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...And Justice for All (film)

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...And Justice for All is a 1979 American legal comedy-drama film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Al Pacino, Jack Warden and John Forsythe. Lee Strasberg, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Lahti, Craig T. Nelson, Thomas Waites and Sam Levene (in his final screen performance) appear in supporting roles. The Oscar-nominated screenplay is written by Valerie Curtin and Barry Levinson. It was filmed in Baltimore, including the courthouse area. It received two Academy Award nominations: Best Actor (Pacino) and Best Original Screenplay (Curtin and Levinson).

...And Justice for All
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNorman Jewison
Written by
Produced by
  • Norman Jewison
  • Patrick Palmer
Starring
CinematographyVictor J. Kemper
Edited byJohn F. Burnett
Music byDave Grusin
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
  • September 15, 1979 (1979-09-15) (Toronto)
  • October 19, 1979 (1979-10-19) (United States)
Running time
119 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$4 million
Box office$33.3 million[1]

The film includes a well-known scene in which Pacino's character yells, "You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order!"

Plot

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Arthur Kirkland, a Baltimore defense attorney, is in jail on a contempt-of-court charge after punching Judge Henry T. Fleming while arguing the case of Jeff McCullaugh. McCullaugh was stopped for a minor traffic offense, then mistaken for a killer of the same name, and has already spent a year and a half in jail without being convicted of a crime. Fleming has repeatedly stymied Kirkland's efforts to have the case reviewed. Although there is strong new evidence that McCullaugh is innocent, Fleming refuses to consider his appeal due to its late submission, so he remains in prison. Kirkland starts a new case defending Ralph Agee, a young black cross-dresser arrested for a robbery who is terrified of being sent to prison.

Kirkland regularly visits his grandfather Sam in a nursing home. Sam is progressively becoming senile. It is revealed that Kirkland was abandoned by his parents at a young age, and it was Sam who raised him and put him through law school. Kirkland also begins a romance with legal ethics committee member Gail Packer.

Kirkland has a friendly relationship with Judge Francis Rayford, who takes him on a hair-raising ride in his personal helicopter. Rayford laughs in amusement as he tests how far he can fly before running out of fuel. Kirkland is terrified and begs him to land. Rayford eventually crashes his helicopter in knee-deep water. Rayford, a Korean War veteran, is borderline suicidal; at all times, he keeps a rifle in his chambers at the courthouse and an M1911 pistol in his shoulder holster. He even eats his lunch on a ledge outside his office window, four stories up.

One day, Kirkland is unexpectedly requested to defend Judge Fleming, who has been accused of brutally assaulting and raping a young woman. Although the two loathe each other, Fleming feels that having the person who publicly hates him argue his innocence will be to his advantage. Fleming blackmails Kirkland with an old violation of attorney-client confidentiality, for which Kirkland will likely be disbarred if it were to come to light.

Kirkland's friend and partner Jay Porter is also unstable. He feels guilt for gaining acquittals for defendants who were truly guilty of violent crimes. Porter arrives drunk at Kirkland's apartment, after one of his guilty clients kills two kids following his acquittal. Porter soon shaves his head, claiming that it will make his hair grow back thicker, but he keeps shaving it. After a violent breakdown inside the courthouse—wherein he ends up throwing dinner plates at everybody in the hallway—Porter is taken to a hospital.

Before leaving in the ambulance, Kirkland asks another partner, Warren Fresnell, to handle Agee's court hearing in his absence. Kirkland gives Fresnell a corrected version of Agee's probation report and stresses that it must be shown to the judge, so that Agee will receive probation rather than serve jail time. Fresnell arrives at the courthouse late and forgets to give the judge the corrected version, causing Agee to be sentenced to jail time. Kirkland is livid and attacks Fresnell's car, revealing that thirty minutes after he was sentenced, Agee died by suicide. Meanwhile, Jeff McCullaugh, who has been sexually and physically assaulted by other inmates, finally snaps and takes two hostages. Kirkland pleads with him to surrender, promising to get him out, but a police sniper shoots and kills McCullaugh when he moves in front of a window.

A clearly disturbed Kirkland takes on Judge Fleming's case. Prosecuting attorney Frank Bowers hopes to make his reputation by convicting a judge. Kirkland's client Carl Travers hopes to receive free legal services by offering photos of Judge Fleming engaged in bisexual BDSM with a prostitute. Gail reminds Kirkland of his professional obligations to defend the judge. Kirkland shows the pictures to Fleming, who admits that he is a rapist.

At the trial, Fleming jokes that he would like to see his victim again sometime. In his opening statement, Kirkland sarcastically muses about the legal system and Bowers's ambition. He surprises everyone by saying that Bowers will not convict Fleming because he will, and he proceeds to accuse his client of being guilty. Kirkland is dragged out of the courtroom, venting his rage the whole way. The spectators cheer for Kirkland, Fleming sits down in defeat, and a fed-up Rayford storms out.

