This year I sighed for the Nth time: We are experiencing the worst Hollywood film shortage.
Some time ago, we once again witnessed history. First, the Chinese film "Yao Hundred" surpassed "Jedi Men 3" with a global box office of 442 million U.S. dollars, becoming the world's highest grossing film of the year.
Judging from the current situation in North America, it will be difficult for any film to make a difference at the box office in the next two months. The final global annual box office champion will probably be a Chinese film, whether it's "Yubai" or any other film.
It didn't take long for the annual box office of mainland China to reach 12.95 billion yuan (approximately US$1.93 billion) on October 15, officially surpassing North America's performance in the same period. For the first time in the history of Mainland China, it has become the world's No. 1 movie market at the box office.
Movies are an art of diversity, and Hollywood has been absent for so long. I still miss it. Now that the North American theaters are paralyzed, Netflix has become the main distribution position for new films in the United States, and every time there is a decent film, Su Mo will watch and cherish it.
The "Chicago Seven Gentlemen" I’m going to talk about today is really a magnified move. The gold medal screenwriter Ellen Sorkin wrote and directed, adapted from the famous civil rights movement in the 1960s, and the cast from beginning to end, almost all Familiar face. This is necessary for a group portrait film with a complex narrative and numerous characters. But it can be expected that there would not be so many outstanding actors to join without a golden sign like Alan Sorkin.
"Chicago Seven Gentlemen" originated from an anti-Vietnam War demonstration by the American people. In 1968, a number of civil rights organizations held anti-war protests during the Chicago Democratic Congress.
The originally peaceful demonstration caused a riot because someone in the crowd suddenly shouted "Go!". The police began to violently suppress the demonstrators and several civil rights leaders were arrested.
What's interesting is that the purpose of the film is obviously to satirize the Republican Wang Guo, but the "seven gentlemen" protested against the Democratic Party meeting.
The police did not identify the culprit who incited the riots, but as the number of deaths in the Vietnam War continues to increase, the anti-war sentiment in the United States has become increasingly high. After the change of term, the new Ministry of Justice of the Nixon administration decided to investigate the anti-war riots in 1968 again, looking for a few civil rights leaders to kill others and prevent more similar incidents from happening.
A total of eight civil rights representatives were arrested and charged with conspiracy, starting a chaotic and long trial.
One of the African-American defendants refused to be represented by a white lawyer because of racial conflicts. However, his lawyer was unable to appear in court due to the operation and was tried separately. The other seven white male defendants are the "Chicago Seven Gentlemen" in the title.
The judge in this trial was arrogant and prejudiced, and black whistles continued in the process, resulting in fierce conflict between the prosecution and the defense in the court. A trial intended to suppress public opinion, on the contrary, aroused the anger of the people.
Although all seven were found guilty, they appealed successfully in 1972 and all were released.
Such a complicated story is not suitable for adaptation into a movie. If there is one person capable of doing the job, it is none other than Alan Sorkin.
There are too many threads in this story, and it's hard to choose. If all were shown, it would seem to be particularly scattered, and the audience would not be able to grasp the point. Allen chose to take the trial as the main line, bring out many characters, and then spell out the whole story through the testimony of each person.
For American audiences who understand this period of history, this is the most efficient narrative method, while Chinese audiences seem to be struggling. However, we watched "Chicago Seven Gentlemen" actually have the fun of puzzles, but it increases the sense of suspense.
This is a comical trial that lasted six months. The film only selected a few of the court trials as a cross-section, and presented the complicated events clearly, neatly structured, concentrated conflicts, and the characters have distinct personalities. The racial conflicts and judicial system issues involved still exist 50 years later. I think this is also the original intention of the film.
The script for the film was written as early as 2007, and it was originally planned to be directed by Spielberg. Later, because of the strike of Hollywood screenwriters, the filming plan was shelved to this day.
Screenwriter Alan Sorkin filmed his directorial debut "Molly Card Game" in 2017. "Chicago Seven Gentlemen" is his second directorial work. It can be seen that he attaches great importance to this story, combined with those that happened in the United States this year. The magical story, the movie becomes very suitable.
Paramount is aiming to be released before the general election this fall, and is also the seeded player for next year's Oscar. Later, because the theater was paralyzed and Netflix took over, the film was able to meet the audience on time.
To talk about the shortcomings of the film—in fact, the advantages of the film—is that Alan still relies too much on his lines. At the 83rd Oscars, Alan Sorkin won the best screenwriter for "Social Network". The sharp lines in the film are impressive.
The lines of "Chicago Seven Gentlemen" are still sharp and high-density, mixed with humorous paragraphs and fierce debate, coupled with a large number of characters and fast editing, although Allen has the ability to write lines not boring, but it is undoubtedly for the audience It is not a small challenge.
In the end, the film is worth 83 points. In this year's movie, not to mention it is also among the best, and this lineup is not to be missed.
View more about The Trial of the Chicago 7 reviews
