Details

Release year: 2020

Storyline

The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Top credits

Directors

Aaron Sorkin

Writers

Aaron Sorkin

Cast

Eddie Redmayne — Tom Hayden
Alex Sharp — Rennie Davis
Sacha Baron Cohen — Abbie Hoffman
Jeremy Strong — Jerry Rubin

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Awards

0 wins & 6 nominations

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Did you know

• Sacha Baron Cohen admitted he was "terrified" of having to do an American accent for the film. He had used a few different variations of the accent before for comedic reasons, but never for a dramatic role. He knew the real Abbie Hoffman had a unique voice, having a Massachusetts accent but also having gone to school in California, and was worried he would "sound wrong". Aaron Sorkin had to reassure him that the role was "not an impersonation, but an interpretation", which Baron Cohen claimed did not help much.

• In October 2020, several news outlets (Including Time Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, Slate, and Mashable) ran articles detailing some of the ways that this movie's plot differed from the true history of the trial. Some of the main differences include: * David Dellinger, a committed pacifist, never hit a court officer or anyone during the trial. In fact, the real Dellinger remained peaceful in the courtroom even when a marshal struck one of Dellinger's children. * It was Dellinger, not Tom Hayden, who attempted to read aloud in court a list of people who had died in Vietnam, but he was immediately held in contempt and not allowed to finish. The implication that Hayden was the one who did this, or that it brought about the end of the trial, is incorrect. * Judge Hoffman's appalling treatment of Bobby Seale is true, but if anything, it was worse than what is depicted in the movie. During the real trial, Seale was gagged and chained as shown. But the film implies that this only happened once for a short time and that the egregious nature of this treatment immediately shamed the prosecution into moving for a mistrial and a separate trial for Seale, when in fact Seale was first bound and gagged on October 29, 1969, and he had to appear in court that way every day until his trial was severed on November 5, 1969. * The movie also shows Fred Hampton's murder as the reason for Seale's outburst and subsequent gagging and chaining. However, Hampton's death occurred after Seale's trial had already been severed and Seale was no longer present at the trial of the other seven. * The character of Daphne O'Connor (Caitlin FitzGerald), an undercover agent assigned to surveil Jerry Rubin, was a complete fabrication for dramatic effect. * The film portrays Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as a principled man grudgingly following orders to carry out a prosecution he didn't wholeheartedly believe in. The real Schultz, who goes by "Dick," vehemently supported the prosecution on a personal level and when asked, firmly refuted the idea that he stood when the names of war casualties were read aloud.

• In the movie, Rennie Davis keeps a notebook with all the names of US soldiers that died in Vietnam during the trial. In real life, Rennie Davis wrote down the names of Vietnamese soldiers as well.