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Product Name: Marshall [DVD] [2017]
UPC: 191329035986
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Rated 5 out of 5 stars
OSCAR WORTHY
The director has an easy job. The facts of the case are imminently interesting and of course provocative. Unfortunately black on white crime has always been big news. And of course courtroom drama gets the attention of the viewer. Additionally the acting is first rate, particularly that of Chadwick Boseman and Josh Gad. The performers with smaller roles are just as good. I particularly liked the actress (whose name I didn’t get) who played the jury forewoman with her lilting Southern accent. Furthermore, there are a couple of surprises in the plot. You of course are constantly reminded, as you are engrossed in the film, that the facts of this case are real. The film also gets the clothing, autos, housing, etc., right for the period of the early 1940’s. There are also interesting asides from the criminal trial: Mr. Marshall's time with his wife as well as the time he has to spend away from her, and a fascinating scene where he is in a club with the poet Langston Hughes when the writer Zora Neale Hurston pops in on them. (Marshall thought Hughes was wasting his life writing poetry.
Before Thurgood Marshall became U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, before the landmark case of Brown v Education Board, Thurgood Marshall (superbly performed by Chadwick Boseman) was an incredible attorney taking on cases for the NAACP, which at the time was funding the legal battles defending innocent black people in America who were accused because of their race. The case this film focuses on is a white socialite accusing her black domestic worker of raping her and attempted murder. The relevant facts that come out during the trial, and how they come out, are riveting. One of the strong messages of the film is the role white privilege and white supremacy played in 20th century America, how those same behaviors are still present today, and how American minorities such as the black community and the Jewish community (Marshall's co-counsel, played fantastically by the ever-entertaining Josh Gad) were and still are on the receiving end of hate crimes, all the more present because of the case they took on, that standing up against legal discrimination exposed you to a heightened level of hate crime and it would be easier to just confess to a crime you are innocent of. With the persecution of minorities in America on the rise like never before, the relevancy of this film is on par with "Malcolm X" and "Selma".
So loved this great historical drama of one of the giants of the 20th century, in the world of law in America! Excellent movie and look into the life of such and important man!
