To be honest, I forgot what made me watch this movie. I forget what moved me to go search for and download it.
It's probably and most likely from a scene on Instagram yet as I watched it, I forget which exact scene it was or what about the scenes would have made me add the title to my list.
Not in that it was a bad movie, just that it isn't exactly one I'd see myself interested in.
The Trials of the Chicago 7
Plot
A group of 7 anti Vietnam protest leaders where arrested and tried for conspiracy of crossing state lines to invite violence and unrest.
These 7 people of extremely different characters but the same cause fight for their lives and their beliefs in a trial that is no longer criminal but political.
Now I wouldn't say that I'm an activist. Yet I would say that I believe in causes and sympathize with those willing to fight for the causes. Being open-minded and slick backed makes it easy for me to sit on the wall of most arguments. See things from both viewpoints and understand how the issue is seen by the other.
Sitting on the wall is not a necessarily good trait though, as there are times one has to fight for what they believe in, yet it does change your perspective.
Because of this personality of mine and the past results in my country, I haven't ever protested.
I have disagreed with my government and other forms of leadership I've been suscept to, disagreed to the extent of being called and portrayed as the main opposition.
Yet I've never took up cardboards and marched on the street voicing my disagreements.
In fact I always somehow jested and found myself amused by the protesters.
You know it's not going to change, you are most likely to worsen your individual situation. So why do it?
That's one question this movie helps me answer.
The main casts in this movie are talents and geniuses in their own right. Sacha Baron Cohen who voiced King Julien from Madagascar, Eddie Redmayne known best from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Jeremy Strong from The Big Short, Yahya Abdul Mateen II who played Black Mantis in Aquaman, Alex Sharp, John Carol Lynch and Noah Robbins.
Everybody plays their part beautifully, masterfully I may say, to show a group of strangers who are brought together by a goal and set of strange circumstances.
The dynamic of Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden is remarkable, peers, enemies and somewhat of rivals.
With their acting and arguments it makes you wonder if they are even on the same side, which they are, just different mindsets..
Then we have the trial itself which was little more than Judicial comedy and a blasting use of corruption.
The judge was crazy, as was accurately deduced by Jerry Rubin and David Dellinger earlier in the movie. In the later parts he moved from crazy to insane.
The defendants didn't win, as is usual when your defending in a corrupt court. Yet the outcome of the trial isn't what the movie is trying to show us.
The movie is showing us the events of the 1969 Chicago Protest. The movie is showing us the makings of revolution, how it starts and the type of hard headed doggedness needed to complete it.
....Make sure if [our] blood is going to flow, let it flow all over the city... ~ The command of Tom Hayden to the Chicago Protesters.
I give this movie a 9 out of 10 stars rating. It was a wonderful movie, lovely acting, great pace and storytelling.
Yet what majorly shifted my scale so high, was not the movie itself, but the idea.
Images used are screenshots of the Movie.
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