…And Justice For All – Special Edition (1979/Norman Jewison - Al Pacino/Sony DVD Set)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: C-     Extras: B-     Film: B+

 

 

Norman Jewison is one of the great Hollywood journeyman filmmakers and in his journey, he has made his critical and commercial successes many, but two films stand out as uncompromising achievements that cannot be ignored for their intelligence, boldness, groundbreaking nature and an immediacy that continues to be inarguable.  One is In The Heat Of The Night (1967) and the other is …And Justice For All (1979) with Al Pacino in one of his greatest, tour-de-force performances as Arthur Kirkland, a lawyer with strong principles and a moral center that makes him believe the system can still work.

 

But lately, his faith is being tested.

 

 

He has much eccentricity to deal with in his work from fellow lawyers (Jeffrey Tambor) to his outsider clients who often tend to be societies most vulnerable (poor, minority, mentally challenged) and a good woman in his life (Christine Lahti) he is trying to hold a relationship with.  However, there are also those who have lost their principles and either are driven to succeed for the wrong reasons without crossing certain lines (Craig T. Nelson) or judges that are just plain no good like Henry Fleming (John Forsythe, before his Dynasty success and still know only as the voice on the original Charlie’s Angels) so and so-s that don’t like lawyers as principled as Arthur.

 

Arthur believes one man can make the difference, but no matter what he does, things seem to get worse.  He cares, but keeps finding out those around him are losing their heart and soul, the reasons many of them became involved to begin with.  As this decline gets worse, he even consults a fellow Judge (Jack Warden) who may be a little eccentric himself, but is still moral.  Then, Fleming is accused of the rape and beating of a young lady and Arthur is picked to represent him!

 

The Valerie Curtin/Barry Levinson screenplay is often brilliant, thoroughly thought out and its ability to build up is a case study all serious film writers need to examine.  The cast (also including Lee Strasberg, Sam Levene, Thomas G. Waites, Dominic Chianese and Joe Morton) is a top rate and still Pacino shines in a role few could have ever pulled off.  This should have been a blockbuster hit, but the trailer gave everything away.  You have to wonder if that was politically motivated, but that’s another essay.

 

However, the conclusion is one of the greatest in cinema history and if anything, was prophetic and is more timely than ever.  No one thought the courts could be set backwards after The Civil Rights movement, but now, we all know better.  Within a few years, despite the regressive nature of 1980s Hollywood, a mature cycle of courtroom dramas like Suspect and The Star Chamber surfaced and those in the know rightly declared …And Justice For All a classic.  Unfortunately, because these films were not edited like Music Videos, they have been lost on a few new generations of filmmakers and filmmaking, which is yet another reason films have become so bad in the last twenty years.  Now, you can see it in this expanded Special Edition.

 

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image may have some grain and some detail issues, but this is definitely from a new transfer master with rich color and after years of pale clips and bad TV prints, it is a welcome improvement.  The film solidified a new look for courtroom dramas that had become the domain of TV detective shows in the 1960s and 1970s over feature films, but Director of Photography Victor J., Kemper (The Hospital, The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud, Dog Day Afternoon, Coma, Magic) gave it a distinct new look that Hollywood has been following ever since.

 

The original theatrical optical mono sound has been “upgraded” to Dolby Digital 5.1, but the mix backfires making the dialogue too compressed, mixing Dave Grusin’s fine score in odd ways with the overall result very poor.  A mono version should have been included and comparison to any time on Jewison’s commentary show how good the mono track is versus whoever botched this 5.1 disaster.  Playing the 5.1 in 2.0 did not help much either.

 

Extras include a repeat of Jewison’s excellent audio commentary track, the original theatrical trailer, trailers for other Sony releases, some interesting deleted scenes, a preview for Pacino’s 88 Minutes, two featurettes (Norman Jewison: The Testimony Of A Director, Barry Levinson: Cross Examining The Screenwriter) and appropriately, the pilot to the hit TV series Damages, shows how this film caused TV legal dramas to grow and advance in ways they might not have without it.

 

…And Justice For All is a classic and must see for anyone serious about filmmaking or the work of Pacino.  Any fan of Scarface owes it to themselves to own it and nearly three decades later, the audience (and many filmmakers) are still catching up with it.  Now you can too.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo