The film includes a well-known scene in which Pacino's character yells, "You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order!"
Plot
Arthur Kirkland, a Baltimore defense attorney, is in jail on a contempt-of-court charge after punching Judge Henry T. Fleming while arguing the case of Jeff McCullaugh. McCullaugh was stopped for a minor traffic offense, then mistaken for a killer of the same name, and has already spent a year and a half in jail without being convicted of a crime. Fleming has repeatedly stymied Kirkland's efforts to have the case reviewed. Although there is strong new evidence that McCullaugh is innocent, Fleming refuses to consider his appeal due to its late submission, so he remains in prison. Kirkland starts a new case defending Ralph Agee, a young black cross-dresser arrested for a robbery who is terrified of being sent to prison.
Kirkland regularly visits his grandfather Sam in a nursing home. Sam is progressively becoming senile. It is revealed that Kirkland was abandoned by his parents at a young age, and it was Sam who raised him and put him through law school. Kirkland also begins a romance with legal ethics committee member Gail Packer.
Kirkland has a friendly relationship with Judge Francis Rayford, who takes him on a hair-raising ride in his personal helicopter. Rayford laughs in amusement as he tests how far he can fly before running out of fuel. Kirkland is terrified and begs him to land. Rayford eventually crashes his helicopter in knee-deep water. Rayford, a Korean War veteran, is borderline suicidal; at all times, he keeps a rifle in his chambers at the courthouse and an M1911 pistol in his shoulder holster. He even eats his lunch on a ledge outside his office window, four stories up.
One day, Kirkland is unexpectedly requested to defend Judge Fleming, who has been accused of brutally assaulting and raping a young woman. Although the two loathe each other, Fleming feels that having the person who publicly hates him argue his innocence will be to his advantage. Fleming blackmails Kirkland with an old violation of attorney-client confidentiality, for which Kirkland will likely be disbarred if it were to come to light.
Kirkland's friend and partner Jay Porter is also unstable. He feels guilt for gaining acquittals for defendants who were truly guilty of violent crimes. Porter arrives drunk at Kirkland's apartment, after one of his guilty clients kills two kids following his acquittal. Porter soon shaves his head, claiming that it will make his hair grow back thicker, but he keeps shaving it. After a violent breakdown inside the courthouse—wherein he ends up throwing dinner plates at everybody in the hallway—Porter is taken to a hospital.
Before leaving in the ambulance, Kirkland asks another partner, Warren Fresnell, to handle Agee's court hearing in his absence. Kirkland gives Fresnell a corrected version of Agee's probation report and stresses that it must be shown to the judge, so that Agee will receive probation rather than serve jail time. Fresnell arrives at the courthouse late and forgets to give the judge the corrected version, causing Agee to be sentenced to jail time. Kirkland is livid and attacks Fresnell's car, revealing that thirty minutes after he was sentenced, Agee died by suicide. Meanwhile, Jeff McCullaugh, who has been sexually and physically assaulted by other inmates, finally snaps and takes two hostages. Kirkland pleads with him to surrender, promising to get him out, but a police sniper shoots and kills McCullaugh when he moves in front of a window.
A clearly disturbed Kirkland takes on Judge Fleming's case. Prosecuting attorney Frank Bowers hopes to make his reputation by convicting a judge. Kirkland's client Carl Travers hopes to receive free legal services by offering photos of Judge Fleming engaged in bisexualBDSM with a prostitute. Gail reminds Kirkland of his professional obligations to defend the judge. Kirkland shows the pictures to Fleming, who admits that he is a rapist.
At the trial, Fleming jokes that he would like to see his victim again sometime. In his opening statement, Kirkland sarcastically muses about the legal system and Bowers's ambition. He surprises everyone by saying that Bowers will not convict Fleming because he will, and he proceeds to accuse his client of being guilty. Kirkland is dragged out of the courtroom, venting his rage the whole way. The spectators cheer for Kirkland, Fleming sits down in defeat, and a fed-up Rayford storms out.
