Movie Review: The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (2020)

A courtroom drama based on real events, The Trial Of The Chicago 7 explores a legal assault on democratic principles by regressive but camouflaged ideology.

August 1968 is approaching and various groups of anti-Vietnam War protesters plan to descend on Chicago for the Democratic Party National Convention. The Mayor's office responds with a large police presence and a National Guard deployment. Five months later, the Nixon administration assumes power and new Attorney General Mitchell directs federal prosecutor Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to prosecute seven activists for the events of August 1968 on charges of cross-state conspiracy to invoke violence. 

With Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) presiding, the defendants include Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong) of the Youth International Party, Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) of the Students for a Democratic Society, and Dave Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch) of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. They are represented by defence counsel William Kunstler (Mark Rylance). Bizarrely thrown into the same courtroom is Black Panthers leader Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), but without a lawyer to represent him.

From the outset the trial proceedings descend into farce, with Judge Hoffman obviously prejudiced against the defendants and taking every opportunity to exasperate Kunstler. And over the long trial duration, underlying tensions between Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden bubble to the surface.

While delving into events from a different societal era, The Trial Of The Chicago 7 provides piercing commentary on the misuse of power as a cautionary tale applicable in a modern context. Writer and director Aaron Sorkin deploys his usual sharp dialogue exchanges and witty retorts to enliven infamous court proceedings from the late 1960s, but the contemporary message hides in plain sight: one vindictive Attorney General and one intolerant judge are all it takes to threaten basic freedoms and destroy lives.

The script generally excels in both words and dynamism, skipping from pre-convention preparations straight to the trial, then circling back to the Chicago clashes between police and protesters in often gripping, tension-filled flashbacks as part of the testimony. The fine margins between protests and riots are defined by the briefest of words and actions and become key turning points in activist history.

But with the charges clearly trumped up and the judge on a one-man quest to pervert justice, this is starkly delineated right and wrong storytelling. The few arguments between Abbie Hoffman (revolution through dope and hippies!) and Tom Hayden (revolution through politics and policies!) don't disguise the absence of meaningful intrinsic moral dilemmas. Sorkin also displays a tendency to twiddle the manipulative knobs to eleven, and on a few occasions the music soars to schmaltzy registers while the courtroom histrionics abandon theatre in favour of opera.

The ensemble cast members contribute plenty of talent but enjoy few opportunities to shine. The defendants are efficiently drawn, although the characters are static. Mark Rylance as the lawyer Kunstler carries the heaviest dramatic weight, while Frank Langella's Judge Hoffman is the pantomime villain. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the lead prosecutor starts strong but fades almost into insignificance, while Michael Keaton contributes a small but key role as a prominent defence witness. Important female roles are conspicuous by their absence.

It may be too well-intentioned, but The Trial Of The Chicago 7 nevertheless carries timeless lessons about the slippery slopes threatening all democracies: the system only functions when the guardians care enough to protect it.



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Movie Review: Dunkirk (2017)

A stellar World War Two film, Dunkirk is the story of an army's survival, defeat salvaged from the jaws of catastrophe as seen through the eyes of the combatants.

Three separate but convergent stories related to the evacuation of the defeated British Army at Dunkirk, France in 1940 are recounted simultaneously. In the first story young British Army Private Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) barely survives patrol duties in the town and flees to the beach where he tries to find his way onto an evacuation ship. But with the beaches under fire from German guns and aircraft, the injured are being evacuated first. Over the course of a week Tommy teams up with Gibson (Aneurin Barnard), a soldier of few words. They rescue fellow soldier Alex (Harry Styles) from death by crushing and then attempt to smuggle themselves on-board any available outbound vessel.

The second story takes place over one day and features civilian Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and his teenaged son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) responding to the British Navy's call for assistance. Without waiting for official help they set sail from England in Dawson's small boat with their eager helper George (Barry Keoghan). The Dawsons soon pluck a shell-shocked mariner out of the water, and doggedly continue on their way towards the hell of the Dunkirk beaches.

The final story takes place over one hour, and centers on Farrier (Tom Hardy), one of three Royal Air Force pilots flying towards the skies over Dunkirk to provide what support they can and counter the German air threat. Farrier engages in dogfights with Luftwaffe fighters and attempts to shoot down bombers targeting evacuation ships. Gradually Farrier becomes increasingly isolated and low on fuel.

Meanwhile, the Navy's Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) is doing his best to organize an orderly withdrawal of more than 300,000 men in the face of hostile seas and incessant enemy pressure.

Written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk is a beautifully overwhelming and all-encompassing multi-sensory experience. Eschewing traditional narrative structures in favour of telling a story with barely any dialogue, no defined heroes and no venomous villains, Nolan allows the evacuation itself to take centre stage as a seminal event and pursues it from the land, the sea and the air.

Whereas Saving Private Ryan was about the ethos of a generation, Fury delved into the limits of sacrifice and Hacksaw Ridge focused on one individual's private war against war, Dunkirk is about a nation's psyche. As such Nolan is less interested in the mechanics of battle or individual actions; rather this is a film about collective character being forged through the mist of a stunned and stunning reaction to a devastating retreat.

