The blistering trailer for ‘Trial of the Chicago 7’ puts free speech on the line

Erik Anderson September 13, 2020

“An attack against one is an attack against all” – Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong in **THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7** (Niko Tavernise/Netflix)

“The whole world is watching!”

Today Netflix dropped the trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, detailing the initial peaceful protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention turned into a violent clash with police and the National Guard and the subsequent trial of the organizers of the protest—including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale. While this civil and political unrest happened in 1968, the theme and certainly the mood of the trailer feels as relevant as ever with the even higher level of protests happening in the US right now.

Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) looks explosive as Tom Hayden (“Get on the street! Get on the street!”) while Emmy nominee Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (HBO’s Watchmen) as Bobby Seale lays the tracks for what’s coming (“Martin’s dead. Bobby’s dead. Jesus is dead. We tried something peacefully. We gonna try something else.”), changing the pitch of his voice that makes him almost unrecognizable.

Still elusive is Academy Award nominee Michael Keaton as controversial civil rights activist and lawyer Ramsey Clark. He didn’t show up in the previously released production stills and he’s nowhere to be found in the trailer.

But it’s Oscar nominee Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman who clinches it, highlighting some of the core fighting that’s been going on for over 50 years: “I’ve never been on trial for my thoughts before.”

The Trial of the Chicago 7 also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Academy Award nominee Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Academy Award winner Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, Emmy nominee Jeremy Strong, Noah Robbins, Danny Flaherty, Ben Shenkman, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Caitlin Fitzgerald, Alice Kremelberg, John Doman, J.C. MacKenzie, Damien Young, Wayne Duvall and C.J. Wilson.

Keep an eye out for the Netflix logo at the end, which is red, white and blue instead of the newer rainbow version we’ve seen.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is written and directed by Oscar and Emmy winner Aaron Sorkin, produced by Marc Platt, Stuart Besser, Matt Jackson and Tyler Thompson and executive produced by Laurie MacDonald, Walter Parkes, Marc Butan, Anthony Katagas, James Rodenhouse and Nia Vazirani.

Netflix will release The Trial of the Chicago 7 globally on October 16. Here is the trailer, which premiered during the LA Rams vs. Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.