As an exhausted Kirkland sits on the courthouse steps, Jay Porter passes on his way back to work, tipping his wig to Kirkland.
Norman Jewison said that he was attracted to the script because it clarified for him the reality that the courtroom is a kind of stage where a drama is played out. He was intrigued by the satirical possibilities of the scenario.[2] He also drew parallels to contemporary politics. "There was a time when the legal profession was inviolate," he said. "Then came Watergate...We're starting to realize that being in the law doesn't mean being above the law."[3]
He was careful to delineate the film's genre. "It's difficult at times to pull the audience back. Sometimes they start to go with the film as a melodrama. We were then able to pull them back with something almost absurd, to shock them out of it because I didn't want it to become a message picture."[4]
Barry Levinson's high school friend Donald Saointz, a practicing attorney, advised him on the screenplay. When the production got off the ground, Saointz served as an advisor for Al Pacino and John Forsythe. He appears in the film as a defense attorney.[5]
Lee Strasberg took a small role as a way of helping his student and friend. He was worried that Al Pacino was being typecast and wanted to see him branch out. Jewison felt that Pacino's role was an inversion of his usual, where Kirkland was the sane person surrounded by nutcases.[6] Pacino liked the fact that Kirkland "was a part of things, not a loner. The sort of characters I usually play are anti-heroes."[7]
...And Justice for All scores 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, 58/100 on Metacritic and 23/30 on Zagat.[11][12][13]Empire magazine calls it a "solid but slightly clichéd courtroom drama" and rates it 3 stars out of 5.[14]
The film was a box-office success. Produced on a modest budget of $4 million, it grossed more than $33.3 million in North America, making it the 24th highest-grossing film of 1979.[1]
According to Newsday, most critics did not like the film.[7]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the film was so overstuffed that it was an "anthology" held together by "one of those high-voltage Al Pacino performances that's so sure of itself we hesitate to demur." He concluded, "The closing courtroom scenes are constructed as a machine to make the audience cheer, and the machine works."[17]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the general hysteria of the actors as if they had been directed to play "the last act of Three Men on a Horse". He calls Pacino's character "a hyperventilating idiot" and speculates that everyone in the film has "such low thresholds of emotional distress that I wouldn't trust one of them to see 'The Sound of Music' unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian."[18]
Variety said that the film's blend of comedy and drama was unsuccessful but not incompetent.[19]
One critic mused that it was as "commercial as a 60-second K-tel ad and as utterly devoid of substance as a lawyer's opening statement."[20]
The Boston Globe lamented the film's inability to be a legal version of Catch-22 and faulted the director. "'...And Justice For All' spills its potential drama all over the screen and Jewison never stops to clean up the mess."[22]
The film has been read as a commentary on the outsider status of Jews in the WASP-dominated judicial system.[23] The opening juxtaposition of the majestic courthouse, with grubby interiors and children mangling the Pledge of Allegiance, sets the film's thesis: "the promise of law is at worst superficial and at best idealistic, nearly impossible to experience or achieve".[24][25]
William Schoell pointed to Kirkland's reaction to Agee's suicide as one of the "strongest scenes Pacino has ever played", and gives the actor credit for "triumphing over an impossible script".[26] Brian W. Fairbanks also called the film's screenplay "overly contrived".[27]
Kirkland's opening statement during the film's climax contains its most famous moment, including the outburst, "You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order!"
Alfredo James Pacino is an American actor. Considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century, Pacino has received many accolades including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, achieving the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also received four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2007, the National Medal of Arts in 2011, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016.
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Barry Lee Levinson is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Levinson won the Academy Award for Best Director for Rain Man (1988). His other best-known works are Diner (1982), The Natural (1984), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Bugsy (1991), and Wag the Dog (1997). In 2021, he co-executive produced the Hulu miniseries Dopesick and directed the first two episodes.
