The film can be seen as the third chapter of a 1970s urban crime trilogy, following Serpico<\/em> and Dog Day Afternoon<\/em>, in which Pacino won the hearts and minds of audiences as a lone, messy man (grand)standing against a broken system, fighting authority but authority always wins. It can also be seen as the codification of what would become Pacino\u2019s movie star persona, the first time he started treating that magnificent head of hair as a co-headliner and when his squeaky Michael Corleone whisper got gruff. The ending of the film is the beginning of the broadly theatrical, \u201cLOUD-quiet-LOUD\u201d monologues that became the actor\u2019s signature, for better and worse. (One could argue, and I often have, that Pacino\u2019s big Oscar moment in Scent of a Woman<\/em> is but a pale imitation of this film\u2019s ferocious final scene.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Scripted by Valerie Curtain and her then-husband, Baltimore\u2019s chief cinematic chronicler Barry Levinson, \u2026And Justice For All <\/em>is, in Jewison\u2019s words, \u201ca terrifying comedy\u201d following a disastrous run of cases for Kirkland, culminating in the Maryland attorney being blackmailed into defending his nemesis, a well-respected, hard-assed judge (played by a post-Charlie\u2019s Angels<\/em>, pre-Dynasty<\/em> John Forsythe) accused of brutally assaulting and raping a female court clerk. Harrowing stuff, but Jewison juggles vignettes full of jaundiced absurdism and gallows humor throughout, with slapstick comic interludes involving a pistol-packing, suicidal judge (the great Jack Warden) bumping up against abrupt veers into bleakness, as when Kirkland\u2019s goofball partner (Jeffrey Tambor) learns that a client he got off on a technicality came home and murdered two children. Tambor\u2019s subsequent nervous breakdown is both deeply disturbing and kind of a hoot, much in the same way that the movie always feels like it\u2019s uneasily shifting under your feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While defending a wrongfully charged trans sex worker (treated with a dignity and respect downright shocking for a film made in this era) as well as an innocent man doing hard time over a clerical error, Kirkland also somehow finds the time to romance Christine Lahti\u2019s willowy ethics investigator, whose committee has his irreverent courtroom antics in their crosshairs. I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s more unbelievable: (a) that she\u2019d so easily fall into bed with the subject of an investigation or (b) that Pacino manages to seduce her while barking insults with his mouth full of Chinese food. But Lahti is so cool and composed amid all the movie\u2019s shouty neuroses that you welcome her steadying presence. This was her big screen debut, as well as Tambor\u2019s, and also the first film for Craig T. Nelson, who comes in way too hot playing an overzealous prosecuting attorney. You can\u2019t help but feel a little sorry for the young actor, having to go toe-to-toe with \u201970s Pacino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The star brought along two of his Godfather II<\/em> guys. Dear friend and old acting teacher Lee Strasberg gets a few sweet scenes as Kirkland\u2019s doting, dementia-addled grandfather, while a delectably sleazy Dominic Chianese shows up as a client with questionable connections. (Chianese also played Pacino\u2019s father in Dog Day<\/em>, but we know him better as Tony Soprano\u2019s Uncle Junior.) It\u2019s a crowded cast, and even if you don\u2019t always feel like Jewison is in complete control of the proceedings, that adds to the discombobulating rush of incident, and is probably why the plot\u2019s shocking twists pack the punches that they do. A more focused, emotionally coherent version of this movie wouldn\u2019t be nearly as exciting \u2013 though I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to learn that Dave Grusin\u2019s strenuously wacky, all-over-the map score was used to torture inmates at Gitmo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These days, \u2026And Justice For All<\/em> would be the stuff of series television. (Indeed, if you squint hard enough while you\u2019re watching it, you can see David E. Kelley\u2019s entire career.) But that would deny us the pleasure of a bona fide movie star popping off in one of the most absurdly satisfying endings of the 1970s. I can still remember the first time I saw it on an old rented VHS tape, because I physically leapt off my parents\u2019 couch when Pacino started bellowing in the courtroom. The last scene of this movie has become a catch-phrase, a clich\u00e9, and I\u2019ve watched it at least 100 times. There\u2019s still an almost unbearable suspense as he approaches the jury. The highest compliment one can pay an actor is that not only does Arthur Kirkland appear unsure of what he\u2019s about to say next, but Al Pacino seems pretty surprised, too.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n “…And Justice for All” is streaming on Amazon Prime<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/and-justice-still-1024x668.jpg\")
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