Runaway Jury (Widescreen Edition)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bruce Davison, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, John Cusack, Rachel WeiszBrand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 127 minutes
Published: 2004-02-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-17
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product features:
- TESTED
Movie Reviews of Runaway Jury (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Good film even with its fairy tale ending
Summary: 5 Stars
John Grisham is a pretty pungent thriller writer but in this case he wrote a beautiful fairy tale. At least the ending is a fairy tale.
But the object is not the ending. The object is to expose the gun business as what it is a death-monger. Second amendment or no second amendment, that's not the real stake of the gun industry. Their stake is to use the constitution to make as much money as possible without considering the number of collateral or non-collateral victims the use of the guns they sell may cause. And what's more they cannot be attacked the way the tobacco industry was because no one can pretend the gun industry is lying about the real effect of guns. Their real effect is to kill other people than those who use them and there is no lying on the merchandise either: it does just what they promise.
So they are untouchable, except through justice, and eventually a popular jury: for once the justice of the people for the people by the people. But it takes a lot of effort and force to manage that against all those who believe in the sacred right for every American citizen to shoot someone who is offending them and of course then to regret the pain these deaths may cause to the survivors.
But here the film is not giving any kind of argument against the gun industry. It is just showing how that industry and their lawyers manage to make justice lean their way by harassing the members of the jury, by buying the witnesses of the defense, by intimidating anyone who is against them, or even by trying to buy an insider in the jury to deliver them the proper verdict. But it may all fail if...
And that's just the rub in that situation. There is so far no "if" about it. The gun industry will win any trial of the sort. Macdonald may lose a trial in the accusation of making people obese, just like the tobacco industry lost their trials one after the other, about lung cancer and other tobacco induced cancers. But it is impossible to imagine a jury bringing back a guilty verdict as long as the decision will have to be unanimous. There will always be a die-hard constitutionalist who will hang the jury to a non-decision.
But the film is well done and interesting and New Orleans is a beautiful city, especially before hurricane Katrina. You will recognize some squares, buildings and streets and you will even have some soft Cajun or Creole voodoo, and of course the streetcars, named desire or not. And that's why this film is slightly more than just one more plain court film or trial film or whatever having to deal with the blind lady, that is so blind that she does not see crimes and certainly not criminals. Apparently the second amendment is an obligation for her and it has to be the total freedom for anyone to carry guns and use them for self defense, or at least what they call self defense, or to kill a caribou like Ms. Palin.
Apparently she is not that keen on reading the first amendment too much that protects the freedom of expression, speech and the press, and any Wikileaks becomes a public enemy number 1 as soon as it touches the family jewels of the federal crown of the United States. It is true it is a lot easier than during the Vietnam war to get secret documents with the Internet today. No more photocopies, man, actually no more hard copies, man.
Try to understand what's wrong with this world. This film answers a little bit. What is wrong with this world is that people are afraid of the end of the world, of the snow that is falling like hell in Europe right now, of the possible loss of what they have not earned since it was the product of financial speculations, like the thirteenth and fourteenth months of salary in Greece. We will lose a lot of things if we do not work hard to produce more, because we will have to share every single cent we make with those we have exploited for millennia and who want to have a good share of the cake today: China, India, Brazil, Latin America, Africa, Central America and many others.
So maybe we should start thinking that in a dangerous world the second amendment is not the solution, but the first amendment might very well be. And the countries that are emerging in this world today do not need American weapons to succeed. They just need good economic management, good economic lawyers and the steady patience of working like hell to achieve their aim, and God knows they are close to it.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
Summary of Runaway Jury (Widescreen Edition)
DVDBased on the bestseller by John Grisham, Runaway Jury is a slick thriller that's exciting enough to overcome the gaps in its plot. The ultimate target has been changed: Grisham's legal assault on the tobacco industry was switched to the hot-button issue of gun control (no doubt to avoid comparison to The Insider) in a riveting exposé of jury-tampering. Gene Hackman plays the ultra-cynical, utterly unscrupulous pawn of the gun-makers, using an expert staff and advanced electronics to hand-pick a New Orleans jury that will return a favorable verdict; Dustin Hoffman (making his first screen appearance with real-life former roommate Hackman) defends the grieving widow of a gun-shooting victim with idealistic zeal, while maverick juror John Cusack and accomplice Rachel Weisz play both ends against the middle in a personal quest to hold gun-makers accountable. It's riveting stuff, even when it's obvious that Grisham and director Gary Fleder have glossed over any details that would unravel the plot's intricate design. --Jeff Shannon
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