This past week, I had the opportunity to watch the movie The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix. Although I felt it was a well-made movie, I was disappointed with some of the character portrayals, and I think some of my disappointment has to do with the themes of the book. The book, at its essence, is I think about the Court and government’s poor treatment of the defendants, particularly Bobby Seale. Although I feel the movie gets it right in reference to Judge Hoffman, I felt that the movie fell short with respect to lead prosecutor Richard Schultz. In the movie, Schultz at times gives off an air of sympathy towards the defendants, especially in contrast to the feelings of DA Foran. However, the book really displays no such feelings. At one point in the book, Hayden outlines a short speech Seale gave to his supporters in the courtroom before Judge Hoffman had arrived. In Hayden’s account, much of what he said was fairly harmless. He speaks about their right to self-defense from the marshals in the courtroom, but he asks his followers to leave if they are asked to leave, to not resist their authority. However, as Hayden puts it, Schultz claimed when Judge Hoffman entered that “minutes before this court was in session, the defendant Seale was addressing his followers back there about an attack by them on this court.” This does not portray a sympathetic response to the defendants. However, it is understandable to question the credence of an account my Hayden, he has some reason to have bias after all. Yet, even Schultz himself has recently made clear his feelings of the defendants. In fact, in a piece written by the Chicago Tribune about the movie that was released this past Monday the 19th, the article states that Schultz “thought that he was falsely portrayed as somehow embarrassed by the whole prosecution when in reality, ‘it was precisely the opposite.’”. I know that the movie is made this way for Hollywood to be exciting and intriguing; however, I feel that it lets the government off the hook. Just as we have read about in the Revolutionary Suicide and other texts, the government and their prosecutors most definitely played a role in the poor treatment of these defendants and other civil rights activists of this time.