Just Cause

"Just Cause" is one of those movies best seen after you turn off your brain. Now I am not saying it's a stupid or bad film....but it has such a convoluted and difficult to believe plot that it's best enjoyed without thinking through all the details. If you do think about them, you're bound to be disappointed.

The story is about a man on death row (Blair Underwood) whose mother (Roby Dee) is able to convince a Harvard Professor (Sean Connery) to leave academia in order to help him with his appeal. The professor is successful and evidence is uncovered that ends up with the man's release. However, there is MUCH more to the film than this....and the story goes in a completely different direction and leads to many surprises.

I think this is a film where some of the performances (particular Ed Harris) are better than the actual story. The story is just completely unbelievable....but again, if you can put this aside, the film is enjoyable.

By the way, if you care this film was made throughout Florida...Gainesville up north and the Ft. Myers/Miami areas in the south. As a Floridian, I found the local scenes pretty exciting.

Always enjoy the great acting of Laurence Fishburne,(Sheriff Tanny Brown) who becomes very upset when a professor visits his town to investigate a sort of Cold Case. This professor is a retired lawyer named Paul Armstrong, (Sean Connery) who has reason to believe that a man on death row is innocent of rape and murder of a very pretty little white girl. Sheriff Tanny does not appreciate Paul Armstrong coming to his town in Florida and starting to open up a can of worms as Tanny is very certain he has arrested the correct man and even has a confession to prove he did this evil deed. The guilt person is Blair Underwood,(Bobby Earl) who is very happy to see Paul Armstrong come to his defense and possibly clear his name and secure his freedom. There are many twists and turns to this story and plenty of action and very creepy areas in the swamps of Florida. This film will keep you glued to your screens if you have not seen this film before. Enjoy

The film is mediocre, but seeing Ed Harris' performance as a manipulative serial killer (I'm not giving anything away by telling you this) is worth the entire movie. Too often serial killers are played as geniuses--Jack in "The Profiler" or Kevin Spacey's character in "Seven"; Harris creates a malignant redneck monster that really will startle and chill you. No one goes from zero to sixty like Harris since George C. Scott left us; in this film he modulates his voice amazingly, sounding quietly venomous one moment and then thundering like a fire and brimstone Southern minister. In Connery's case, it's just bad casting: he plays an academic consulting lawyer (a la Dershowitz {sp?}) who combats Fishburne's menacing but canny Southern cop. Connery's other roles and the notion of him they have created in us make it impossible for him to play the effete lawyer that the script seems to call for.

Just Cause takes some of the best parts of three films, Cape Fear, A Touch of Evil and Silence of the Lambs and mixes it together to come up with a good thriller of a film.

Sean Connery is a liberal law professor, married to a former Assistant District Attorney, Kate Capshaw and he's a crusader against capital punishment. Blair Underwood's grandmother Ruby Dee buttonholes Connery at a conference and persuades him to handle her grandson's appeal. He's sitting on death row for the murder of a young girl.

When Connery arrives in this rural Florida county he's up against a tough sheriff played by Laurence Fishburne who's about as ruthless in his crime solving as Orson Welles was in Touch of Evil.

Later on after Connery gets the verdict set aside with evidence he's uncovered, he's feeling pretty good about himself. At that point the film takes a decided turn from Touch of Evil to Cape Fear.

To say that all is not what it seems is to put it mildly. The cast uniformly turns in some good performances. Special mention must be made of Ed Harris who plays a Hannibal Lecter like serial killer on death row with Underwood. He will make your skin crawl and he starts making Connery rethink some of those comfortable liberal premises he's been basing his convictions on. Many a confirmed liberal I've known has come out thinking quite differently once they've become a crime victim.

Of course the reverse is equally true. Many a law and order conservative if they ever get involved on the wrong end of the criminal justice system wants to make real sure all his rights are indeed guaranteed.

Criminal justice is not an end, but a process and a never ending one at that for all society. I guess if Just Cause has a moral that would probably be it.

Just Cause (1995) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline focuses on a Harvard college professor who used to be a defense lawyer. He receives a hand delivered letter from a black death row inmate's mother pleading his innocence and requesting his assistance on their case. He reluctantly takes on the case and tries to find a crack in the original sentencing. This movie is directed by Arne Glimcher (The Mambo King) and stars Sean Connery (Medicine Man), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Blair Underwood (Deep Impact), Ed Harris (Needful Things) and Kate Capshaw (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). I had not seen this for a long time and forgot how completely different the feel was the first 2/3rds of the movie versus the final 1/3rd. The character rollout and courthouse drama is fun to watch unfold; however, the final 1/3rd seemed extremely far fetched and unbelievable. Fishburne was great in this and appropriately intense. Connery was solid but oddly awkward and gullible at times. The first 2/3rds of this movie is a 8/10 and the final 1/3rd is a 5/10 for me so I would score this film a 6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.