Movie · 2020 · Drama, History · 2h 10m · R · English
Curator score: 6.9/10 (630.8K ratings)
In 1968, democracy refused to back down.
Overview
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.9/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.77/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 76
TMDB: 7.7/10
Director
Aaron Sorkin
Production
DreamWorks Pictures, Marc Platt Productions
Cast
Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Frank Langella, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Alex Sharp, Noah Robbins, Danny Flaherty, Ben Shenkman, Michael Keaton, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Caitlin FitzGerald, Alice Kremelberg, J.C. MacKenzie, John Doman, Wayne Duvall, Damian Young
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, crowd-pleasing courtroom drama with strong performances, brisk editing, and a clear sense of outrage, but it also simplifies history and leans hard into Sorkin-style speeches and sentiment. It works best as an accessible political drama rather than a definitive account of the events.
Best for
Viewers who like fast-talking legal dramas
Fans of ensemble acting and courtroom sparring
People interested in protest-era American history
Audiences who enjoy polished, propulsive prestige dramas
Skip if
You want a rigorously neutral or deeply nuanced historical account
You dislike heightened, speechy dialogue
You prefer quieter, more observational filmmaking
You are looking for a radical or fully unsparing political film
Overview
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is built to move: it turns a sprawling political case into a clean, escalating argument about protest, state power, and the machinery of the courtroom. The cast is excellent across the board, and the film knows how to keep pressure on a room, even when the facts are doing most of the heavy lifting.
Worth noting
Its biggest strength is momentum. The editing, performances, and constant cross-cutting make a long trial feel surprisingly watchable, and the movie has a real knack for landing a righteous beat. It also has the familiar Sorkin habit of making everyone sound like they’re auditioning for the same monologue, which can be exhilarating or exhausting depending on your tolerance.
Bottom line
As history, it’s selective and streamlined, sometimes frustratingly so. As a mainstream political drama about dissent, policing, and the public theater of justice, it’s effective enough to recommend with caveats. It’s less a definitive chronicle than a polished, argumentative retelling designed to provoke and entertain at once.
Top Letterboxd reviews
megan (3.5★) · 4484 likes
take a shot every time you hear a line of dialogue that aaron sorkin probably jerked off to after he wrote it
comrade_yui (0.5★) · 4434 likes
real life abbie hoffman:
"you are talking to a leftist. i believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. i believe in universal hospital care for everyone. i believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. and i believe that we should not have a CIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here… more real life abbie hoffman:
"you are talking to a leftist. i believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. i believe in universal hospital care for everyone. i believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. and i believe that we should not have a CIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here… more
mia lee vicino (2★) · 4164 likes
20 minutes in i realized this was a 2+ hour courtroom drama and groaned out loud. why didn’t anyone warn me the trial of the chicago 7 was about a trial
Patrick Willems (3★) · 3690 likes
Reader, the joy I felt when Michael Keaton showed up 70 minutes into this movie is indescribable
hunter strawberry (3★) · 2529 likes
and to think that all this could’ve been avoided, had Jeremy Strong given the policeman a Pepsi.