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The Devil's Advocate is a 1997 American supernatural horror film directed by Taylor Hackford, written by Jonathan Lemkin and Tony Gilroy, and starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. Based on Andrew Neiderman's 1990 novel, it is about a gifted young Florida lawyer invited to work for a major New York City law firm. As his wife becomes haunted by frightening visions, the lawyer slowly realizes that the firm's owner John Milton is the Devil.
Carlito's Way is a 1993 American crime drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Koepp, based on the novels Carlito's Way (1975) and After Hours (1979) by Judge Edwin Torres. It stars Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, Luis Guzman, John Leguizamo, Jorge Porcel, Joseph Siravo and Viggo Mortensen.
Edwin Torres is a former New York State Supreme Court judge and author of Puerto Rican descent, who wrote the 1975 novel Carlito's Way. His book was the basis for the 1993 movie of the same name, starring Al Pacino, and for the 1979 book After Hours, the sequel to Carlito's Way.
Donnie Brasco is a 1997 American crime drama film directed by Mike Newell and starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, James Russo and Anne Heche appear in supporting roles. The film, written by Paul Attanasio, is based on the 1988 nonfiction book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia by Joseph D. Pistone and Richard Woodley.
Alfredo Lettieri was an American actor. Active during the 1960s and 1970s, he commonly portrayed villainous characters. He achieved recognition for his performance as mobster Virgil Sollozzo in the crime film The Godfather (1972) and appeared in several other productions alongside Hollywood's biggest screen stars.
Nuts is a 1987 American legal drama film directed by Martin Ritt, starring Barbra Streisand and Richard Dreyfuss. The screenplay by Tom Topor, Darryl Ponicsan and Alvin Sargent is based on Topor's 1979 play of the same title. Nuts was the final film for veteran actors Karl Malden and Robert Webber; the movie also featured Leslie Nielsen in his last non-comedic role.
Bo Goldman was an American screenwriter and playwright. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Writers Guild of America Awards as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. He also received two BAFTA Award nominations.
Trial film is a subgenre of the legal/courtroom drama that encompasses films that are centered on a civil or criminal trial, typically a trial by jury.
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Best Friends is a 1982 American romantic comedy film starring Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn. It is based on the true story of the relationship between its writers Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin. The film was directed by Norman Jewison.
Queens Supreme is an American courtroom comedy drama television series created by Dan and Peter Thomas, which aired on CBS from January 10 to January 24, 2003. The series had a strong cast and considerable financial backing, especially from Julia Roberts's Shoelace Productions, Spelling Television and Revolution Studios; however, poor ratings forced its cancellation after three episodes.
You Don't Know Jack is a 2010 American made-for-television biopic written by Adam Mazer and directed by Barry Levinson. It stars Al Pacino, John Goodman, Danny Huston, Susan Sarandon, and Brenda Vaccaro.
Weymouth Kirkland was a Chicago lawyer and one of the name partners of the Chicago law firm of Kirkland & Ellis.
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Paterno is a 2018 American television drama film directed by Barry Levinson. It stars Al Pacino as former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, and his career leading up to his dismissal following the university's child sex abuse scandal in 2011. Riley Keough, Kathy Baker, Greg Grunberg and Annie Parisse also star. The film premiered on HBO on April 7, 2018.
The following is a list of unproduced Barry Levinson projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Barry Levinson worked on numerous projects that never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these fell into development hell, were officially cancelled, or would see life under a different production team.
↑ Kiely, John. "Toronto Film Festival Honors Hometown Boy", Kitchener-Waterloo Record. September 15, 1979. 62.
↑ Markell, Cecille. "And No Justice for Al Pacino", Jewish Advocate. December 6, 1979. A9.
↑ Blowen, Michael. "Pacino can't rescue 'Justice For All'", Boston Globe. October 20, 1979.
↑ Helfgott, Leonard M. “Crossing Over: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the Baltimore Films of Barry Levinson.” Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition, edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, Purdue University Press, 2015. 249.
↑ Silbey, Jessica M. The Subjects of Trial Films. PhD., University of Michigan, 1999. 148.
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