Blind Justice (1986) (TV)

Director:

Rod Holcomb

Writers:

Josephine Cummings (writer)
Richard Yalem (writer)

Release Date:

9 March 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An innocent man is identified as a rapist, and the accusation ruins his life.

Cast

Tim Matheson	...	Jim Anderson
Mimi Kuzyk	...	Cathy Anderson
Philip Charles MacKenzie	...	John Pierson
Lisa Eichhorn	...	Carolyn Shetland
Tom Atkins	...	Kramer
John Kellogg	...	Jim's father
David Froman	...	Pike
Anne Haney	...	Jim's mother
Linda Thorson	...	Pamela
Marilyn Lightstone	...	Dr. Lathrop
John M. Jackson	...	Porter
Jack Blessing	...	Larry
Ann Ryerson	...	Leslie
Sam Dalton
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Daniel Davis	...	Attorney Seth Thompson
Tristan Hickey	...	Ray Carter

Runtime:

Brazil:100 min | USA:100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12

Company:

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

The Road to Paranoia at its Bumpiest.

This harrowing but well-done film, purportedly based upon actual incidents, relates in nicely detailed fashion how the criminal justice system can fail in its avowed purpose of bringing only the guilty to heel. Jim Anderson (Tim Matheson), a happily married free-lance photographer preparing for his first gallery showing, relieves himself behind a park building in the course of taking his morning run, is spotted and arrested by a policeman for indecent exposure and, during the booking procedure for his malfeasance, is seated directly beneath a composite drawing of a felony suspect with his general appearance, a coincidence not long unnoticed by the police, who then rearrest him for robbery, and his good life ends. He is "identified" by the several victims of the actual criminal's spree, is charged within several jurisdictions for numerous counts of robbery, kidnapping and rape, and his convoluted struggle against the zealousness of law enforcement seemingly places the innocent man upon a hopeless one-way street. The film is strongest in its depiction of Anderson's strained relationships with his wife (Mimi Kuzyk), parents, friends and employer, some of whom begin to consider his guilt a possibility, as does he when incriminating evidence from the victims mounts. The work is nicely directed by Rod Holcomb from a script by Josephine Cummings and Richard Yalem, and the acting is good throughout, particularly that of Matheson, Kuzyk, Linda Thorson, and Lisa Eichhorn as his defense attorney who tries her best to free her client from the nightmare road upon which he travels.