As an exhausted Kirkland sits on the courthouse steps, Jay Porter passes on his way back to work, tipping his wig to Kirkland.

Cast

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Production

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Norman Jewison said that he was attracted to the script because it clarified for him the reality that the courtroom is a kind of stage where a drama is played out. He was intrigued by the satirical possibilities of the scenario.[2] He also drew parallels to contemporary politics. "There was a time when the legal profession was inviolate," he said. "Then came Watergate...We're starting to realize that being in the law doesn't mean being above the law."[3]

He was careful to delineate the film's genre. "It's difficult at times to pull the audience back. Sometimes they start to go with the film as a melodrama. We were then able to pull them back with something almost absurd, to shock them out of it because I didn't want it to become a message picture."[4]

Barry Levinson's high school friend Donald Saointz, a practicing attorney, advised him on the screenplay. When the production got off the ground, Saointz served as an advisor for Al Pacino and John Forsythe. He appears in the film as a defense attorney.[5]

Lee Strasberg took a small role as a way of helping his student and friend. He was worried that Al Pacino was being typecast and wanted to see him branch out. Jewison felt that Pacino's role was an inversion of his usual, where Kirkland was the sane person surrounded by nutcases.[6] Pacino liked the fact that Kirkland "was a part of things, not a loner. The sort of characters I usually play are anti-heroes."[7]

The film was shot in Baltimore, including the courthouse area, the Washington Monument of the Mount Vernon district, and Fort McHenry.[8] Pacino practiced the "You're out of order!" scene 26 times at the building ledge.[9] The Seduction of Joe Tynan had also recently been shot in Baltimore. Mayor William Donald Schaefer and the city film commission fully supported the production, which spent $1.5 million locally.[6]

Release

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The film premiered as the closing night gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 15, 1979.[10]

Reception

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...And Justice for All scores 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, 58/100 on Metacritic and 23/30 on Zagat.[11][12][13] Empire magazine calls it a "solid but slightly clichéd courtroom drama" and rates it 3 stars out of 5.[14]

The film was a box-office success. Produced on a modest budget of $4 million, it grossed more than $33.3 million in North America, making it the 24th highest-grossing film of 1979.[1]

Robert Osborne of The Hollywood Reporter raved, "The film is loaded with virtues...it has all the makings of an enormously popular movie."[15]

Roger Regent, a French critic, called it one of the most remarkable and important films of the season.[2]

Dewey E. Chester of the New Pittsburgh Courier drew parallels to the Watergate scandal and the recent arrest of a state politician on a sodomy charge.[16]

According to Newsday, most critics did not like the film.[7]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the film was so overstuffed that it was an "anthology" held together by "one of those high-voltage Al Pacino performances that's so sure of itself we hesitate to demur." He concluded, "The closing courtroom scenes are constructed as a machine to make the audience cheer, and the machine works."[17]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the general hysteria of the actors as if they had been directed to play "the last act of Three Men on a Horse". He calls Pacino's character "a hyperventilating idiot" and speculates that everyone in the film has "such low thresholds of emotional distress that I wouldn't trust one of them to see 'The Sound of Music' unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian."[18]

Variety said that the film's blend of comedy and drama was unsuccessful but not incompetent.[19]

One critic mused that it was as "commercial as a 60-second K-tel ad and as utterly devoid of substance as a lawyer's opening statement."[20]

The Jewish Advocate compared the film unfavorably to The Hospital for its inability to match Paddy Chayefsky's mordant screenplay. The reviewer described the ending as "a bad Perry Mason television show".[21]

The Boston Globe lamented the film's inability to be a legal version of Catch-22 and faulted the director. "'...And Justice For All' spills its potential drama all over the screen and Jewison never stops to clean up the mess."[22]

The film has been read as a commentary on the outsider status of Jews in the WASP-dominated judicial system.[23] The opening juxtaposition of the majestic courthouse, with grubby interiors and children mangling the Pledge of Allegiance, sets the film's thesis: "the promise of law is at worst superficial and at best idealistic, nearly impossible to experience or achieve".[24][25]

William Schoell pointed to Kirkland's reaction to Agee's suicide as one of the "strongest scenes Pacino has ever played", and gives the actor credit for "triumphing over an impossible script".[26] Brian W. Fairbanks also called the film's screenplay "overly contrived".[27]

The film received two Academy Award nominations. Al Pacino was nominated for Best Actor, and Valerie Curtin and Barry Levinson were nominated for Best Original Screenplay.[28] Pacino was also nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance.[29]

Legacy

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Kirkland's opening statement during the film's climax contains its most famous moment, including the outburst, "You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order!"

