At the beginning of October last year, Martin Scorsese mentioned in an interview that “Marvel movies are not cinema”, which caused many well-known Hollywood filmmakers to stand in line, and also caused an uproar on the Internet. As we all know, the contradiction between Netflix and traditional cinema has a long history, and the grievances are deep. So far, even on the premise of shortening the window period, most theaters still cannot accept Netflix’s simultaneous release of movies in theaters and streaming media .
Nowadays, there are more and more movies produced by Netflix, but outstanding works have always been pitiful. Paramount Pictures originally planned to be released on theaters this year, “The Trial of Seven Gentlemen in Chicago” finally chose to sell on Netflix due to the epidemic. . Last week, the movie landed on Netflix and caused a huge response. At the same time, Netflix just announced its third-quarter financial report. The results of this financial report made the market “slightly disappointed.” The main reason is that the number of newly added subscribers is only 2.2 million, which is at the lowest point of net subscriber growth in the past two years, which is lower than market expectations and has not fully enjoyed the dividends during the epidemic. In the Netflix executive conference call, they specifically mentioned just The release of “Chicago Seven Gentlemen” obviously has high hopes for the film.
“Chicago Seven Gentlemen: A Shocking Trial” is not an easy movie. The film tells of a famous unfair trial in history. The timeline of the film is set a year after the National Democratic Congress was held in Illinois in 1968. Eight men clashed with the police in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel for protesting the Vietnam War. Subsequently, the eight people were accused of inciting violence. Alan Sorkin’s film focuses on the court’s treatment of Abby Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Renee Davis, John, Lowes, Lee Weiner, Bobby Searle and others’ trial of confiscated goods. The cast is quite weird (and also quite British), and several British actors and actresses playing the prototypes of American political figures are also one of the highlights of this film.
There have been no fewer than 20 films and documentaries showing the Chicago Seven Gentlemen incident. In view of the huge impact of this summer’s “Black Man’s Fate” protests, the release of “Chicago Seven Gentlemen” seems to be a perfect match-the protesters were charged again after demanding justice. But in “Chicago Seven Gentlemen”, the nominal trial was carried out only because Richard Nixon’s new administration decided to confront the Department of Justice headed by Lyndon Johnson. The Department of Justice did not recommend that the case be continued, and the Nixon administration decided to formally file a lawsuit. This is a trial show demanded by the Republican government to retaliate against those “disobedient” citizens. Even the presiding judge is obviously Republican. The prosecution used the term “radical leftist” in the proceedings, and police brutality was also the focus of the entire trial. The crowd chanted “The whole world is watching”, but all this is not so prominent in the film, because the whole film focuses on the protagonists.
“Chicago Seven Gentlemen” is the second film directed by Alan Sorkin (the first is “Jasmine Card Game”). This is a feature film with a professional sense of rhythm, “machine gun” dialogue and white males The worldview that seemed to eagerly want to teach everyone. But because this is Sorkin’s pinnacle work, his style is also fully revealed. For example, the critical moment in the final scene of the movie actually depends on one character’s grammatical criticism of another character’s speech. So far, Sokin is still a relatively successful film producer, but the shortcomings are also obvious. His legal dramas are full of debates, dialogues are like bullets in crime dramas, and his political views are not sharp enough. Some people even sarcastically said that Alan Sorkin had been repeating his work.
But as the saying goes, old broken clocks also have punctual times-if you happen to look at the clock at the right time. In “Chicago Seven Gentlemen”, Sokin finds a theme, and then uses his usual advantages while minimizing his shortcomings. The film is great: it advances layer by layer, it is interesting and at the same time it achieves the purpose of emotional catharsis. The rhythm and selling point are just right, and the irony goal is exactly what the audience likes to hear. Even so, the film is still not outstanding. The timing of the film’s release gave it a vague heroic color, but the film’s own flaws also made it unable to withstand finesse.
