Justicia para todos

This was a very good movie. Al Pacino was fantastic. The courtroom scenes were intense and emotionally charged, I loved it!

Al Pacino was an excellent lawyer. This movie was so good because it showed him in the work place and how it effected him in his personal life. A very good movie, it's one of my favorites.

The best scene was the climax when he exploded in the courtroom and and screamed one of the most famous quotes in cinema history! 9/10

We don't get many of these types of movies anymore. Studios worry about their commercial appeal (ie. appeal to teenagers on a date) and give us more gory thrillers or rom-coms instead, but back in the 70s the occasional satiric drama would sneak past the studio committee types and hit the box office like a blot of lightning. Part of the reason for this was the presence of successful writers of hard hitting social satire like Paddy Chayefsky among the front of rank of Hollywood scripters and another reason was powerhouse actors like Pacino. Like his earlier hit Dog Day Afternoon, here the camera stays on him like a spotlight as he fights a doomed fight with every breath in his body.

This movie took on a serious subject: a Justice System so lost in its own bureaucracy and politics that it could no longer dispense the thing it was created for, ie. justice. Pacino ran with it in classic fashion, ranting, foaming at the mouth, practically rabid with indignation and frustration. It's a powerhouse performance, not subtle by any means, but affecting, maddening, galvanizing. By the time the movie's over, you want to make this guy governor of New York.

The script by Valerie Curtin and Barry Levinson is the film's greatest strength. Years later I could still quote from it line for line. It is funny, clever and insane by turns with enough wildly believable ironies for ten courtroom dramas. Corrupt supposed officers of the court spout on about ethics yet are not above blackmail. The wealthy and connected enjoy privileges, while the bureaucracy grinds up the unsuspecting.

Director Jewison gave everything a professional polish, but then wisely stayed out of the way of his star. This was Pacino's stage and he owned it.

Be prepared to have your world rocked. There are few modern actors who would even attempt a role like this. They want the audience to like them. Pacino just wants to be heard. And he'll yell to make that happen.

In this movie Al Pacino once again proves my point that he (Al Pacino) is one of the greatest actors off all time. By 1979 he had already pretty much proven this but never the less this is one of his best films yet. Even without Al Pacino this movie would be great.(Not near as great but never the less)I mean it is also very well directed and the screen play alone is magnificently written. So if you are a Pacino fan, or even if your not a Pacino fan i am telling you, that to die without seeing this movie is a sin.

This movie stands out among the hundreds I've seen; It is exactly what it was initially marketed as; an inditement of the late 70's (and I suspect little has changed) legal system. This is accomplished magnificently.. Imagine an over-worked court appointed defender with a heart of gold.. in a corrupt web of compromise, and over-stressed beauro-crats. If you have ever enjoyed a court/lawyer movie give this one a chance!!! Look out for one of the funniest and yet reasonably plausible situations I've ever seen in a movie.

This movie is compelling. It is not just a supremely entertaining courtroom drama, but more so a brilliantly detailed character study. Al Pacino, predictably, is just class, and the other characters give him some very competent support. The interweaving of secondary cases with the main one is seamless, and keeps the pace moving at a pleasing level. The ending, which is so often talked about, is terrific, if a little sudden, and not totally satisfying. The script is faultless. My only criticism is that the disco soundtrack is incongruous with the serious issues at hand and at times pretty comical. But I guess the time period is perfectly evoked through it, not that the issues are exclusively relevant to the late 70s/early 80s though. 9/10.