While Nomadland won the Best Picture Award at the Critics Choice a few weeks ago – a pretty reliable indicator of the Oscar’s top prize – at Sunday night’s SAG, not even being nominated in that category. Instead, that award went to Aaron Sorkin The Chicago 7 Trial, possibly increasing your chances at the Academy show on April 25.
The award for “Best Film” at SAG is actually awarded to the Best Cast in a Film and, in accepting the award on behalf of the star cast, Frank Llangella, who played Judge Julius Hoffman, recalled the words of Martin Luther King:
“God give us leaders, said Reverend Martin Luther King, before being slaughtered in cold blood on the same date in 1968 – a profound injustice. The Chicago 7 Trial began 18 months later, ruled by a corrupt judge – me. Aaron Sorkin was determined to tell his story and his loving and respectful direction transformed a group of disparate actors into a group. Reverend King was right. We need leaders who can guide us to hate each other less. We owe a debt of thanks to the voices of Chicago 7 and most especially Aaron Sorkin, our leader, whose voice is the soul of this film. “
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The film follows the real-life story of a group of young political activists accused of inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and among its stellar cast are Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin and Michael Keaton as Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
For Keaton, this Chicago 7 the overall victory makes him the first person in the history of SAG to win three awards for Best Performance by a Cast in a Film. In 2014, it was part of the winning set of bird Man, and again in 2015 for Spotlight.
John Carrol Lynch, who played David Dellinger, told the SAG team that the most difficult scene for him was when Bobby Seale – who was actually not even involved in the riots – was tied up and gagged in court for declaring his right to a lawyer. “That was moving,” said Lynch. “It’s hard to be around, the more you shoot, the more you realize it was a representation of the days when he was in prison in court.”
Many years in the making, the project started in the hands of Steven Spielberg, who then commissioned Sorkin to carry it out successfully.