Flick of the Day: Runaway Jury

Adaptations of John Grisham novels have become something of a cottage industry over the years producing a slew of films of varying quality ranging from the excellent (The Firm, A Time to Kill) to the dull (The Chamber) to the downright ill advised (Christmas with the Kranks). Today's flick of the day is somewhere in the middle, possessing a fine cast and an engaging tale without setting the world alight.

Runaway Jury

Opening in a New Orleans office, a recently let go employee returns to commit a mass killing spree with an automatic weapon during which he kills a young father. This motivates his widow to launch a lawsuit against the gun manufacturer for not taking more care of who purchased their product. We fast forward to the beginning of the trial. The gun manufacturers have hired the legendary bagman Rankin Fitch to deliver a favourable verdict. Fitch is played by a menacing Gene Hackman in a fine turn. Opposing Fitch's machinations is the idealistic attorney (a Grisham trope if ever there was one) Wendell Rohr played by Dustin Hoffman. Into this face-off steps juror number 9, Nick Easter, a game store clerk played by the always charming John Cusack. It soon becomes apparent that Nick and his other half played by Rachel Weisz have for reasons which become apparent in the final reel, their own agenda for the trial regardless of what the two legal teams want. Together they begin to communicate with both Hackman and Hoffman, promising to swing the jury for the right price.

As a screenwriter it is surely impossible to please fans of any source material be it a novel or a play without being too slavish to it. A film has to stand on its own. In this regard, the film makes a major departure from the source novel by amending the heartless corporation to a gun manufacturer from a big tobacco firm. I can't fathom the reason behind it but it adds an additional layer of unreality to an already overburdened tale. At numerous points in the film, one is forced to suspend the nagging question in the back of your mind that perhaps this wouldn't really go like that.

For all that, it is a compelling tale, director Gary Fleder manages to ratchet up the tension as the trial wares on and avoids spending too much time on court room drama. Focusing on the goings on in the jury room is a smart move and it relies on good character actors for the jury. Thankfully this is the case with most of them faces you have seen before like Cliff Curtis, Bill Nunn and Gerry Bamman.

Perhaps the best reason for seeing a film that is only so-so is the chance to see Hoffman and Hackman face off on screen. The old masters share only one major scene together but it is an entertaining turn all the same. Hackman's Fitch is the polar opposite of the crusading Rohr and is so often the case, the bad guy gets all the best lines. 

Rankin Fitch: You think your average juror is King Solomon? No, he's a roofer with a mortgage. He wants to go home and sit in his Barcalounger and let the cable TV wash over him. And this man doesn't give a single, solitary droplet of shit about truth, justice or your American way. 

Whereas Rohr would prefer to win the trial based on the veracity of his arguments, Fitch wants victory at all cost and is prepared to go to any lengths to get it including buying the jury or coercing them through nefarious means.

Cusack's Nick on the other hand is a cipher through which the plot flows though it is entertaining to watch the way in which he charms his way into the hearts of each of his fellow jurors.  Without giving too much away, the twist in tale is his motivation for playing with the trial and it should be obvious enough before it lopes into view.

All in all, this is an entertaining trifle and nothing more. Like so much of Grisham's work it goes best with the throwaway nature of books you read on an airplane.The cast are fine throughout with Hoffman and Hackman making the best of their roles. There is just enough tension to keep you interested until the end. 

Flick of The Day: Blue Collar

The lives of the average blue collar worker are usually beneath the eye of the Hollywood system. Except for rare examples such as this, there are no working class people in mainstream American cinema. They are either comfortably affluent or desperately poor. You can spot the desperately poor because they take the bus. It takes a brave film-maker to point out the flaws in the American dream.

Blue Collar (Amazon.com Exclusive)

Paul Schrader, who made his name as screenwriter never afraid to tackle taboo subjects, writing films such as Taxi Driver, Hardcore and The Last Temptation Of Christ makes his directorial debut with this biting attack on the corruption endemic in the Detroit car industry. Starring Richard Pryor, who is superb in one of his only dramatic performances. Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto complete the trio of auto-workers, who disillusioned with an uncaring employer and a union more concerned with lining its own pockets then helping its members, decide to break into the union offices and crack its safe.

The picture Schrader paints of the Detroit car industry and of the unions which sustain it is not a pretty one. From the Foreman who bullies his workers, to the Shop Steward who refuses to look after their grievances and a taxation system ready to hit them like a ton of bricks if they step out of line, this film makes a point of sympathising with the troubles of the little man. For that alone, it deserves credit for originality of ideas. The script pulls no punches as the Yaphet Kotto character Smokey James puts it:

"They pit the lifers against the new boy and the young against the old. The black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place."

Of course, the robbery nets the trio very little in cash but they do come across a ledger which documents the union's illegal activities. This is when the union begins to show its true colours. The film's downbeat ending was too much for audiences in the late '70s and the film was a commercial flop while still critically acclaimed. The script is peppered with the kind of authentic street level dialogue that gives the film its gritty realism. The performances of all 3 leads is superb, which is amazing given that as legend has it, none of them got along together with fistfights between takes not uncommon.

Looking back now after all of the much publicised troubles of the American car industry and its workers, this film seems eerily prescient of that which was to come. The big car companies and the unions are portrayed as equally despicable and very much in league with each other. Given these odds, how could the common worker hope to defeat them? It is telling that no major car company would allow the film to be shot on their line. This is a great film and an excellent portrait of the hardships of factory life. I urge you to seek it out.