Chicago 1969 Double Feature

I have to say that I really didn't know much about this trial before watching The Trial of the Chicago 7. But it is stunning to watch a conspiracy of criminals sit in judgment and purport to represent law and order in the United States with impunity. It's stunning to watch because it's so obviously part of the very fabric of this country. Villainous, terrible people literally running the government and bringing the entirety of their considerable violence and might against unarmed people in order to silence them and get them to bend their knees to force. Justice? I don't see much of it. The government does what it wants, and then it tells everyone what it did was right. 

The film itself... is fine. It's a little bit too self satisfied for my taste. It has a kind of smugness that I found a bit distasteful. Its emotional tone, too, is a little bit too Steven Spielberg for me. I'm not sure why Sacha Baron Cohen is receiving the accolades he's receiving. He's fine but not great. I liked Jeremy Strong a lot. And Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Judas and the Black Messiah is a better movie than The Trial of the Chicago 7, but I'm glad I watched them together. They belong together. Judas and the Black Messiah is also a movie about terrorist, murdering, arsonist policemen and FBI agents who assassinated Fred Hampton and called it justice. Watching these kinds of stories is so difficult and even unsatisfying. It's unbelievable to me that people still trust the police to mete out justice in this nation. This film documents a violent racist campaign by our federal government to destroy a revolutionary hero who was attempting to make people's lives better. The acting in this film is great. Daniel Kaluuya, especially, is fantastic. It is completely and totally category fraud to try to sell Kaluuya in the supporting actor category, though, and this might backfire. There's no reason he couldn't be a solid contender in the Best Actor group. It's one of the best performances of the year.

I watched The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix. Judas and the Black Messiah is on HBOmax.