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

Barbarians at the GATE? The vultures have landed, man!

Despite of the sad and tragic subject matter, this movie is actually an enjoyable experience as it often focuses on the absurd elements of this true story. It is about Court Life and much less about the notorious O. J. Simpson case. It resembles more Larry Gelbard's brilliant TV movie script about corporate greed than classical court room dramas like To Kill a Mockingbird.

What is the American Tragedy? What does this (certainly not very objective) movie showcase? After watching it I have to conclude that the tragedy is the court system that seems unable to cope with high class lawyers and the media hype. The results are, as this movie shows, truly devastating. You have a police force that is distrusted and ridiculed as a whole, you have forensic experts who will probably never again touch a sample without consulting a lawyer first and - worst of all - you have judges „presiding" over proceedings who come through as impotent bystanders. And in the end you have jurors who decide on impulse, on a gut feeling, about guilt and innocence. This renders the whole judicial system useless.

It would be easiest to blame it all on those rich, slick lawyers. As highly paid court jesters and authors of books about this case they virtually feed on dead bodies. I think one of the strong points of this movie consists in showing clearly that the defense team - despite all the highlighted human failings there may be - acted within the boundaries conceded by the system and that the blame has to be put on that system. If you have large parts of the population which do not trust the police as an institution, then something must have been wrong for a long time.

The acting is great all around, I particularly liked the relationship between Johnnie Cochran and his sidekick Carl (those two actors should team up for other projects). The most memorable scenes are the jury selection process in which members of the jury are pushed around like pawns on a chess board and Johnnie Cochran's speech after the prosecution asked for a ban on the „n word" in the court room. It is a marvelous example of Orwellian doublespeak if anything. In the end he apologizes to the whole nation ... for what? Hey, who cares, all that counts is that an apology has become necessary.