American Tragedy (2000) (TV)

Director:

Lawrence Schiller

Writers (WGA):

Lawrence Schiller (book) &
James Willwerth (book) ...

Release Date:

12 November 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

You know how it ends...but you can't believe what happened behind the scenes.

Plot:

Johnnie Cochran defends O.J. Simpson who is on trial for his wife's murder.

Plot Keywords:

Adaptation Directed By Original Author | Based On Book

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Ving Rhames	...	Johnnie Cochran
Ron Silver	...	Robert Shapiro
Bruno Kirby	...	Barry Scheck
Darryl Alan Reed	...	Carl Douglas
Nicholas Pryor	...	Gerry Uelman
Robert LuPone	...	Robert Kardashian
Ruben Santiago-Hudson	...	Christopher Darden
Diana LaMar	...	Marcia Clark
Sandra Prosper	...	Shawn Chapman
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Judge Lance Ito
Christopher Plummer	...	F. Lee Bailey
Richard Cox	...	Alan Dershowitz
Sandra Thigpen	...	Jeanette Harris
Cordelia Richards	...	Jo-Ellan Dimitrius
Francis Guinan	...	Bill Hodgman

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and some violent images.

Runtime:

170 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

No big deal

This is one of those films that most people can really judge fairly because it's about an event that was so closely watched by the general public. Directed by Lawrence Schiller from his very below average book, American Tragedy is a "behind the scenes" look at the "dream team" that helped OJ get acquitted. Most if covers the bickering between the lawyers, as egos clash and OJ responds to every piece of evidence with "I didn't do it...I did not do it." The film is basically about the group of lawyers trying to come up with every possible excuse for why OJ didn't commit the murders. They cover everything from police tampering to police incompetence to set-ups and timelines and everything but aliens.

It's surprising though, that Schiller didn't have the film cast better, being that he was at the trial everyday and saw everything first hand. Ving Rhames, who is one of the great actors today, was miscast as Cochran. His voice is too deep and he doesn't carry the same kind of charisma the Cochran manages to pull off. Ron Silver is too good looking to play Robert Shapiro and his voice isn't low enough. I never bought him as Shapiro, although I thought his portrayal of him as a blithering baby was good. Carl Douglas, Marcia Clark and Chris Darden are all miscast here. But...Bruno Kirby is great as Barry Scheck, the guy doing the voice of OJ is good (although that same loud inflection gets tiring after a while), Ito is really well cast and the best of all casting goes to the great Christopher Plummer, who is unbelievably great as F. Lee Bailey. You really feel like you're watching F. Lee just as you felt you were watching Mike Wallace in The Insider, another great performance by Plummer. If there is an award anywhere in this film, it would be to this amazing performance. I really wonder what the real F. Lee thought of this performance.

Surprisingly, Schiller's direction isn't bad, and his intercutting actual video from the event with the scripted film, is well done. A lot of the book was actually left out, but as far as being anything that OJ would be embarrassed about, well, I believe everything that was "exposed" in this film was pretty much public knowledge anyway. Hopefully someone will do a film based on the prosecution's side, although I doubt it being that there were no colorful Cochranesque characters. Not a great, but an interesting film.