trial of the Chicago 7''''' is a 2020 [[HistoricalFiction historical drama]] written and directed by Creator/AaronSorkin and starring Creator/EddieRedmayne and Creator/SachaBaronCohen about the 1969-70 trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti-Vietnam War protesters indicted for conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film was produced by Creator/ParamountPictures and Creator/DreamWorks (and the latter company's first streaming original), and ultimately sold to Creator/{{Netflix}} in light of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic making a lucrative theatrical distribution impossible.

-->'''Judge Hoffman:''' It should be noted that the defendant Hoffman is not my son.\\

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Judge Hoffman commands Tom Hayden for being the only defendant who has behaved responsibly throughout the trial. Hayden is visibly mortified by Hoffman's perspective of him and promptly defies his orders during his final statement.

** SelfPlagiarism: Sorkin used that same joke in an episode of ''Series/TheWestWing''.

* OohMeAccentIsSlipping: Baron Cohen's command of Abbie Hoffman's New England accent is noticeably shakier than the other British actors playing Americans.

* ChekovsGun: Rennie writing a list of the dead of the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar accumulating over the course of the trial. Hayden [[spoiler:reads all 5000+ names collected by the end in his sentencing statement to frustrate the judge]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Invoked; Sorkin cited several recent events, chief among them the George Floyd protests, as a catalyst for making the film. The filmmaking reflects that.

* TokenGoodTeammate: An InUniverse example, where Judge Hoffman believes Tom Hayden is the only defendant who has behaved responsibly throughout the trial. [[spoiler:[[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame Hayden responds to this with a verbal middle finger by reading off the names of the thousands of men who died in Vietnam up to that point.]]]]

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The film's audio fades out from Hayden's reading of the names to give brief sentence summaries of what happened after the trial in general and to the main defendants in their lives.

'''''The Trial of the Chicago 7''''' is a 2020 [[HistoricalFiction historical drama]] directed by Creator/AaronSorkin and starring Creator/EddieRedmayne and Creator/SachaBaronCohen about the 1969-70 trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti-Vietnam War protesters indicted for conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film was produced by Creator/ParamountPictures and Creator/DreamWorks (and the latter company's first streaming original), and ultimately sold to Creator/{{Netflix}} in light of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic making a lucrative theatrical distribution impossible.

As for those defendants, they are divided into multiple camps with three being moderates like Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis and David Dellinger and the radical Yippies of Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Meanwhile, two other defendants, Lee Weiner and John Froines, are at best tangentially involved in the incident if at all and the one African-American co-defendant, Black Panther chairman Bobby Seale, was definitely not involved at all.

What follows is a drawn out trial with the moderates not only frustrated by the Yippies' defiant antics undermining their case, but dealing with Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation to Abbie) who is obviously biased against them. Meanwhile Seale, who was denied legal counsel of his own choosing for the trial since his preferred lawyer is sick, is forced to protest to almost no avail.

* AntiVillain: Richard Schultz seems to bear no ill will towards the defendants, he advises against moving forward with the trial, [[PetTheDog he’s shown to love his daughters,]] [[EveryoneHasStandards he’s appalled by Judge Hoffman’s treatment of Bobby Seale,]] and he evens [[spoiler: stands with the defendants in honor of the dead soldiers of Vietnam]]. [[PunchClockVillain The only thing he’s guilty of is doing his job.]]

** In the film, Bobby Seale's case is declared a mistrial almost immediately after he's dragged back to court in a gag and chains, which is a compression from reality--he was brought into court this way for several ''days''.

** An even more noticeable example with Bobby Seale whose in the trial with the Chicago Seven, even though he has zero affiliation with them. He’s noted as only being there so that his presence as a [[ScaryBlackMan Black Panther]] makes the others look guilty.

** David Dellinger comes across as quite possibly the most likable of the defendants, being highly opposed to violence. But once the months long trial has taken its toll on him and he’s repeatedly manhandled by security, he loses his composure and punches an officer.
** Tom Hayden is noted for being much more moderate than the likes of Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, but when he sees his friend Rennie Davis being beaten by the police, he loses it and goes on a passionate rant. An unfortunate example since [[spoiler: due to a miscommunication on his part, this leads to a riot and his arrest]].

* CourtroomAntics: Hoffman and Rubin provide plenty of those for a legal system they have utter contempt for. The standout example comes when they come in dressed in judges' robes, are asked to remove them, and then [[RefugeInAudacity reveal they're wearing police costumes beneath them.]]
* CrusadingLawyer: Legendary civil rights attorney William Kunstler. "High-Priced Lawyers are working for free. [[ProBonoBarter It is the support-staff..."]]

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: In real life, Richard Schultz was not the PunchClockVillain as portrayed in the movie, but was just as gung ho to win the case, and as antagonistic towards the defendants, as the Nixon administration was. In the real trial he complained to the judge about the defendants' behavior on multiple occasions and in an interview about this film he blamed the mistreatment of Bobby Seale on the defense's tactics.

* {{Jerkass}}: Judge Hoffman is a corrupt judge whose already decided to find the defendants guilty before the case has begun, and does everything he can to ruin their chances of appearing innocent, denying Seale the basic legal right to have legal counsel of his own choice, getting rid of jury members on their side, refusing to allow the jury to see a major witness who could turn the tide of the case, and then there’s [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain the moment where he has Bobby Seale gagged.]]

