I've been excited to watch The Trial Of The Chicago 7 since when I saw it pop up on my Netflix menu but I haven't really had the time to watch it so I had to put it off. Now after finally watch the film I only regret not watching it immediately and taking this long to finally give this film a chance.
I think it goes without saying that this film definitely has a fascinating premise just based on the original case that this film is based on, but I genuinely believed the film does a fantastic job at tackling many of the complicated issues the film deals with. I will say I wish they expanded more so, on the race issues within the case, explored more of the judges' obvious race and class biases as well as the racial implications of the entire incident and I also thought it was really lazy not to revisit any of the monumental moments such as the death of Fred Hampton the moment Bobby Seale was acquitted of all charges involving the riots.
I feel like the film doesn't do these characters justice by using them to push the plot forward but then completely dropping them once the film decides they aren't important to the story anymore. This definitely sucks because race obviously played such a huge part in the politics of this case and the issue should have been explored deeper than just at the charges level. Outside of those race issues being mishandled, I do believe the film did a great job at exploring the social dynamics of the time, relating social inferiority and classism into a direct result of the case was fantastic.
I also really liked this cast, I thought everyone did a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life. I especially adored every minute Sacha Baron Cohen was on screen and especially thought Yahya Abdul-Matee was extraordinary every minute he was on screen. I truly thought the entire cast delivered fantastic performances and the cast definitely had some phenomenal chemistry and really meshed well on screen. I loved all the character dynamics and characters but as I said earlier I wish some other characters such as Fred Hampton had more focus due to the importance each of the characters has on the impact on this story.
The one big downside to this film is that it does feel like despite the seriousness of this film, it does take the route of very corny or just overly humorous moments that just don't pan out as a way to keep the audience from being overwhelmed but to me, it felt like the film was too scared to take risks and these moments stood out so much that they just didn't work for the film. Like at the end of the film when the AG stood up in respect to the fallen troops as if he is supposed to somehow be supportive of the movement when he just solely stomped on the movement, crushed it, and then punished people for believing in the movement was really corny and just struck me as kind of ridiculous. Like the film tried to make us somewhat resonate with him when we all know he is majorly responsible for a lot of the bad things that happened in the second half of the film and clearly values his job over the lives of the thousands of troops and protesters rights.
At the end of the day, I truly believe that The Trial Of The Chicago Seven is a very intense, emotional, and important story that comes together really well by the end of the film. I think this was a well structured, well written and beautifully acted film that despite the few easy to point out flaws has an overwhelming majority of positives that definitely makes this film worth watching. I think it was filled with some fantastic and very interesting social commentary especially on the criminal justice system and how politically fueled many things our society relies on really is. I think the film could have gone deeper especially on race issues and there were a few different roads I wish this film explored but I still think it was a great experience and a film that was more than worth watching. I'd definitely recommend this film to anyone who's a big fan of court dramas or political dramas!