MovieChat Forums > ...And Justice for All (1979) Discussion > How much truth is there in this movie?

How much truth is there in this movie?

posted 10 years ago by piggoli-imdb
6 replies | jump to latest

Let's say that if this movie were made today, and assuming that the screenwriter goes strictly by the 'letter of the law', how would this movie turn out? I guess a lot of the 'laws' in this movie is dated now, not that I am sure if they were true even back in the late seventies when this was made!

[–] novastar_6 10 years ago

That's the funny thing about 'law', for the citizens who have to abide by it, it's very black and white, but for police, lawyers and judges, they can do whatever the hell they want with it.

[–] BobbyDupea 9 years ago

That's the funny thing about 'law', for the citizens who have to abide by it, it's very black and white, but for police, lawyers and judges, they can do whatever the hell they want with it.

I work with police officers, lawyers and judges every day, and I can tell you for a fact that they can not do whatever they went to do with the law. The movie illustrates general problems and also, for obvious reasons, fails to show the vast number of cases in which the law works to provide some justice for the victims of crimes and for those accused of crimes. The problems with the justice system shown in the film, and others, are very real, but that is a far cry from proving that the police, lawyers and judges can do whatever they want with the law.

My real name is Jeff

[–] montrossboc-1 8 years ago

I believe you, officer.

Short Cut, Draw Blood

[–] Satan2016 (23270) 6 years ago

He never said he was a cop!

[–] pitabite 10 years ago

There's literal truth and artistic truth.

I don't think most American lawyers would fail to recognize the deeper truths this movie taps into.

[–] I_Created_U 8 years ago

The whole justice system is a sham because i don't think there is such a thing as justice. It is one of the biggest illusion of mankind and especially of industrialized societies.

The aim has never been to punish or rehabilitate the criminals, but merely to preserve social peace and to that end, the mere appearance of justice is enough. This is what we have.

What we have is a two tier system structurally biased towards people of means and influence and in total disfavor of the common people and especially minorities, as prison statistics can easily testify for. How many innocent people have been released from prison thanks to DNA tests after sometimes decades behind bars? Too many and more than enough to make my point.

Is this the best of all the bad systems, as people like to put it? Maybe. But that doesn't mean that this system isn't completely unfair and unjust, and that it doesn't crush individuals on a daily basis. It crushes people only so that the majority of people, those who will never have to deal with the law, can have their good night's sleep believing that it is order that rules out there and not chaos.

"The degree of civilisation in a society is revealed by entering its prisons"

Fyodor Dostoevsky

People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs