The Chicago 7 and the real-life sequel
The difference between films based on facts and those based on fiction
I hadn't recognised Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman until the end credits. I haven’t paid Cohen must attention previously but he was excellent in this role. Did I see that he was also the assistant producer?
Maybe it was because it was a Sunday night (possibly the low point of the week ahead of the start of another), maybe it was the news of the English Lockdown from Thursday which will mean the cinema will close but I left the theatre feeling sad. I felt a sense of sadness on reading at the end that Abbie Hoffman committed suicide in 1989 and that Jerry Rubin died as a result of a road traffic accident.
I hadn't heard of the Chicago 7 until I heard of the film. It seems I missed a lot of action prior to my birth in 1970. I have always found it difficult to fully grasp issues that occurred before my birth. I guess my distinction with history is that which happened of which there are now no living survivors and history that occurred of which there remains those who were part of or witnessed the events. That seems to be further subdivided between what history has occurred in my lifetime and the history that occurred in the lifetime of those who remain alive.
I have never gotten my head around such events as the Suez crisis, the Cuban missile crisis, Biafra, yet somehow they are in my consciousness. For years I never knew what started the Northern Irish conflict but I did know what it was like to live in it as I was born during it.
I still don’t know what motivated the mass demonstration at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Yes, I know the Vietnam War but why the Democrats? In a sense what motivated it becomes secondary to the US Government's attempt to prosecute eight men who became seven when Bobby Seale, The Black Panther, was acquitted.
Hoffman and Rubin are portrayed in the film with so much life, idealism and courage that to learn of how their lives ended seemed tragic. Hoffman continued to be a campaigner while Rubin became a stockbroker. Tom Haydn another of the seven became a Democrat politician in California, married actress Jane Fonda, they later divorced.
Bobby Seale is now 84 and continues to give lectures to students on community organizing. David Dellinger died aged 89 in 2004 he spent his life as a social activist. Rennie Davis is now 89. He continued to attempt throughout his life to create positive change.
The other two of the seven John Froines and Lee Weiner were acquitted by the jury.
The film captured a moment and brought them all to the fore. Gripping as the film is I was left wondering how they fared in life after such a political and high profile trial. Were there greatest moments achieved in standing up against an administration that sought to imprison them?
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