Each of the three stories generates specific momentum and unrelenting tension. The fear, frustration, hunger and desperation of the massed soldiers builds up in the eyes of Tommy, Gibson, Alex and others, willing to try anything to get on a boat, despite the danger of being blown out of the water by the marauding German bombers. The stoic response of the civilian population is represented by Mr. Dawson and his son Peter, and their chapter most embodies the spirit of Dunkirk as a country comes together to rescue its sons. Meanwhile the dogfights and aerial duels in the sky are superbly choreographed, the pilot Farrier aware that his contribution can only be small but yet decisive in terms of morale and for the lives he may save.

To augment the impressive vistas of a gloomy beachfront war theatre, Hans Zimmer provides a soundtrack that is simultaneously filled with dread, anticipation and extreme anxiety, adding to jarringly loud sound effects that bring the horrors of war to the fore. Every bullet in Dunkirk registers as a transmittal of potential death, every bomb and torpedo an individual parcel of destruction. The few lines of dialogue suffer in comparison and are often drowned out or garbled.

In the absence of a focus on individuals, Nolan's cast is filled with newcomers and relative unknowns in most of the key roles. Mark Rylance as Mr. Dawson, Kenneth Branagh as the pier master Commander Bolton and Tom Hardy as the pilot Farrier share the most prominent acts of above-and-beyond valour. On the beach, the widescreen is filled with thousands of startled young men maintaining relative calm and some discipline in the face of enemy fire as they patiently await either rescue or death.

Dunkirk is war in its unspoken complexity, death, hope, bravery and astonishing selflessness coming together to define a nation and write a momentous chapter in a history-defining conflict.

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Movie Review: Bridge Of Spies (2015)

A cold war drama inspired by true events, Bridge Of Spies succeeds in recreating an era of secrets, spies, and suspicions. The story of an insurance lawyer embroiled in a high stakes prisoner exchange is compelling, but falls just short of stirring the spirit.

New York, 1957. Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is arrested by a team of FBI agents. With the US government eager to demonstrate due process, slick insurance lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is nominated to defend Abel. Initially hesitant, Donovan soon jumps into the challenge. Abel's fatalistic, calm demeanour impresses Donovan, and the two men establish a rapport and mutual respect, with Donovan understanding that Abel is simply doing his job to the best of his abilities. But Donovan's enthusiastic embrace of his role as the representative of the most hated man in the country takes a toll on his wife Mary (Amy Ryan) and family.

Meanwhile, the US ramps up a spy flight program designed to capture photos of Soviet military installations from enormous altitudes. But pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) is shot down and captured by the Soviets. The CIA approach Donovan to broker a prisoner exchange deal to trade Abel for Powers, and he is thrust into the dangerous world of Berlin being actively bisected by a wall. Young American student Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers) is caught up in the chaos and held by the East Germans. Donovan has to deal with Soviet and East German secret services at odds with each other, and try to negotiate a risky deal within a spy environment he knows little about.

Directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by the Coen brothers with Matt Charman, Bridge Of Spies oozes with quality. The set designs from the late 1950s and early 1960s evoke the Cold War era at its most paranoid, with agents on both sides of the curtain weighing every move and every mistake against a shortening distance between finger and button. The scenes in Berlin are particularly effective, capturing a city at the literal fault line of east and west, a wall actively being built to harden attitudes and close hearts.

Spielberg throws in the occasional mild scene of action to inject some energy into the proceedings, but this is primarily a character study focusing on the relationship between the lawyer Donovan and the spy Abel. The film is at its best when the two men are sharing scenes, with the sharp Donovan applying all his inquisitive skills to get to know his client, and Abel giving nothing away with the most docile possible disposition. It's not that Abel does not care; he just realizes that at the end of the day he is a a very small pawn in a much larger game, and his fate is formally in the hands of nations.

At just over 140 minutes, Spielberg adopts a languid pace, and Bridge Of Spies could have easily been tightened by about 20 minutes. Several scenes go on longer than they need to, with the Francis Gary Powers sub-plot unfolding mechanically and with no character depth. Powers' CGI-enhanced fall from the sky is particularly overblown in the context of a cerebral cold war drama. In contrast, the story of student Frederic Pryor receives short thrift, as he is introduced late in the story and almost as an afterthought.

Tom Hanks delivers a reliable but not particularly memorable performance. Mark Rylance emerges as the subdued star of the film, with a grey performance filled with the contradictions and vagaries that define the life of a spy. Amy Ryan is mostly wasted as the worried wife, while a haggard-looking Alan Alda gets a couple of scenes as Donovan's boss.

Spielberg finds a brilliant climax at the snow covered Glienicke Bridge, a simple exchange transformed into the essence of a complex conflict between giant foes who pointed angry words, harsh lights and large guns at each other, but never quite pulled the trigger. The Cold War in a perfect tableaux, Bridge Of Spies is the beautiful image of a most dangerous time.

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