Trailers have to sell the basic sizzle to the lowest common denominator. Naturally. Millions have to be briefed on what the Chicago 7 trial was all all about — who was who, what the Nixon administration was after, what the political currents were in ’68 and ’69. All to say that Aaron Sorkin’s film (limited theatrical on 9.25, Netflix release on 10.16) is much better than what this trailer indicates. Aces with room to spare. I knew this less than five minutes in.
I wish, by the way, that I could find a clip of that Bobby Seale courtroom bit in Woody Allen‘s Bananas (’71). Allen’s Fielding Mellish is prosecuted for treason or grossly un-American behavior, and, like Seale, is soon bound and gagged by the presiding judge (the resemblance to Judge Julius Hoffman being unmistakable), etc.