Gregg Brilliant. Based on the bestselling book, the Just Mercy movie presents the unforgettable story of Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and the case of Walter McMillian (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx), who was convicted and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. Stevenson’s parents and relatives worked hard and with determination but never seemed to prosper. Before Henry is dragged away, he plants his feet and sings a hymn Stevenson recognizes from the church where he grew up. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Despite having 17 witnesses vouching for his whereabouts at the time of the murder, an Alabama jury of 11 White men and one Black man convicted McMillian based on the testimony of an ex-con named Ralph Meyers (Nelson). Later, the burgeoning paper industry in the 1950s largely excluded African Americans and increased their poverty. (2019). However, Walter started a pulpwood business in the 1970s, which gave him economic independence—a freedom that sparked suspiciousness in white Alabamians. Morgan shades his small part with such beautiful, subtle gestures that he becomes the only character who feels fleshed out, complex and real. Stevenson comments on how he’d studied philosophy in college and then decided to study law while simultaneously pursuing a graduate degree in public policy. Stevenson took his case to the CBS airwaves after his successful attempt to get McMillian’s case reopened ended with a judge named after Robert E. Lee discarding Myers’ admission that he’d lied under oath in the first trial. Foxx’s McMillian is written in a similarly flat manner, but he shines in his few scenes with fellow Death Row inmate Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan). Adapting Stevenson’s memoir, Cretton and his co-writer Andrew Lanham touch upon activists for Death Row prisoners, the value of White lives vs. Black lives, veterans whose PTSD is left unchecked, corrupt law officials, justice system imbalances and, in a subplot anchored by Tim Blake Nelson, the idea that poor people are victimized by law enforcement regardless of what color the impoverished person is. Stevenson considers the song a precious gift, and hadn’t expected it; in that moment, Henry deepens Stevenson’s understanding of human potential, redemption, and hopefulness. Impoverished people and people of color are over-represented in prisons, a profitable industry from which Stevenson traces a historical line back to slavery. They talk the entire flight and Bright tells Stevenson that capital punishment means people without capital—i.e. . In the 1950s, his mother got him into a “colored school,” but by eight or nine he left school to return to the fields to pick cotton. At SPDC, Stevenson also respects the time and energy the attorneys put into their work. On the drive to the rural prison, Stevenson rehearses how to phrase the message. I left the state in 1966 for the Army and Vietnam. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson.) Just Mercy study guide contains a biography of Peter Abelard, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. He looks familiar to Stevenson. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Stevenson notes that the statistics reflect who is being convicted, not necessarily who is committing crimes. Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be America’s Mandela. I should mention that this case took place in Monroeville, Alabama, also known as the home of “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee. . Still, she milks a lot of character out of the simple act of smoking a cigarette. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here. The memoir’s opening pages establish a contrast between how Bryan Stevenson was young and inexperienced when he first began representing death row prisoners, only to become a leading social justice advocate. I bring up Lee because her book, and its subsequent cinematic adaptation, are ground zero for all the aggravating clichés I mentioned above. What does the author find particularly striking about Walter McMillian when he meets him? All of this is completely believable in reality, but here, both the corrupt Sheriff Tate (Michael Harding) and the district attorney are depicted as cartoon villains acting alone rather than in service to a far more racist and corrupt system. Closeness to condemned people on death row is what inspired him to advocate for unfairly judged people. McMillian was on Death Row for a crime he swore he didn’t commit, the death of a young White woman. There are also private prisons that make profits from crime and incarceration; this drive for profit is at odds with efforts to reduce incarceration and promote rehabilitation. for thematic content including some racial epithets. Movies like “Just Mercy” spoon-feed everything to the viewer in easily digestible chunks that assume you know nothing, or worse, don’t know any better. Walter’s case is significant because Stevenson will return to it throughout the memoir. I wish the rest of “Just Mercy” had that level of jarring complexity instead of relying on easy tropes to deliver its message. Making matters worse, the White perpetrators of injustice are so often one-note villains that they allow for plausible deniability by the viewer: “I can’t be racist because I’m nowhere near as bad as THAT guy!” Granted, this is a period piece true story and the film can’t bend its real-life people too deeply into dramatic license, but director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton applies a way-too-familiar formula to their personalities. Walter was subpoenaed to testify at the custody battle. Walter had a wife and three children, though he was known for being romantically involved with other women. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Unlike McMillian, Richardson is guilty of the crime and believes he belongs on Death Row. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ). The story of Thurgood Marshall, the crusading lawyer who would become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career-defining cases.

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