User Reviews

Never having seen this movie, based on the entertaining novel by Nicholas Katzenbach, and taking into consideration the first rate cast assembled for the production, we decided to take a look. "Just Cause", while not a horrible film, takes too many liberties with the original material that Jeb Stuart didn't quite succeed in his treatment. Arne Glimcher directed.

The first thing we think when a young black man is hauled to the local precinct for interrogation is police brutality. After all, sheriff Tanny Brown, and police officer Wilcox, show no mercy in beating Bobby Earl, who is accused of killing a young white girl. We feel horrified by what the officers do to the prisoner.

Then, the scene changes. Evangeline, Bobby Earl's grandmother is sent north to ask a distinguished Harvard professor, a retired lawyer, the young man wants Paul Armstrong to defend him. She old woman is convincing enough for Armstrong to take a look at the case. He is also convinced of the young man's innocence.

Things are not exactly what we thought they were. When Blair Sullivan, a man who is serving time in the same facility as Bobby Earl, comes forward to tell about how he is connected to the young girl's murder, and changes the dynamics of the case. The way it plays in the movie, it serves to confuse the viewer and distract Armstrong from arriving at the truth.

This thriller is made enjoyable by Sean Connery, who plays Armstrong. Laurence Fishburne, an intense actor, makes a fine impression as the Sheriff who, as far as we can see, is guilty of abusing his prisoner. Ed Harris has a wonderful opportunity to show why he is one of our best actors. Blair Underwood, Kate Capshaw, Ruby Dee and the young Scarlett Johansson are seen in supporting roles.

The film, even with its faults, will not disappoint.

SPOILERS.

There's just something about Sean Connery. He's a neat guy, and he's grown neater over the past forty years. He's bald and doesn't care. His hair is gray, except that his eyebrows are black. His face is lined but handsome. He moves with force and grace. He's the kind of older guy that every man ought to hope he grows into. And he doesn't take himself or his talent too seriously either, a saving feature. And he has a sense of humor. He tells the story of location shooting during "The Man Who Would be King." Every day the cast and crew drove many miles from town up into the Atlas mountains. And every morning Connery's car passed an old man walking in the same direction with a huge load of firewood on his back. And every afternoon they would pass the same old man walking back home without the load. One morning Connery finally asked his driver to stop and offer the old guy a ride up into the mountains. The old guy thought for a while and refused the ride. Why? Because if he accepted the ride he would arrive back home too early and wouldn't know what to do with the extra time. That's the Morrocan version of the Protestant Ethic.

He's good in this movie too, as a Harvard law professor who comes to a dumpy small Florida town at the request of a death-row inmate. The inmate is handsome, black, and educated. He tells a horrifying story of having been made to confess to the murder of an eleven-year-old white girl. Now he's doomed. You've seen it before, I'm sure. Another redneck jury railroads an innocent minority-group member into the slams on what Lawrence Fishburn, the detective on the case, describes as pretty flimsy evidence, just barely good enough to convict. White guy then saves black guy from Old Sparky and the inmate embraces the loving family that has been waiting for his exoneration.

Not this time, though. The clean-cut black convict is guilty of the crime. He cuts a deal with another depraves maniac on death row, Ed Harris, than whom no one can act more depraved. Bobby Earl, the educated black murderer, will be released when Harris confesses to the murder of the eleven-year-old girl. In return, Bobby Earl will slaughter the parents that Harris loathes and will, as a kind of lagniappe, have a chance to destroy Connery's family too for a previous misencounter.

The finale loses it. It's been an engaging plot so far, although there is no believable exploration in character or anything. What I mean is that it is nothing more than a typical legal/moral drama with a surprising narrative, not a surprising execution. But the end is a typical shootout in an isolated gator-shack in the Everglades. People are stabbed, shot, kicked, pounded to a pulp, threatened with knives, and eaten by alligators. (Fat chance.) And all of this is preceded by a standard-typical car chase through the city streets and over half-open draw bridges. The climax degrades what would otherwise have been an effective legal thriller.

It is kind of interesting, though, to see the way the plot twists are carried out. And the cast is for the most part quite good, except that Bobby Earl is a bit bland. That blandness is okay when he's supposed to be innocent but it doesn't fit his true maniacal serial-killer child-molesting persona. The shooting is atmospheric, inviting and ominous at the same time. The score is generic. But except for the ending it's kind of enjoyable.

Of course, if you think about the movie, there's another whole perspective on it. It's a polemic against white Northern liberals who oppose capital punishment and are smitten with white guilt. It supports beating hell out of suspects and endorses a justice system based less on evidence than on intuition. And there is no racism at all in the South. Fishburn's daughter is like a sister to the little white victim; they are best friends and sleep over each others' houses. Why don't those Harvard egg heads just leave us alone here in Gatorville. We were all right until they started interfering.

Whenever you see a movie involving someone that states to be unfairly arrested and definitely innocent in the death row, you expect it to end up as the lawyer proving the client was indeed innocent and the whole American system of Justice is corrupt. However, "Just Cause" does practically the opposite, which makes this movie to be extremely surprising. You know, after seeing that Bobby's trial was solved in a matter of seconds, I kinda realized he was, in fact, the murderer, but that's what happens when you see a bunch of movies in your life-- you can predict almost everything. Another good point in this film is the way the suspense is built; in the first conversation between Armstrong and Sullivan, I almost had a heart attack when Sullivan yelled all of a sudden. Director proves, in that scene and in some others, he's capable of scare the spectator whenever he wants to. Furthermore, "Just Cause" is probably inspired in some others pictures of 1990's, such as "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Cape Fear"-- this one mainly in the river scene-, which doesn't mean it doesn't have an original story, because it surely does have. Also, the whole cast is professional, with big congratulations for Ed Harris, for portraying very good the character he's given. Great independent movie!

