RC Of the day 15/03/2013
Nearly all courtrooms focus on a single theme: the difficulty of achieving justice. While they explore a wide
range of subsidiary issues, their overriding point is that as a goal, justice is elusive, demanding, and often
more ambiguous than it first appears. Courtroom films sound this theme in various ways, some through
stories of false convictions, others by demonstrating the difficulty of identifying the true culprit, and yet
others by emphasizing systematic faults in the criminal justice process. Movies of this type also put forth
opinions about the complexities of justice: some condemn courts for delays, and others praise them for
patient deliberations; some despise lawyers and others glorify them. But few fail to stress that justice is an
exacting goal, reached only through arduous quests and multiple sacrifices.
To illustrate this theme, a number of courtroom films depict miscarriages of justice. Trial by Jury (1994)
shows a single mother who dutifully accepts a jury assignment only to deliberately derail the trial when the
mobster-defendant has his goons threaten her kid. In Jagged Edge, too, a trial fails to convict the guilty
person (in this case through mistaken acquittal), and justice is achieved later, when the ungrateful killer
goes after his defense attorney and she shoots him in self-defense.
Trial films are particularly fond of the insanity defense as a tool for depicting the hazards of determining
guilt. The Caine Mutiny (1954) involves viewers in deciding issues of mental illness and culpability. It shows
World War II sailors agonizing over whether to remove the erratic Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) from
command during a storm in which his bizarre behavior threatens to sink the ship. At the trial, psychiatrists
testify that Queeg, though paranoid, is sane. Only when the defense attorney hammers Queeg with questions
about odd incidents does the captain's veneer of normality crack. The accused sailors are freed, but to the
end, the degree of Queeg's mental illness, and of their own guilt, remains in doubt.
Scrutinizing the intricacies of criminal law, courtroom films reach a wide range of conclusions about legal
processes. Many find the law majestic. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), a film about lynching, is one of these.
Two outsiders (one of them Henry Fonda) are passing through an isolated Western town when they become
witnesses to mob violence. Local ranchers capture three other travelers, quickly “try” them for a recent
murder, and hang them from a tree limb. These travelers have hardly been “finished” with bullets before the
sheriff gallops up to announce that the man whom they thought had been murdered is not dead after all.
Depressed and repentant, the lynchers troop into the local bar and listen while Fonda reads a last-minute
letter from one of the condemned men to his wife. “Law is a lot more than words you put in a book,” the
letter explains. “It's everything people ever have found out about justice and what's right and wrong. It's the
very conscience of humanity.”
12 Angry Men (1957), confining its action entirely to the claustrophobic room in which a murder-trial jury is
sequestered, at first seems like an attack on criminal law, for few jurors take the process seriously. One
wants to hurry to a guilty verdict so he can go to a baseball game; another concludes that the defendant is
guilty because he is a foreigner. But 12 Angry Men in fact mounts a powerful argument for the jury system,
in which a lone but courageous individual can assure justice. The system may not be perfect but it works
well in the end, and it is a microcosm of the democratic process, in which the search for consensus
eventually leads to wise decisions.
Counterbalancing such enthusiasm is a set of films that portray the law and lawyers negatively. The first
version of The Postman Always Rings Twice, with its double-crossing prosecutor and despicable defense
attorney is an example of this. During Cora's trial for her life, these lawyers play legal games with one
another; they are less adversaries than friendly competitors who exclude Frank and Cora from the
proceedings.
Thus, courtroom films sometimes locate the obstacles to justice in society itself, while at other times they
blame the legal system and its all-too-fallible practitioners. In the long run, however, they usually show the
impediments being overcome. The actual malefactor is revealed, the intimated juror gets revenge, the
falsely convicted are released from prison, and a hero emerges from the rubble of inequity. This was the
usual pattern, at any rate, until about 1980, when (as the next section shows) courtroom movies began
accenting not so much the difficulty as the impossibility of achieving justice.
71. The author mentions movies such as Trial by Jury, Jagged Edge and The Star Chamber to make
what point?
a. Miscarriage of justice is the easiest theme to translate on the silver screen.
b. Most filmmakers believe that justice is an exacting goal, reached after much struggle.
c. Most filmmakers believe that justice is an exacting goal, reached after divine intervention.
d. Most filmmakers illustrated the “miscarriage of justice” theme because it reflected the trend in
the American society at the time.
72. Which one of these is false with reference to The Caine Mutiny as mentioned in the passage?
a. It is based on World War II.
b. The captain's bizarre behavior threatens to sink the ship.
c. Queeg's mental illness is revealed in the closing scene of the film, leaving the soldiers free.
d. Initially, the psychiatrists testify Queeg as being only paranoid but not insane.
73. According to the passage, in which film does the line — “It's the very conscience of humanity”
appear in relation to the civil rights movement?
a. The Lady from Shanghai b. The Letter
c. The Ox-Bow Incident d. None of the above
74. Which one of these does not appear as a message sent out by the film 12 Angry Men?
a. The system, though not perfect, works well.
b. It shows the efficiency of the democratic process.
c. It shows how the search for consensus leads to wise decisions.
d. It shows how a single individual can run a society, making a case for autocracy.
75. According to the passage, in The Postman Always Rings Twice, what picture is painted of the two
attorneys?
a. They are seen as more friendly competitors than adversaries.
b. They are seen as double crossing each other at every available opportunity.
c. They are seen to exclude Frank and Cora due to their arrogance.
d. None of the above
76. According to the passage, what is the difference between the pursuit of justice as portrayed in
movies before and after 1980?
a. The former showed the victory of good and the latter showed the victory of evil.
b. The former showed the difficulty of achieving justice while the latter showed the impossibility of
achieving justice.
c. The former showed the impossibility of achieving justice while the latter showed the difficulty of
achieving justice.
d. The movies after 1980 did not pay attention to this issue at all.
Happy CATing 