"The Chicago Seven": an inspired and very political film available 48 hours on YouTube

Those who are not subscribers to Netflix will finally be able to discover this very beautiful film by Aaron Sorkin. From this Friday, 9 am, and until Sunday, 9 am, the American platform will diffuse “The Seven of Chicago” for free on its YouTube channel in the original version with subtitles. An operation intended to celebrate the 51st anniversary of the verdict of the real trial told in this production.

This is only the second time that Netflix has released one of its films online for free for 48 hours. From November 15 to 17, 2019, “Klaus”, his first animated feature film, had been freely accessible, but on the platform itself.

Abuse of power, police violence, racism …

“The Chicago Seven” traces the trial of seven activists prosecuted for demonstrating on the sidelines of the Democratic convention in Chicago in August 1968. While this demonstration against the Vietnam War was banned, several thousand people marched towards the place of the convention. Arrested by the police, the demonstrators had been clubbed… and this violence, filmed, was found in the television news. Following the riots, a federal jury indicted eight protest leaders for “conspiring to incite a revolt”.

The trial began on March 20, 1969 and brought together the eight leaders: among them, anarchists, pacifists or even Bobby Seale, leader of the Black Panthers. In court, the latter insulted the judge so much that he was tied up and gagged, and tried separately from those who will therefore be called the “Chicago Seven” … Aaron Sorkin, the brilliant creator and screenwriter of the series “At the White House” , signs here an exciting, inspired, sometimes funny and very political trial film. He surrounded himself for the occasion with a nice cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne or Jeremy Strong.

Punctuated by a nervous editing and a few flashbacks, interspersed with archive images, this feature film which deals with the abuse of power, police violence and racism, resonates strongly with the news. Impossible, moreover, when one of the accused asks a gagged Bobby Seale if he “can breathe”, not to think of George Floyd, killed last May by a police officer in Minneapolis.