BOOK VS MOVIE: The Trial of the Chicago 7: The Official Transcript

Originally Posted 7/23/2021

I’m flattered Mark L. Levine the co-editor of The Trial of the Chicago 7: The Official Transcript (1969) found me and asked if I’d be interested in moderating his talk on the re-publishing of what was originally entitled The Tales of Hoffman.

11 days after the controversial Chicago 7 trial ended, Levine and friends were able to get the trial transcripts into bookstores. The materials — edited for brevity, insight and entertainment, became a best seller at the time, but eventually went out of print. In 2020 Aaron Sorkin and Steven Spielberg‘s Dream Works Pictures made the story of the trial into an Academy Award nominated Netflix film. Contemporaneously with the release of the movie, publishing house Simon & Schuster reprinted the edited transcript (originally published by Bantam Books), now called THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7: THE OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT

I watched The Trial of the Chicago 7 last fall, it was #36 on my Best of 2020 Letterbox list . Like most, what stood out for me other than Aaron Sorkin’s always lively dialogue; was the fact that such proceedings were allowed to take place. Its obvious these guys were being made examples of to quell the anti-Vietnam movement and the overall social justice, civil rights movements of the time. And here we are 50 years later witnessing marching and demonstrating for the same issues of equality, police brutality and inclusivity. It’s hard to believe last summer peaceful demonstrators were met with opposition from those in authority, as if we’d gone back in time.

In the below interview – Mark and I discuss the parallels of what took place during the counter culture movement of the late 60’s and the similarities of present day politics. But mainly we discuss the pros and cons of poetic license – what Aaron Sorkin needed to do to create a compelling movie versus what Mark feels misleads the audience in terms of historical accuracy…

ORIGINAL POST June 30, 2021

JOIN US FOR THIS VIRTUAL EVENT
PRESENTED BY A NOVEL IDEA PHILLY BOOK STORE

Mark L. Levine In Conversation w/ LeAnne Lindsay

Tue, July 20, 2021 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT

Aaron Sorkin’s terrific movie wonderfully captures the spirit of the trial and the times. But did everything we see and hear in the movie actually happen? What is real and where did Sorkin take “creative license”? And does it matter?

In a conversation moderated by LeAnne Lindsay, Mark L. Levine will discuss the differences between the movie and what actually happened during the trial as well as the question of why we should (or should not) care about those differences. He will also discuss how he and his friends, in only 16 days, edited the 22,302 pages of the official court transcript into a 300-page book that the New York Times called “A sometimes hilarious, often disturbing and always engrossing slice of documentary history” and the Boston Globe called “journalism at its best.”

Mark L. Levine, a lawyer, is co-editor of The Trial of the Chicago 7: The Official Transcript and has done voter protection work in more than a dozen states. His books include The Complete Book of Bible Quotations, a“Bartlett’s of the Bible” that was in print for 34 years, and Negotiating a Book Contract: A Guide for Authors, Agents and Lawyers. Heis a graduate of Columbia College, New York University School of Law and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 1968, the year of the Chicago demonstrations, he worked in New Hampshire and Wisconsin as a volunteer in Senator Eugene McCarthy’s presidential primary campaign against President Lyndon Johnson.

LeAnne Lindsay is a member of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle and a former weekly contributor to Chuck Darrow’s radio program “That’s Showbiz”. She has been covering movies and film since 2009, starting with blogging for both the Philadelphia Film Society and Cinedelphia. In 2010 she created her own site called Tinsel & Tine. The name is a takeoff of Tinseltown, the tines of a fork representing foodie coverage. Yet, T & T has always been a small, side dish of “tine” and a main course of “tinsel” – providing not only movie reviews, but film festival coverage, interviews, subscriber ticket giveaways, short films, and indie filmmaker features. LeAnne’s intention for the site has always been to spark conversations, awareness & celebration of the film industry. Mixed with a spotlight on Philly Happenings.