* KangarooCourt: Judge Hoffman's bias against the defendants is obvious from the moment he gavels the court into order; any attempt by the defense to try and introduce a modicum of fairness is punished with contempt of court charges. The trial itself was brought by the Nixon administration against the advice of the US Prosecutor who is assigned to it because the former Attorney General determined that there was no case. But the miscarriage of justice becomes absolutely undeniable when Seale is beaten, chained and gagged in court. Even the prosecutor is shocked.

* MiscarriageOfJustice: What the whole trial is, with the treatment of Bobby Seale such as denying him legal counsel of his choice, denying him the chance to defend himself and when he will not stand for this, he is beaten, chained and gagged in the courthouse, being merely the most obvious.

* TokenGoodTeammate: An InUniverse example, where Judge Hoffman believes Tom Hayden is the only defendant who has behaved responsibly throughout the trial. [[spoiler: [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame Hayden responds to this with a verbal middle finger by reading off the names of the thousands of men who died in Vietnam up to that point.]]]]

'''''The Trial of the Chicago 7''''' is a 2020 [[HistoricalFiction historical drama]] directed by Creator/AaronSorkin and starring Creator/EddieRedmayne and Creator/SachaBaronCohen about the 1969-70 trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti-Vietnam War protesters indicted for conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film was produced by Creator/ParamountPictures, and ultimately sold to Creator/{{Netflix}} in light of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic making a lucrative theatrical distribution impossible.

* HistoricalHeroDowngrade: Hayden greeted the courtroom with a fistpump on the first day (for which he was admonished) and was specifically cited for his refusal to stand on the "all rise" at one point, contrasting with his portrayal here as a polished, nervous moderate who missed the cue to not stand.

** The sentencing is wildly changed from the court record. In the film, Judge Hoffman asks Hayden to give a short statement about his sentencing, to which Hayden replies with a list of the 5000 soldiers who have died since the trial began. In real life, each one of the seven remaining defendants took the stand to give Judge Hoffman separate [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "reason you suck" speeches]]. Dick Schultz is depicted as having stood up during the aforementioned name list as "respect for the fallen." Schultz himself confirmed that did not happen.

* BigBad: [[HangingJudge Judge Julius Hoffman.]] He shows open bias against the defense and rules one-sidedly for the government. His ordering Bobby Seale held bound and gagged in open court appals even lead prosecutor Schultz.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: In real life, Richard Schultz was not the PunchClockVillain as portrayed in the movie, but was just as gung ho to win the case, and as antagonistic towards the defendants, as the Nixon administration was.

%%Not a trope. Replace it with something else that fits.* EveryoneHasLovedOnes: Fitting with his AntiVillain status, Richard Schultz is shown to be a loving father when he’s not working.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: David Dellinger comes across as quite possibly the most likable of the defendants, being highly opposed to violence. But once the months long trial has taken its toll on him and he’s repeatedly manhandled by security, he loses his composure and punches an officer.

-->'''Robert Schultz''':It's a "Yes or No" question: when you came to Chicago, were you hoping for a confrontation with the police?
-->[Hoffman hesitates before answering]
-->'''Robert Schultz''':I'm concerned you have to think about it.

* KangarooCourt: The general impression of the defendants when Seale is beaten, chained and gagged in court. Even the prosecutor is shocked.

** The sentencing is wildly changed from the court record. In the film, Judge Hoffman asks Hayden to give a short statement about his sentencing, to which Hayden replies with a list of the 5000 soldiers who have died since the trial began. In real life, each one of the seven remaining defendants took the stand to give Judge Hoffman separate [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "reason you suck" speeches]].
*** Dick Schultz is depicted as having stood up during the aforementioned name list as "respect for the fallen." Schultz himself confirmed that did not happen.

* TokenMinority: An InUniverse example. Bobby Seale has never met any of the other defendants, but he’s grouped up with them because having an intimidating Black Panther appear alongside them will help make the group look guilty.

* PoliceBrutality: 99% of the police footage in this film is of them beating and arresting protestors (usually without any cause), including one scene where they rip off their badges before assaulting them right outside a fancy diner.

* RedScare: A variant of it comes up early in the film when Schultz, the prosecutor, calls the SDS[[labelnote:*]]Represented by Hayden and Davis[[/labelnote]], the Yippies[[labelnote:*]]Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin[[/labelnote]], and the Black Panthers[[labelnote:*]]Who are represented by Seale, but physically present in the courtroom as well[[/labelnote]] "the radical left, in different costumes." The use of that wording is clearly inspired by the term "radical left" becoming something of a scare word in the latter half of TheNewTens and the early [[TheNewTwenties New Twenties]], bringing to mind BombThrowingAnarchists or communist revolutionaries.

* TokenGoodTeammate: An InUniverse example, where Judge Hoffman believes Tom Hayden is the only defendant who has behaved responsibly throughout the trial. [[spoiler: [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame Hayden responds to this with a verbal middle finger by reading off the names of the thousands of men who died in Vietnam.]]]]

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The film's audio fades out from Hayden's reading of the names to give brief sentence summaries of what happened after the trial in general and to each of the defendants in their lives.