Took a gander at watching a very recently released film by Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7, on Netflix. The trial and the unrest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention that led to it are familiar topics as a history buff, in what might've been the most chaotic period in 20th century America. In addition to portraying the questionable tactics employed by Nixon's Justice Department, the FBI, and presiding judge Julius Hoffman in their aim to stamp out leftist "radicals" of the time, it also showed the conflicts in aim, methods, and messaging of the trial's defendants, including college activist and Michigan alumnus Tom Hayden, black liberation leader Bobby Seale, and more comedic figures like Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman (no relation to the judge, a coincidence lampooned in the movie).
Upon further research of the topic I noticed a few alterations in the timeline (presumably for dramatic effect) and some interesting omissions in the defendants' statements, particularly Abbie Hoffman claiming the judge "would have served Hitler better" and Bobby Seale explicitly decrying the current administration as "racist" "with its Superman notions and comic book politics." The portrayal of Black Panther member Fred Hampton's death (which did not actually come before fellow Panther Bobby Seale's impassioned speech and subsequent bounding and gagging in full view of the court, as the movie depicts) was edited by Sorkin in the wake of this year's unrest regarding the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others -- showing newspaper clippings and photographs from Hampton's murder scene that emphasized the role of Chicago Police and the FBI in the act.
Over five decades since the film's events, the strains of prejudice the Chicago Seven fought against are still woven deep in the heart of American government and society, and it will take much more effort than the thousands of demonstrators at the 1968 DNC, or even the millions that continue to take to the streets this year, for any meaningful push towards true equality to take effect and stay in effect. The ways of "the system" are a lot less overt than the tactics employed against the civil rights movements in the '50s and '60s, but look hard enough and you'll find that the attitudes and societal frameworks these activists fought against have never gone away. Here's hoping that someday this country (and many others across the globe) finds its conscience before it eats itself alive.
#
inK.MP | 10292020/2020
Comments
Post a Comment