{"id":6755,"date":"2024-10-25T10:43:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6755"},"modified":"2024-10-25T10:43:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:43:55","slug":"just-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/just-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Just Mercy <\/strong>(2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 136 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic content including some racial epithets)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Destin Daniel Cretton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Joel P. West\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Brett Pawlak\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 10, 2020 (US, wide)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, O\u2019Shea Jackson, C.J. LeBlanc, Karan Kendrick, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Hayes Mercure, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Michael Harding.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $36M (US)\/$50.4M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I mean no disrespect to the memory of former Death Row inmate Walter McMillian when I say that Just Mercy<\/strong>, a dramatization of the efforts to clear him of all charges related to the murder for which he was wrongfully convicted, is a story we\u2019ve all heard before. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s a good movie, but it\u2019s really not all that different from other films about racial injustice within an unbalanced legal system. It operates on the notion, one that\u2019s been proven time and time again, in movies and real life, that the system is stacked against black people, especially in the South. That is most certainly the case with McMillian, known to all as \u201cJohnny D\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12), Just Mercy<\/strong> focuses on Bryan Stevenson (Jordan, Creed 1 & 2), an idealistic young black lawyer from Delaware who goes to work for the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama, a place not known for racial tolerance. Right away, there\u2019s an issue with a property owner who refuses to rent out office space to the EJI because it\u2019s not the type of organization he wants in his building. Bryan and his assistant Eva Ansley (Larson, Room) set up office in her house instead. Their main objective is to provide free legal services to prisoners who didn\u2019t receive a fair trial. In Alabama, that\u2019s par for the course for any imprisoned person of color.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jamie Foxx (Ray) plays McMillian, a black man accused of killing a white woman during a robbery. Even though he was nowhere near the location at the time of the crime, a fact verified by at least two dozen witnesses, he\u2019s convicted of murder and sentenced to death. His conviction hinges mainly on the testimony of a white felon, Ralph Myers (Nelson, O Brother, Where Art Thou?), coerced by the racist local sheriff into making a false statement. Although McMillian initially rejects Bryan\u2019s offer to file for a retrial, he changes his mind after the Harvard grad takes the time to speak with his family. It\u2019s going to be a tough road, especially with a closed-minded DA (Spall, The Big Short) who refuses to consider the obvious truth. The local police aren\u2019t having it either; they openly harass and intimidate witnesses who contradict the so-called \u201cfacts\u201d of the original case.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bryan\u2019s investigation into McMillian\u2019s reveals an alarming amount of police and prosecutorial misconduct including the suppression of evidence that would clear the accused. It also opens him and Eva up to threats from private citizens and cops. At one point, he\u2019s pulled over by two cops (for no reason) who point a gun at his head. Through it all, and this is what is truly amazing about Jordan\u2019s performance, he keeps his cool. As a black man, he\u2019s fuming inside, but to let it out would be self-defeating. As an educated black man in a white Southern setting, he must maintain self-control because to do otherwise would be giving the racist rednecks the advantage. You read the pain of doing this all over Jordan\u2019s face. His most effective scene, however, is when he witnesses his first execution, a black Vietnam vet with PTSD (Morgan, Mudbound) who accidentally killed a woman when he planted a homemade bomb on her front porch. He didn\u2019t mean to kill her; it was untreated mental illness that made him do it. He\u2019s not eager to have his conviction overturned as he knows he\u2019s guilty and is ready to accept the consequences. Bryan watches as he\u2019s strapped in the electric chair and zapped. His reaction in the parking lot afterwards is a powerful moment. BTW, the vet is the most interesting character in Just Mercy<\/strong>. He\u2019s treated less as a symbol than an actual person. Foxx is also very good as McMillian, a man who\u2019s given up all hope of justice until Bryan comes into his life. It\u2019s interesting to watch him as he begins to realize he may have a future outside prison walls.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although Just Mercy<\/strong> tells a familiar story, it\u2019s also a compelling one bolstered by fine performances from Jordan, Foxx and Larson who is given disappointingly little to do. Her big scene involves her being scared out of her mind for her family after she receives a bomb threat over the phone. The rest of her time is spent offering words of encouragement to Jordan\u2019s character. Unlike most films of its type, Just Mercy<\/strong> doesn\u2019t leave the viewer feeling angry as he\/she leaves the theater. It has some emotional heft, but not to the point of righteous indignation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Some will complain that Just Mercy<\/strong> paints a picture of all white Southerners as racist rednecks, but I\u2019m willing to chalk it up to Hollywood\u2019s tendency to make white devils out of all those who would send an innocent man to prison because of his skin color and\/or economic status. In fact, Ralph the lying felon is also shown to be a victim of the system as he is poor and uneducated. In any event, the audience I saw Just Mercy<\/strong> with seemed to really love it. There was audible crying and applause at the end. Me, I liked it. It runs a bit longer than it needs to, but it\u2019s a good, well-intentioned movie that tells a story that needs to be heard even if we\u2019ve heard a hundred others like it.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just Mercy (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 136 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic content including some racial epithets)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Destin Daniel Cretton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Joel P. West\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Brett Pawlak\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 10, 2020 (US, wide)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Just-Mercy-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7128,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6755\/revisions\/7128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}