A Compelling Thriller!!, 10 December 2005 Author:littlehammer16787 from United States

Just Cause

Starring:Sean Connery,Laurence Fishburne, and Blair Underwood.

A liberal,though good-hearted Harvard law professor Paul Armstrong is convoked to the Flordia Everglades by unjustly convicted black guy Bobby Earl.Confessing that sadistic,cold-hearted cops vilifyied and beat him to a pulp to get the confession of a gruesome murder of an eleven year old girl. As he digs further and further into the mysterious case he realizes that Bobby Earl is a victim of discrimination.That the black police detective Lt.Tanny Brown of the small community is corrupt and villainously mean. When the infamous,psychotic serial killer Blair Sullivan is introduced.He discovers that he knows the location of the murder weapon that butchered the little girl.When Armstrong finds that there are lucid coincidences of Sullivan's road trip through the small town and the letter he personally wrote. Bobby Earl gets a re-trial.Is unfettered from prison and eludes his horrific punishment. All seems swimmingly well until an unexpected phone call from serial killer Sullivan comes into focus.Armstrong discovers a lurid double killing which happens to be Sullivan's parents.Whom he immensely detests.Sullivan divulges to Armstrong the truth of Joanie Shriver's heinous murder and why he was brought here.It turns out that Bobby Earl is a psychopathic murderer and he really did rape and kill Joanie Shriver.He just merely struck a bargain with fiendish psycho Sullivan. To get loose so he could kill again for revenge.Upon Armstrong's beautiful wife and daughter.Now Sullivan is executed to his death. Armstrong and tough good guy Brown chase the malevolent villain to the Everglades in order to thwart him.When they arrive Armstrong learns that the psychotic sicko Bobby Earl plans to kill his wife and daughter for a former rape trial that inevitably made him endure agonizing pain and castration.But good,virtuous cop Brown emerges and thwarts the brutal baddie.Is stabbed and eaten by ruthless,man-eating alligators.Paul Armstrong,Tanny Brown,his wife,and daughter survive and live happily ever after. A good thriller that works.Delivers both mystery and subterfuge.How reluctant blacks are hazed by racist lawmen.Sentenced to unfair penalties.Even though sometimes the wrongfully convicted innocent, friendly black man may in truth be the vicious baddie. Sean Connery is great as the oblivious,holier than thou hero.Laurence Fishburne is watchably amazing as the mean,arrogant,but good guy cop. Underwood and Harris are over the top and invigorating as the malevolent psychos.Capeshaw is okay.Ruby Dee is great as the tenacious grandmother.The rest of the cast is wonderful as well.

This was a mystery, crime, drama that was brilliantly done. The entire movie had the viewer headed in one direction only to do a 180 at the end.

Paul Armstrong (Sean Connery) was a retired lawyer who'd been solicited for his help to get a man off of deathrow. Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood) was convicted of killing a little white girl. He totally mutilated the body. Though there wasn't much evidence of his guilt, the good ol' police of Florida beat a confession out of him.

At that point, the cops of Florida looked like nothing more than racist pigs pinning a murder on an innocent Black man. And Detective Tanny Brown (Laurence Fishburne) looked like a tool of that racism.

Once Paul was able to get Bobby Earl freed--with the help of a serial killer named Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris)--we find that Bobby Earl was in fact guilty and he only used Paul to get free and go after his wife, Laurie (Kate Upshaw), who'd attempted to convict him of kidnapping years earlier.

What did this all boil down to? Sometimes police brutality is good and so is the death penalty. As good as the movie was, that was the disagreeable and pervasive message.

Detectives Brown and Wilcox (Christopher Murray) had beaten and threatened to kill Bobby Earl in order to coerce a confession--and they were right. They had a strong feeling that he was guilty even if they didn't have the evidence necessary. If police officers were able to act upon their finely tuned intuition, then we could lock up more bad guys. Just look at this case of Bobby Earl. He was locked up and headed to the electric chair if it weren't for the meddling of a bleeding-heart Yankee professor who was easily tricked. That was the message. And it fit for this movie.

To the credit of "Just Cause" it did juxtapose two different tales with one individual. When Bobby Earl was innocent, he'd been arrested and tortured due to a cop's jealousy. Then, when he was guilty he was also arrested and tortured, but this time due to a cop's desire to see a wicked man locked away. This movie was quite a doozy and I appreciated that.

Still, the stronger theme was: cops put bad guys away while dumb lawyers get them off. The unfortunate thing about movies like this is they help to support a gross notion that most cops have an excellent nose for bad guys and they should be allowed to get the bad guy at all costs. But I would contend that for every one Bobby Earl they net without proper evidence there are probably ten Anthony Ray Hintons (innocent man convicted of murder) who get locked up because of a myriad reasons: convenience, negligence, racism, etc.

"Just Cause" was a good movie, one of the very rare ones that I like even though I disagree with its message.

"Just Cause" is a well-done thriller: assuredly directed (it was only Arne Glimcher's second film, but you'd never know it), with a strong sense of place (the American South), a top-notch cast (Sean Connery and Laurence Fishburne are as commanding as ever; Ed Harris is perhaps a little over-the-top but genuinely disturbing), and one spectacular car stunt. But it is also predictable (the big twist is not that hard to guess if you have seen more than 5 thrillers of this type in your life), and conventional: it's another one in a long line of thrillers in which the women have no other function except to be imperiled by madmen. ** out of 4.