Charles Champlin called it the most "rousing finale since 'Rocky I'".[25]

Filmsite named the scene one of the Best Film Speeches and Monologues.[30]

MSN Canada noted that the whole phrase is one of the top 10 "misquoted movie lines".[31]

The "You're out of order!" scene has been parodied many times in popular media, such as in The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory.[32][33] It is also echoed in Pacino's speech in the film Scent of a Woman.

References

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  1. ^ a b "...And Justice for All". The Numbers. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Regent, Roger. “LE CINEMA.” La Nouvelle Revue Des Deux Mondes, 1980, pp. 222–29.
  3. ^ Douglas, Bruce A. "Justice for Pacino: Jewison's '...And Justice for All' A Study in Contrasts", The Muncie Star. December 2, 1979. B11.
  4. ^ Garner, Jack. "Jewison Takes the Judiciary to Court in Stylish Satire", Fort Myers News-Press. November 4, 1979. 6E.
  5. ^ Banisky, Sandy. "Performance: Pacino & Co., City Lawyer's Hollywood 'clients,' back in town for more", The Baltimore Sun. January 22, 1979. B6.
  6. ^ a b Taylor, Clarke. "MOVIES: 'LAWYER' PACINO CARRIES A BRIEF FOR COMEDY." Los Angeles Times. Jan 14, 1979. Calendar, 23.
  7. ^ a b Mills, Nancy. "Pacino: The Most Silent Actor Since Valentino. Al Pacino's Eloquent Silence", Newsday. October 28, 1979. B1.
  8. ^ "Movies Made In Maryland". DelMarWeb. Archived from the original on July 27, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  9. ^ Simpson, Paul (2008). "P: Al Pacino". Movie Lists: 397 Ways to Pick a DVD. Profile Books. p. 266. ISBN 978-1847653550. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  10. ^ Adilman, Sid (September 12, 1979). "Strong Opening For Toronto Festival". Variety. p. 7.
  11. ^ "...And Justice for All". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved September 28, 2024.
  12. ^ ...And Justice For All. Metacritic.
  13. ^ Zagat (2010). Zagat: The World's Best Movies... To Make Sure You Have Seen before Your Popcorn Runs Out. Zagat Survey. pp. 4, 37. ISBN 9781604783230. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  14. ^ "And Justice For All: Solid but slightly cliched courtroom drama starring Al Pacino". Empire Online. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  15. ^ Osborne, Robert. "And Justice for all." The Hollywood Reporter. September 17, 1979. 2.
  16. ^ Chester, Dewey E. "Pacino at His Best in '...and Justice for all': CINEMA." New Pittsburgh Courier. Nov 17, 1979. A7.
  17. ^ Ebert, Roger. "... and Justice for All". Chicago Sun-Times. January 1, 1979.
  18. ^ Canby, Vincent. "Screen: Al Pacino in '...and Justice for All': Sorts of Breakdowns". The New York Times. October 19, 1979.
  19. ^ "...And Justice For All", Variety. December 31, 1978.
  20. ^ Kiely, John. "Toronto Film Festival Honors Hometown Boy", Kitchener-Waterloo Record. September 15, 1979. 62.
  21. ^ Markell, Cecille. "And No Justice for Al Pacino", Jewish Advocate. December 6, 1979. A9.
  22. ^ Blowen, Michael. "Pacino can't rescue 'Justice For All'", Boston Globe. October 20, 1979.
  23. ^ Helfgott, Leonard M. “Crossing Over: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the Baltimore Films of Barry Levinson.” Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition, edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, Purdue University Press, 2015. 249.
  24. ^ Silbey, Jessica M. The Subjects of Trial Films. PhD., University of Michigan, 1999. 148.
  25. ^ a b Champlin, Charles. "'Justice' Approaches the Bench-Skeptically: Pacino Takes on 'Justice' System." Los Angeles Times. Oct 14, 1979, pp. 1-2.
  26. ^ Schoell, William (2016). Al Pacino: In Films and on Stage, 2d Ed. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. 52–4.
  27. ^ Fairbanks, Brian W. (2007). "Profiles: Al Pacino". The Late Show: Writings on Film (2nd ed.). Lulu.com. p. 230. ISBN 9781411633902. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  28. ^ "1980 Academy Awards". www.oscars.org. March 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  29. ^ "And Justice for All". Golden Globes. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  30. ^ "Best Film Speeches and Monologues 1978-1979". Filmsite.org. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
  31. ^ "Top 10 most misquoted movie lines (...And Justice for All)". MSN Entertainment (Canada). June 6, 2011. Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  32. ^ Groening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. Created by Matt Groening; edited by Ray Richmond and Antonia Coffman. (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M.
  33. ^ Rich, Anthony (May 9, 2013), The Love Spell Potential (Comedy, Romance), Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Chuck Lorre Productions, Warner Bros. Television, retrieved September 10, 2020
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