The late ’60s were a tinderbox. The U.S.’s prolonged involvement in Vietnam had given rise to a potent anti-war movement that radicalized some activists. Tensions came to a boil leading up to the Democratic National Convention in 1968, with thousands of activists descending upon the host city of Chicago to push for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. Demonstrations became violent when police response was hard-line. Seven of the organizers were ultimately charged with conspiring to cross state lines with intent to incite a riot.
Director of ‘Chicago 7’ sees shades of 1968 protests in today’s political unrest
Fifteen years ago, Aaron Sorkin began laying the groundwork for a film based on one of the most compelling legal showdowns of the late 1960s. Now that "The Trial of the Chicago 7" finally has been released, the writer and director told a National Press Club Headliners Virtual Newsmaker audience, it is unsettling to note parallels between what was happening in 1968 and recent occurrences in today’s political landscape.
“I had no idea just how chillingly relevant the film would eventually become,” Sorkin said Feb. 18.
Joined by Sacha Baron Cohen and Eddie Redmayne, the film’s stars, Sorkin pointed to both President Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric ahead of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and last year’s police crackdowns on Black Lives Matters demonstrators. “In the environment that we made the film last winter, none of us could have anticipated what was to come,” he explained.
Lisa Matthews listens as Aaron Sorkin describes filming 'Chicago 7' in an unsettlingly similar political environment. Photo by Alan Kotok
"The Trial of the Chicago 7,” released on Netflix in October 2020, follows the accused's dramatic showdown with heavy-handed prosecutors and a legal system committed to preserving the status quo. The trial ensnared some of the era’s most prominent activists, including countercultural icon Abbie Hoffman, anti-war organizer Tom Hayden, and Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, whom the judge at one point ordered to be bound and gagged during court appearances.
Baron Cohen and Redmayne, who portray Hoffman and Hayden, respectively, said that preparing for their roles was an intense experience, especially since the actors were told to lean into the real-life tension between the bombastic Hoffman and the more studious Hayden. “Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden were like two brothers, two brothers who were aspiring for the same thing, but had completely different ways of approaching it,” Redmayne said. “It was that fury that you can only have with someone who you actually feel some great emotional tie to.”
Baron Cohen said he had a long-standing personal affinity for Hoffman, and even lobbied Steven Spielberg for the role when the director was initially tied to the project more than a decade ago. But while the passion was there, the London-born actor still had one major hurdle: Hoffman’s unique Boston accent. Determined to succeed in the role, Baron Cohen trained extensively with dialect coach Tim Monich to make sure his portrayal was pitch-perfect.
“We tracked down every bit of footage that we could find about Hoffman,” Baron Cohen recalled. “In the evenings, I would study with Tim, this accent. You're trying to learn it in every way of speaking so that you can improvise it.”
Club President Lisa Matthews asked Sorkin about the possibility of helming another historical drama based on a more contemporary topic: Trump’s second impeachment trial.
The director was non-committal but said that if he did take it on, he would keep the focus on the senators who ultimately had to determine whether or not the president was guilty of inciting a riot. He did completely rule out featuring Trump as a character in such a film, though. “You'll never see Donald Trump as anything but an off-stage or an off-screen character,” Sorkin predicted. “A screenwriter or a playwright can’t write Donald Trump because he's implausible.”
“There's no such thing as an interesting character who doesn't have a conscience,” he added.
"The Trial of the Chicago 7" is currently available on Netflix. On Saturday, Feb. 20, it was streamed free-of-charge on YouTube to mark the 51st anniversary of the trial’s verdict.
