'The Trial of the Chicago 7' bags Top Honor at SAG Awards 2021 making history for Netflix

The 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards was recently concluded celebrating the outstanding motion picture and television performances. The virtual, pre-taped event has The Trial of the Chicago 7 taking the top prize, with the actors of color bagging the individual film awards for the first time. Check out the details below.

'The Trial of the Chicago 7' takes top honors at SAG Awards 2021

The stellar cast of Aaron Sorkin’s directed 1960s courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 won "an outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture" at the SAG Awards 2021. Every year SAG Awards is considered as a preview for Oscars, but it is a lesser foretaste this year as perceived Academy Awards frontrunner - Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland was not nominated for best ensemble. However, the win for Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 marks the first time a film for any streaming service grabbed the guild’s ensemble award.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 cast winner includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Richard Schultz, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Fred Hampton, Michael Keaton as Ramsey Clark, Frank Langella as Judge Julius Hoffman, John Carroll Lynch as David Dellinger, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, Mark Rylance as William Kunstler, Alex Sharp as Rennie Davis, and Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin. The movie was set for a theatrical release by Paramount Pictures before the pandemic hit, leading to its sales to Netflix. The streamer is still after its first best-picture win at the Academy Awards.

The win came over two other Netflix films – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods. The nominees also included Amazon’s One Night in Miami and A24’s Minari. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won the ensemble cast award last year, becoming the first cast from a non-English language movie to do so. If Lee Isaac Chung’s Korean-American family drama Minari would have got the honor, it would have been the second straight year a film largely not in English won SAG’s top award.

Is the Trial of the Chicago 7 accurate?

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is based on a true story following a group of anti-Vietnam War protesters charged with crossing state lines and conspiracy with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Like many movies inspired by real events, Aaron Sorkin took creative liberty in some scenes for good storytelling. However, most of the facts were accurate.

The inaccurate facts include Bobby Seal only bound and gagged for a few moments in the film. In reality, he spent several days in the court that way, only able to communicate through muffled noises, revealed Decider. There is also little evidence that lawyer Richard Schultz, was as sympathetic to the defendants as he appeared in the movie. The undercover FBI agent Daphne O’Connor’s part also does not have a link to the actual incident.

The accurate facts include the gag pulled by Hoffman and Rubin of wearing judges’ robes to mock Judge Hoffman. Several dialogues were taken from courtroom transcripts. The name of all of the people who lost their lives in Vietnam was read aloud at one point in the trial, although it was not the climactic closing statement as shown in the movie.

Promo Image Source: Netflix.com