The Trial of the Chicago 7

Aaron Sorkin's "The Trial of the Chicago 7" arrives as a conscientious period drama about the 1969 trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, a film that treats its historical material with the solemnity of a law review article. The film centers the narratives of white male activists (Eddie Redmayne's Tom Hayden, Sacha Baron Cohen's Abbie Hoffman) while relegating Black activism and the broader context of racial justice to the margins of its courtroom drama. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II appears in the ensemble, though the film does not excavate the complexities of how Black protesters experienced the Chicago riots or the trial itself.

The film's progressive credentials rest primarily on its anti-government stance and its sympathetic portrayal of 1960s counterculture, yet these elements predate modern social consciousness markers by decades. Sorkin's characteristic style emphasizes legal procedure and rhetorical argument over the material realities of systemic oppression or institutional critique. The film does not grapple with contemporary interpretations of these historical events through the lens of police brutality, racial capitalism, or other contemporary frameworks that would elevate its woke consciousness. Instead, it functions as a procedural affirmation of the American legal system's capacity for justice, a notably centrist position.

The cast contains one South Asian actor and one Black actor among ten credited principals, representing a modest acknowledgment of diversity without substantive narrative integration. The film's sensibilities are those of an intelligent, engaged liberal working within classical dramatic forms, which is to say they are distinct from the particular cultural anxieties that define contemporary progressive consciousness. This is a film about activists made for audiences who appreciate activism in historical retrospect.