Scott, I don’t ask for much. Today I just want mercy.

It’s 1986 in Monroeville Alabama and Johnny D. McMillian (Jamie Foxx) has been pulled over at a police roadblock. Long story short, a young white woman was murdered and they picked up Johnny D. as one of the black “usual suspects.” He is quickly put on trial and committed to death row.

Three years later, an idealistic young African American lawyer named Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), recently graduated from Harvard, sets up offices to defend men wrongly accused of murder and on death row. He gets a cool welcome from everyone but his paralegal Eva Ansley (Brie Larson).

Scott, this is a timely story – despite its roots in the mid-eighties. In 2002 the “Central Park Five” were vindicated in their case of a woman murdered in New York’s Central Park in 1989. They were recently awarded around $45 million in damages (this was the subject of a 2012 documentary). In this case, it took several attempts and a decade for McMillian to get justice.

From a filmmaking perspective, this is a pretty ordinary movie. There aren’t a lot of twists and turns, and we pretty much know how the story is going to unfold. The performances were excellent with Jamie Foxx as the jaded and beaten-down man who is less than honest, but surely no murderer as he had no history of violence. Michael B. Jordan has an earnestness that carries the film. However, as with many courtroom dramas, his melodramatic speech near the end felt more like the director talking to the audience than a lawyer pleading his case. Also, the final turnaround by the prosecutor seemed forced and out of character. (The original prosecutor, Theodore Pearson, is nowhere to be seen in the film). However, the Tommy Chapman character was apparently softened a bit for the screen. A report in Slate magazine indicates Chapman had a strong dislike for Stevenson.

Another problem with the film is that it tries to bind emotionally with the audience over a man who really did commit a murder with an improvised bomb. The literary argument was that he suffered PTSD and didn’t know what he was doing. This man ends up going to the electric chair. Regardless of whether you favor the death penalty, using a character who actually did kill someone to engender sympathy is a weak case and missed its mark for me.

From a social perspective, this is a story that needs to be told. It’s stunning that still, today, people of color are tried and convicted simply because “they look guilty.” One of the problems is the need for prosecutors to deliver a conviction – regardless of the truth. I’ve met people in my writing workshop who have been wrongly accused and settled on a plea bargain just to get out from under the weight and cost of a lengthy trial. This case is made clear as the prosecutor (Chapman) says he has a need to make the community “safe.” But Stevenson retorts “which people? Because the blacks in this community live in constant fear of being accused, tried, and convicted of crimes they did not commit.”

Scott, you have reminded me of the irony of a town of racists constantly pointing out they were the home of To Kill a Mockingbird – as if it proved they were not racist by proxy. I enjoyed Just Mercy and thought it was a good film. But it wasn’t terribly interesting as a drama. I think Stevenson’s book would have made a much better documentary. Still, this is a story we all need to hear. I give Just Mercy 3 out of 5 Reels.

You’ve dissected the hero admirably and I don’t think I can improve on your analysis. As much as Stevenson qualifies as the hero, so too does McMillan, his family, and friends. These people suffered a terrible blow by having their familial leader removed from them and irreparably damaged (McMillian later suffered dementia related to his time in jail). McMillian’s wife, in particular displays amazing grace, dignity, and even heroism as she relates that while McMillian hurt her through his infidelity, she still loved him and wanted him home. This resilience in the face of unconquerable power is unfathomable to me. And the fact that this community lives in the shadow of law enforcement that will feed any of them to the wolves without cause, and still thrives is a demonstration of heroism that must not go unnoticed. Stevenson, McMillian, and his family deserve 5 out of 5 Heroes.

The message is clear – it’s beyond time for these modern-day lynchings to end. And we cannot move swiftly enough to rectify decades of abuse of our legal systems. I give Just Mercy 5 out of 5 Message points.

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