*** (out of ****)
and
ANATOMY OF A MURDER
***1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards, Elias Koteas, John Carroll Lynch, and Chloe Sevigny
Directed by David Fincher & written by James Vanderbilt, from the book by Robert Graysmith
2007
158 min R
Starring Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, and George C. Scott
Directed by Otto Preminger & written by Wendall Mayes, from the novel by John D. Voelker
1959
160 min NR
A scene near the end explains it all: �On a scale of 1 to 10,� the detective asks, �how certain are you?� And the witness says �8.� Suspects come and go but we�re never sure of anything. Even when our hero comes face-to-face with the man he is sure is the killer, and looks into his eyes, and � what? Is the suspect acknowledging his guilt, or merely irritated?
Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal play a cop and a newspaperman, respectively, and both become obsessed with the killer. Fincher tones down his renowned visual flair and gives the movie the colors of a faded �70s flick.
I was fortunate that I saw �Zodiac� the same week I saw �Anatomy of a Murder,� which is the template for every courtroom drama that came after it. It�s a classic example of a movie working on two levels. On the easy level, we have Jimmy Stewart�s lawyer. He�s the main character, gets top billing, and is, well, Jimmy freaking Stewart � �Anatomy of a Murder� can simply be enjoyed as Our Hero weaving his way through the legal system to free an innocent man. The prosecutor � a slippery big city shyster played by George C. Scott � is a villainous sleazebag.
But on the second level � wait a minute! � at every step of the way, like �Zodiac,� the truth is called into question. Because we never see the murder � no flashbacks, no point-of-view, nothing subjective � we�re left to question everything we hear. Stewart�s client (Ben Gazzara) only takes an insanity plea after Stewart suggests it. Gazzara�s morality � murdering a man his wife claims raped her hours after the rape � is open to debate. Was it really rape? And even if it was rape, does that make killing okay?
Even Jimmy Stewart is called into question � is he really any better than the big city lawyer? George C. Scott may be ruthless and ambitious, but Stewart only wants to take enough cases to afford endless fishing trips � is that any better?
Duke Ellington provides the score and black people show up as musicians, but nary say a word � a silence born of not wanting to get involved in a legal system that has bitten them before.
Finished Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
Copyright � Friday & Saturday Night
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