Movies

Standard Of Review: Revisiting The Classic Film '...And Justice For All'

Coming into the film, all I knew about …And Justice for All was Pacino’s famous and often spoofed “You’re out of order!” speech.

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If Al Pacino were a lawyer, he would be a venerable, respected senior partner at a law firm who had not actually done anything of note in decades. His colleagues would wax nostalgic about that amazing doc review he oversaw as a first year associate and that time he found a perfect case on point during his third year. However, his career would have devolved to merely walking up and down the halls yelling at everyone. Now that I think about it, that sounds a lot like a few senior partners at my firm.

Indeed, Al Pacino had perhaps the most auspicious beginning to his career as any actor in history. His third movie was The Godfather, and within a three-year span also starred in classics Serpico, The Godfather Part II, and Dog Day Afternoon.  Over the next 25 years, he gave great performances in Scarface, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman, Carlito’s Way, Heat, Donnie Brasco, and The Insider.

But then things began to slip. In 1999, he starred in Any Given Sunday, which is quite possibly my least favorite movie of all time (if I was not writing a legal-related column, I would certainly love to write a 5000-word opus on my issues with that film; I could probably write 1000 words alone on the opposing team in Any Given Sunday whose uniforms do not contain numbers in the front), and followed it up with such dreck as The Recruit, Gigli, Two for the Money, 88 Minutes, Righteous Kill, and Jack and Jill (though, to be fair, in 2003 he co-starred in the excellent HBO miniseries Angels in America). Whenever I want to feel sad (but don’t feel like listening to “Transatlanticism” by Death Cab for Cutie), I peruse Pacino’s IMDB page and think about the career he could have had if he had picked better roles over the past 15 years.

But I recently realized that I had never seen Pacino’s 1979 legal thriller …And Justice for All, for which Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award (he lost to Dustin Hoffman for another legal-related film, Kramer vs. Kramer). I have not reviewed an older work since my inaugural column, so I thought that …And Justice for All would be a perfect film to watch over the holiday weekend.

Coming into the film, all I knew about …And Justice for All was Pacino’s famous and often spoofed “You’re out of order!” speech. I therefore read the film’s Netflix description, which is as follows:  “America’s justice system comes under indictment in director Norman Jewison’s penetrating film starring Al Pacino as upstanding attorney Arthur Kirkland, who’s tasked with defending a hard-line — and tainted — judge (John Forsythe) standing trial for rape.”

I wish that I had eschewed reading the Netflix description, because it is not particularly accurate (then why am I restating it for you, dear reader? If I had to suffer by reading the description, then you will also have to suffer!). Yes, it is true that tough Baltimore Judge Henry Fleming is accused of rape, and hires Arthur Kirkland (Pacino) as his defense attorney, despite the fact that the judge had refused to consider evidence that would have exonerated one of Kirkland’s other clients. But the movie is barely about the defense of Judge Fleming. The judge isn’t even accused of rape until 39 minutes into the film. Kirkland does not agree to take his case until almost 20 minutes later. Kirkland probably spends less than 15 minutes of the film’s running time investigating and trying the case.

Instead, the film actually follows a plethora of Kirkland’s cases in order to examine the inefficiencies of the Baltimore legal system. One of Kirkland’s clients unfairly receives jail time because of arbitrary deadlines. Another of Kirkland’s clients receives jail time because Kirkland’s colleague shows up late to a hearing. The city’s ethics committee blackmails Kirkland. Kirkland’s partner Jay Porter (Jeffrey Tambor, with a full head of hair and awesome sideburns) slowly descends into madness due to the realization that he helped violent criminals avoid prison. All of these vignettes, while short, act a precursor to The Wire, as it scathingly explores institutional failure in the justice system.

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Not all of it works. Occasionally the film is a bit heavy-handed, particularly the opening credits, in which children read the Pledge of Allegiance over scenes of an empty courtroom. On the other end of the spectrum, Jack Warden plays wacky Judge Francis Rayford, who (among other things) literally shoots a gun in a courtroom, crashes a helicopter because he intentionally did not fuel it properly, eats lunch with his feet dangling over the courtroom roof, and attempts to shoot himself with a rifle (all played for laughs). Every scene with Judge Rayford is farcical and tonally inconsistent with the rest of the film’s verisimilitude. The scene where Judge Rayford shoots a gun in court à la Yosemite Sam is especially egregious, as everyone shrugs it off like it is a normal occurrence. It almost makes the “Die Bart, Die” courtroom scene from the classic The Simpsons episode “Cape Feare” look realistic by comparison (“That’s German for ‘The Bart, The.’”).

As for Pacino, while his performance is famous for the iconic “You’re out of order!” scene, he does more than just yell. My favorite moment was when he delivers an intense and searing (and calm!) monologue to his girlfriend Gail Packer (Christine Lahti) about the miscarriage of justice that has befallen his clients. It was refreshing to be reminded that Pacino was once one of the finest actors in the world, and …And Justice for All makes great use of his talents. I guess I should give the senior partners at my firm more credit for being great lawyers…

Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.

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