…And Justice For All - Pacino’s Last Great Performance

Feb

6

…And Justice For All - Pacino’s Last Great Performance

≡ Category: Comedy, Drama, Essential, Movie Reviews By Country, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: Norman Jewison
Year: 1979

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE

Al Pacino is a very sad case. He was once one of our very finest actors, but it’s been a long time since he’s given an unambiguously great performance. I don’t mean that he can’t be entertaining. Pictures like Carlito’s Way, Sea of Love, Cruising, Scarface, and The Devil’s Advocate come to mind. But with the sole exception of his superb depiction of Ricky Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross, Pacino’s performances have ranged from clownish to downright embarrassing for almost 30 years now.

Which brings us to …And Justice For All, which came out in 1979.

…And Justice For All is a pitch black comedy about the legal system, written by none other than Jane Curtin, who was one of the original performers on Saturday Night Live, and Barry Levinson, who would go on to become a major director.

The movie is pitched at a level of utter absurdity. I have no doubt that all of the incidents in …And Justice For All have taken place at one time or another, but to cram them all in the same movie is to completely abandon a literal sense of realism. But that’s okay. The filmmakers aren’t playing that game.

…And Justice For All is a howl of pure outrage, leavened with chuckles that stick in your throat.

Arthur Kirkland (Al Pacino) is a public defender, put through law school by his now senile grandfather (Lee Strasberg), who thinks Arthur’s still in law school and keeps telling him “someday, you’ll be a great lawyer.” Arthur is an idealistic man, but no naif. He scolds his clients “Just don’t lie to me.”

One of his clients is Jeff McCullaugh (Thomas G. Waites), who was stopped by the cops for having a broken tail light, and has been having legal problems ever since. Standing in the way of the resolution of these problems is Judge Henry T. Fleming (John Forsythe), who seems to enjoy busting people’s balls.

One of Arthur’s friends is Judge Rayford (Jack Warden), whose diversions include having lunch while sitting on a ledge of his office five stories up and recklessly piloting his personal helicopter. Judge Rayford counsels Arthur to go along to get along.

Arthur’s faith in the law is tested more and more. When he’s forced to defend his enemy Judge Fleming on a particularly heinous legal charge or be disbarred, you start to ask yourself, how much more can poor Arthur stomach?

There are any number of wonderful performances in …And Justice For All, but Al Pacino carries the film. He is by turns sexy, funny, mournful, frustrated, scared out of his gourd, and furious, and not once does he resort to the sort of hammy grandstanding that has become his trademark. In …And Justice For All, as in most of his 70s work, Pacino is operating at a human scale, with a precision and power that are a wonder to behold. It’s a fantastic performance, but not the only one.

Jack Warden is a riot as the borderline suicidal judge. He is a model of logic, but he’s clearly nuts, and that’s kind of the point. John Forsythe is absolutely infuriating as Judge Fleming, who at one point thunders “What we need is unjust punishment!” Thomas G. Waites will break your heart as Jeff McCullaugh, the poor schmuck who gets chewed up by the legal system. And I don’t want to leave out Jeffrey Tambor, who plays a fellow lawyer that has a memorable onscreen mental breakdown.

As an expose, …And Justice For All might have succeeded better had it not poured on the insanity of the legal system so thickly, but it’s undeniably entertaining. Jane Curtin and Barry Levinson’s screenplay is chock full of quotable dialog:

Jeff McCullaugh: Some… somebody beat me up…
Arthur Kirkland: Why?
Jeff McCullaugh: I dunno, I didn’t ask.

Ralph Agee: [trying to explain why he was arrested] See what happened was it was time to come down on a nigger. It’s like smoking, they’ve got to have a nigger every 20 minutes.

Judge Rayford: Sixteen years of marriage and my wife still won’t eat Chinese food. It’s crazy, especially since we met in a Chinese restaurant.

I also have a special affection for the score by Dave Grusin, which is New York soul jazz at it’s finest.

In the final analysis, …And Justice For All is a movie to treasure. It tells the truth about the legal system and rather than modulate itself in an attempt at reasonableness or telling both sides of the story, it goes for broke and lays it out there. Even in the truthtelling 70s, that took guts. And to top it off, …And Justice For All is gripping, hilarious and enraging, in equal measure.