Chicago 7

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/1/2021
  

  ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ is the Film to Help Us Understand 2021. Here’s Why

  by John Beckman and Theo Zenou

  Abbie Hoffman used his conspiracy trial as a guerrila theater stage, the peak of his career as an activist who used absurdity and wit to expose the hypocrisies of American society. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/3/2021
  

  Rennie Davis, ‘Chicago Seven’ Antiwar Activist, Dies at 80

  Mr. Davis was most famous as an organizer of the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago which led to his trial for conspiracy and inciting riot. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  11/3/2020
  

  Aaron Sorkin’s Inane, Liberal History Lesson

  by Charlotte Rosen

  Aaron Sorkin's Chicago 7 film strips away the radical, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist politics of the 1960s New Left to make the defendants heroic defenders of liberal democratic politics. 

• 
• SOURCE: Variety
  10/26/2020
  

  MC5’s Wayne Kramer Files Suit Over ‘No on Prop. 23’ Ad for Using 1968 Band Footage

  More bluntly, in keeping with the tone of MC5 songs like “Kick Out the Jams,” Kramer said, “Give me a break with your jive bulls—.”

• 
• SOURCE: Current Affairs
  10/22/2020
  

  The Real Abbie Hoffman

  by Nathan J. Robinson

  While The Trial of the Chicago 7 is sympathetic to Hoffman, it also softens him in a way that ultimately amounts to historical fabrication.

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  10/21/2020
  

  Aaron Sorkin Sanitizes the Chicago 7

  by Jeet Heer

  According to Jeet Heer, "Sorkin takes many liberties with the facts, most of which are designed to make both the New Left and its conservative opponents more palatable to contemporary liberal viewers."

• 
• SOURCE: Miami Herald
  10/19/2020
  

  After Chicago 7 Trial, Mrs. Jean Fritz Helped Change the Course of History

  A look back at the Chicago 7 conspiracy trial through the eyes of one of the jurors reveals an America that was less completely polarized than one might think. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times
  10/14/2020
  

  How Aaron Sorkin Preserved the Disorder of Chicago’s 1969 Courtroom ‘Circus’

  by Richard Roeper

  Aaron Sorkin discusses the work of creating authenticity for his Netflix series on the conspiracy trial that followed the protests at the 1968 Democratic convention. This was complicated, as he admits, by being only vaguely aware of the case before Steven Spielberg suggested making a film about it.   

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  10/13/2020
  

  'I Was Hit and Knocked to the Ground': The True Story of the Trial of the Chicago 7

  “There are some things that I wouldn’t agree with how Sorkin has characterised certain figures in the trial, myself included. But the impact of the movie is there and I certainly endorse and support it," says Chicago 7 defendant and antiwar activist Rennie Davis.

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• 7/26/2020
  

  One of the Chicago 7 Reflects on Dissident Politics Then and Now

  by Lee Weiner

  A veteran of dissident politics in the 1960s warns that while today's broad coalition of activists for a more just and democratic America are on the right track, they must learn from the mistakes of an older generation and find ways to keep united despite difference.