Highly Recommended Movie: The Trial Of The Chicago 7

[mysteryowl]

If you are going to see it (on Netflix), don't watch the trail since it spoils may parts of it.

[txwhitedove]

1. Outstanding movie.

[OneBlueDotBama]

2. Cohen has far more going for him...

aside from Borat.

Awesome flic... great acting, writing.

[Brother Buzz]

8. Here's the money shot

Emmett Grogan totally despised Hoffman for a whole host of reasons, but I suspect he would have loved Sacha Baron Cohen's portrayal

[byronius]

5. "threats by Hoffman, et al, to poison the City's water system and threats to kill city officials" --

I'd certainly like to see your source for this wild statement. I've researched this event heavily throughout my life, and the only such charges against Hoffman came directly from Nixon and his operatives, or news organizations fully controlled by that ideology.

Surely you're not going to quote from these as if they are accurate? Can you provide a link from any reasonably acceptable source?

Hoffman was well-known for his choosing guerilla theater tactics over violence in any form. Are you mischaracterizing his humorously creative tall tales on purpose, just as the prosecutors attempted to do?

"It was a bad time for both sides" -- are you saying there were good people on both sides of the police riot? I find myself mortally offended by your statements. Please respond.

[snowybirdie]

6. Gee its Sunday

Don't feel like doing homework today. But I lived it as the wife of a Chicago police officer ( who wasn't in the park, but defended and protected the Governor and Delegation of a major eastern state). When the trial was on, he was working in the court system as a public defender. So it guess its my memories, and my family thinks I have a very good one. Sorry if your morals are offended, but there is a lot of grey areas in life. You'll learn that as you grow older. Good luck.

[byronius]

7. Okay then. Thought so.

You toss out allegations of violent intent against someone who had their nose broken eight times and their spine broken twice by officers who removed their badges. His life was in constant danger, and yet he never advocated violence in any form -- but your husband kinda remembers that he did, so it must be true and the film must be inaccurate. No real sources, no actual history -- just an offhanded dismissal of the life work of a dedicated social justice advocate who Nixon referred to as 'that damned dirty radical Jew'.

Do you know where Abbie came from? He was a Brandeis graduate student who went down to the South in '65 to register black voters in a suit and tie and short hair. He was kidnapped and threatened with lynching by a local sheriff -- but they let him off with a severe beating.

He was targeted for the rest of his life. Stalked, studied, threatened, jailed with planted evidence -- and finally murdered. Yet all he had done was call for social justice and a higher tax rate so the lower classes could survive.

This is the man you dismiss. I met him three times. I've read every book he ever wrote, and I read every speech he ever gave that was recorded -- and nowhere is there any suggestion of anything other than asymmetrically effective political theater. When you refer to him so blithely as an agent of violence you are spreading Nixonian misinformation. You are committing harm. Maybe read a book or two and grow up? I suggest "Revolution For The Hell Of It."

Sunday. Yes, I had to read this on a Sunday. It was ugly and misinformed and harmful, but -- whatever, you have a good memory, people say. But you've darkened my Sunday with thoughtless slander against a decent American who stood up to organized hatred with more bravery than you or I will ever have.


Good luck to you as well.

[yardwork]

10. Can you cite a source for Hoffman threatening to commit mass murder?

Hoffman had a big mouth - I think that's quite clear in the film - but it's news to me that he threatened to kill the whole city. And for months he made these threats? Seems like that would have been mentioned in the news. The media wasn't exactly friendly to activists then, or now. If true, threats like that would have made national news.

[snowybirdie]

11. Was there

Several times they said they would poison the Chicago water system. Heard it, was witness to it and was afraid for my children and unborn son, who now is a grandfather. Enough with this nonsense.. It happened 50+ years ago. Don't you think its time we focused on attempted death of democracy today? It was only a movie review!

[byronius]

12. Aieesh. This again.

You likely heard this not from Hoffman but from a Hoffman-hater and it stuck somewhere in there. He made a very funny passing reference to a secret crew of Yippie operatives who were tasked with dosing the Chicago water supply with LSD. The authorities responded with posting armed guards at all water-treatment facilities and accused the Yippies of threatening to 'poison' the population -- mass murder! Mayhem! Dirty effing hippies! But Hoffman gave an interview the next day where he said it was a joke intended to reveal how the Chicago authorities viewed the Yippies -- and it worked.

But you still carry this forward as truth. Good lord this is damaging and dark and about as muddled-headed and misinformed as it gets.

You did not hear Abbie Hoffman say he was going to poison the water and kill officials because he did not say these things -- people who hated and feared him said he said these things.

You know, I don't think you're a bad person. You're here, so you're probably a decent sort just by general fiat. But really, try to understand how this makes someone like me feel -- I've actually read all those books, from both sides. All the articles. All the newspaper in-depth descriptions of the details from witnesses. All the documentaries and short films. I've done the work.

Imagine how a BLM supporter would feel if you casually said you'd heard BLM chapters were all funded by the Nazi-supporting George Soros. Or that Antifa were only breaking windows and starting fires. Or that all the 'Democrat' cities are burned to the ground by 'rioters'.

Someone not sufficiently paying attention or trained in critical thinking or without a broad rooting in written history could easily carry forth very harmful and inaccurate memes in an offhand way that keeps those memes alive -- even though they are not really devoted to right-wing causes, they unwittingly spread the messages. Because it sounds like 'common sense'. Or they 'heard' it.

Was Martin Luther King a Communist? I've heard that. Are masks ineffective against COVID? I've heard that. Do the Chinese own Joe Biden? I've heard that. Is Donald Trump the last great hope to save America from the brown immigrant hordes? Does Hillary drink baby's blood to stay young?

I've heard all that. And from regular well-meaning people who just didn't think to check themselves before they passed it along.

I'm helping you grow here -- nothing you've said about the Chicago Seven is true. Do us all a favor and do some reading and re-thinking before you throw this stuff around. It's harmful. And wrong.

[yardwork]

13. Um, you brought it up. It's quite an accusation.

I guess he told this only to you? Nobody else seems to have heard it.

[byronius]

4. Excellent film. I've watched it twice. Complex story, accurate representation.

[SharonClark]

9. Excellent movie!