The main problem is that although the protagonist in the play is likable and the villain is unquestionable, the movie “Chicago Seven” still cannot shake the ugly system that promotes the development of the storyline in the movie. The film characterizes the trial as a retaliatory act, but at the same time the film also clarifies the political revenge story of Federal Attorney Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). In the movie, Schultz is portrayed as a noble man, what he did was just to perform his duties decently, which was in stark contrast to the grumpy judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langra) Compared.
Of course, the two men have the same goal: they both want to put the American protesters in prison. However, this idea is too idealistic: even if their goals are really terrifying, some people still believe that there are good people in the opposing teams.
Even more shocking is that the story of Bobby Sear has been cut. Bobby Sear, unlike others, is black and co-founder of the Black Panther Party. In the true historical version, Sear did not have a lawyer at the time of the trial. He made several requests to the court to postpone the trial because the lawyer he hired had to perform a gallbladder operation. After Judge Hoffman rejected his request, he asked to act as an agent for himself, which was also rejected by the judge. Thus, during the trial, he constantly loudly protested the violation of his rights. In the end, the judge simply tied up Hill’s five flowers in the court several times and gagged his mouth to prevent him from speaking; he was separated from the trial of the case, leaving seven others as co-defendants. Although Sorkin didn’t downplay this heinous behavior, he did mention it. In the film, the scene where Sear was tied up and gagged by the five flowers only appeared once, and it was when the plot reached its highest point.
Weakening Sear’s treatment in court is an adaptation choice, and it also makes the audience wonder who the villain the film itself thinks is. If only one day someone gagged the defendant in the court, then maybe only the judge in this court is the bad guy. However, if the same situation happens for several days in a row, then there is no doubt that the whole system is already broken.
This weird silence towards government agencies is also clearly reflected in the lack of scrutiny of the police in the film. Although the film’s description of the protest behavior is very candid, that is, the protest is a complex event involving a large number of people, high emotions, and rough police-the police are heavily armed and beat the citizens, but the film portrays law enforcement as a natural thing. It’s like a storm. This inevitably makes people feel that Sorkin seems to think that no one is responsible for such a thing or such a result.
Suo Jin’s other works “The White House Storm” and “News Room” also vaguely have similar choices. These TV shows are omnipresent, the system will eventually correct itself, and although the bad guys have the upper hand, the evil will eventually prevail. In other words, this is the positive activism of the rich. Those who can see and point out the problem are the same people who are complicit in ignoring themselves.
The podcast “Villain Film Critic” believes that the film’s mood is greater than reflection, and its role in current affairs is greater than its status in history. It is at the same level as South Korea’s “The Defender”. For Hollywood’s first screenwriter, Ellen Sorkin, It was a dimensionality reduction blow. But the biggest advantage is still the current value, the resistance makes people feel distressed, although the court trial is too absurd, but in the end the film still returns to respect for people.
The film has the meaning of free struggle and individual rights struggle, as well as the meaning of small communities against the establishment. In a sharply opposed society, you can still see the bottom line of an open society that is always indestructible. The familiarity of Suojin lies in the basic plot When the facts and ending are clear, the story still creates a sense of suspense with ups and downs. When Little Freckle read aloud the list of sacrificed soldiers, the film reached ignition point. The value conflict between the freckles and Porat throughout the film also creates the pleasure of the story and shows Sorkin’s profound playwright skills.
The film review public account “Iris” believes: Alan Sorkin began with the assassination story of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy in the spring of 1968, frequently switching between trials and riots, and at the same time he did not forget to show in Death in Vietnam. A typical competition—a conflict between two groups of smart people who have difficulty distinguishing themselves from idealism—is a Sokin-style plot engine that provides the form and motivation for a huge and crowded event. The cast is quite weird (also quite “English”), but the emphasized performance gives way to some subtle moments. Many of them are from the defense lawyer William Kunstler, played by Mark Lillance. All in all, I don’t think this is a good movie. It is chattering and clumsy, sometimes self-righteous, sometimes funny. But this is not a movie that can be easily ignored. Part of the reason is current events. In this election year, the echoes of 1968 seem to be everywhere: calls for law and order, rumours of militants creating chaos in the streets, clashes between police and citizens.
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