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| STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED |
| Unmissable |
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| Excellent |
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| Good |
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| Poor |
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| Tragic |
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| FILM DETAILS | Certificate
15 | | Cast
Al Pacino
Jeffrey Tambor
Christine Lahti
Jack Warden. | | Directors
Norman Jewison. | | Screenwriters
Valerie Curtin
Barry Levinson. | | Running Time
119 minutes |
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And Justice For All
Solid but slightly cliched courtroom drama starring Al Pacino.
Plot
An upstanding attorney is forced to defend a corrupt judge.
Review
Forced to defend a corrupt judge (John Forsythe) who actually confesses he's guilty of rape, Al Pacino offers a typically powerhouse performance ("This whole trial is out of order!") as the Baltimore attorney battling the corruption and mindless bureaucracy of the United States legal system in this sometimes successful satire.
Jewison directs with an overlit reportage style, while husband-and-wife writing team Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin deliver a screenplay that for the most part resorts to cliché. Pacino's scorching performance won him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, although he lost out to Jon Voight in Hal Ashby's Coming Home.
Verdict
If an uneasy mix of humour and sadness never quite gels, its message is clear and its cast uniformly strong.
Reviewed by Mark Dinning
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