History Film / TheTrialOfTheChicago7

* EveryoneHasLovedOnes: Fitting with his AntiVillain status, Richard Schultz is shown to be a loving father when he’s not working.

* {{Jerkass}}: Judge Hoffman is a corrupt judge whose already decided to find the defendants guilty before the case has begun, and does everything he can to ruin their chances of appearing innocent, denying Seale to have the basic legal right to have legal counsel of his own choice, getting rid of jury members on their side, refusing to allow the jury to see a major witness who could turn the tide of the case, and then there’s [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain the moment where he has Bobby Seale gagged.]]

* KangarooCourt: The general impression of the defendants when Seale is beaten, chained and gagged in court.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Schultz is the one who asks a mistrial be declared for Seale, much to Judge Hoffman's shock. Kuntsler spells out that beating, shackling, and gagging Seale in open court has just him from a ScaryBlackMan into a sympathetic figure because he is now an obvious victim of racism.

* PoliceBrutality: 99% of the police footage in this film is of them beating, shooting, and arresting protestors, including one scene where they rip off their badges before assaulting them right outside a fancy diner.

* BigBad: [[HangingJudge Judge Julius Hoffman.]]
* BigGood: [[CrusadingLawyer William Kunstler.]]

* ChekovsGun: Rennie writing list of the dead of the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar accumulating over the course of the trial. Hayden [[spoiler:reads all 5000+ names collected by the end in his sentencing statement to frustrate the judge]].

* GoryDiscretionShot: Mostly not in use; the violence and PoliceBrutality are on full display. The exception is when Kuntsler goes over the night the riots began. The police remove their badges and nameplates, the window shatters, and the next we see is the wrecked bar afterwards.

* HateSink: Judge Julius Hoffman has practically nothing in the way of redeeming qualities, being absolutely determined to give the defendant’s the most unfair trial possible.

* AttemptedRape: A number of rightwing thugs assault a female protestor for using the American Flag in the march, Jerry Rubin manages to stop them. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished Rubin is promptly arrested after trying to get said female protestor first aid,]] [[KarmaHoudini and the wannabe-rapists get off scot-free]].

As for those defendants, they are divided into multiple camps with three being moderates like Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis and David Dellinger and the radical Yippies of Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Meanwhile, two other defendants, Lee Weiner and John Froines are at best tangentially involved in the incident if at all and the one African-American co-defendant, Black Panther local leader, Bobby Seale was definitely not involved at all.

What follows is a drawn out trial with the moderates not only frustrated by the Yippies' defiant antics undermining their case, but dealing with Judge Julius Hoffman (No relation to Abbie) who is obviously biased against them. Meanwhile Seale, who was denied legal counsel of his own choosing for the trial since his preferred lawyer is sick, is forced to protest to almost no avail.

-->[[Hoffman hesitates before answering]]

-->'''Abbie Hoffman''': Give me a moment, would you my friend? I've never been on trail for my thoughts before.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Abbie Hoffman is loud mouthed and obnoxious, but it’s clear that he cares deeply about his country and the men who died in Vietnam. When asked what it would take to call off the revolution, his response is “My life”.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Hayden's realization [[spoiler:that he started a militant march that ended in a police riot over a slip of the tongue]].

* UndercoverCopReveal: At the trial, we see a lot of the people who were introduced to people like Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman were actually undercover cops and FBI agents. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Lee Weiner, who wonders if there were more police than actual protesters in Chicago.

-->'''Daphne O'Conner:''' Do you know why they have only one egg in France?\\

* ThoughtCrime: What Schmidt's questioning of Abbie Hoffman amounts to:
-->'''Robert Schmidt''':It's a "Yes or No" question: when you came to Chicago, were you hoping for a confrontation with the police?

-->'''Robert Schmidt''':I'm concerned you have to think about it.

* TokenMinority: An InUniverse example. Bobby Seale has never met any of the other defendants, but he’s grouped up with them because having an intimidating Black Panther appear alongside them will help make the group look guilty.

-->'''Robert Schmidt''':It's a "Yes or No" question: when you came to Chicago, were you hoping for a confrontation with the police\\

-->'''Robert Schmidt''':I'm cencerned you have to think about it.

* CrusadingLawyer: William Kunstler, Legendary civil rights attorney. "High-Priced Lawyers are working for free. [[ProBonoBarter It is the support-staff..."]]

* CrusadingLawyer: William Kunstler. [[ProBonoBarter "High-Priced Lawyers are working for free. It is the support-staff..."]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Judge Hoffman is a corrupt judge whose already decided to find the defendants guilty before the case has begun, and does everything he can to ruin their chances of appearing innocent, denying Seale to have the basic legal right to have legal counsel of his own choice, getting rid of jury members on their side, refusing to allow the jury to see a major witness who could turn the tide of the case, and then there’s [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain The moment where he has Bobby Seale gagged.]]

* AntiVillain: Richard Schultz seems to bear no ill will towards the defendants, he advises against moving forward with the trial, [[EveryoneHasLovedOnes he’s shown to love his daughters,]] [[EveryoneHasStandards he’s appalled by Judge Hoffman’s treatment of Bobby Seale,]] and he evens [[spoiler: stands with the defendants in honor of the dead soldiers of Vietnam]]. [[PunchClockVillain The only thing he’s guilty of is doing his job.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Judge Hoffman is a corrupt judge whose already decided to find the defendants guilty before the case has begun, and does everything he can to ruin their chances of appearing innocent, denying Seale to have the basic legal right to have legal counsel of his own choice, getting rid of jury members on their side, refusing to allow the jury to see a major witness who could turn the tide of the case, and then there’s [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain his deplorable treatment of Bobby Seale.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Judge Hoffman is a corrupt judge whose already decided to find the defendants guilty before the case has begun, and does everything he can to ruin their chances of appearing innocent, getting rid of jury members on their side, refusing to allow the jury to see a major witness who could turn the tide of the case, and then there’s [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain his deplorable treatment of Bobby Seale.]]

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: This film is full of them. Abbie Hoffman and Hayden with each other, Seale with Judge Hoffman, Kunstler with Hoffman and with his clients, Schultz with more or less everyone in the courtroom...

As for those defendants, they are divided into multiple camps with three being moderates like Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis and David Dellinger and the radical Yippies of Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Meanwhile, two other defendants, Lee Weiner and John Froines are at best tangentially involved in the incident if at and the one African-American co-defendant, Black Panther local leader, Bobby Seale was not involved at all.

* AttemptedRape: A number of rightwing thugs assault a female protestor for using the American Flag in the march, Jerry Rubin manages to stop them.

* CourtroomAntic: Hoffman and Rubin provide plenty of those for a legal system they have utter contempt for.

* ScaryBlackMan: The obvious reason why Seale is on trial with the white defendants: so the jury can lump the scary Black Panther Party with the white protestors.