If you're not honest, you've got nothing

This might just be a movie even Pacino diehards passed up. Released in 1979, it encapsulates the decay in the American legal system. Three-decades old it may be but there is a timeless and universal quality to rot. 

Arthur Kirkland (Al Pacino) is a lawyer who even after 12 years in the profession still cares for the basic tenets of justice -- that even "low lifes" deserve their day in court and the best defense possible. Yet, what he is up against is formidable. Judges, lawyers and a police force that couldn't even be bothered to make a pretense of caring ... who brand the 'little man' guilty without a thought. And in the face of such apathy is a man who is trying to remind others that these "low lifes" are "people ... they are just people".

We find Kirkland sitting in jail -- fittingly, for contempt of court -- put there by Judge Fleming (John Forsythe), who he has threatened. In walks Ralph Agee (Robert Christian), a black transvestite and perhaps the best example of the indefensible in society. While this is a brief encounter, Kirkland will later be called upon to defend Agee, who is mortally afraid of the sexual abuse he is sure to face if he goes to jail.

As dawn stumbles in, Kirkland is freed and returns to court where we get a sense of the indifference crowding the court corridors -- a lawyer asking his young black client to "give a peck on the judge's ass even if he doesn't wanna kiss it". We also see how "procedure" is responsible for throwing an innocent person in jail (with enough proof at hand, mind you) for nothing more than a faulty tail light. 

When Kirkland goes to apologise to the Judge Fleming, one is almost shocked to see the raw bone of coldness. The judge, who is presiding over the broken-tail-light case, haughtily says, "I don't give a damn about your client", totally stumping Kirkland.

Adding to the threats to Kirkland's sanity is a committee that has been set up to investigate corrupt lawyers in the Baltimore legal system. It's a sham and we see that Kirkland views it with contempt.

Committee member: This is not the McCarthy hearings. 
Arthur Kirkland: Oh that's a relief. So you aren't going to ask me 'are you now or have you ever been a lawyer?'

The plot becomes more interesting when Judge Fleming is charged with rape and his office calls on Kirkland to defend him -- for 'political reasons', as they put it. The rationale is that if Kirkland has agrees to defend the judge despite their very public animosity, then the accused must "truly be innocent". Only, Kirkland refuses.

Later though, he is strong-armed into taking up the case after being threatened with being disbarred based on a 'technicality' relating to a years-old case.

While Kirkland's struggle with the judge and the rape case form the central plot, the subplots are what drive the movie. As two of his clients die, frustrated with the blundering blindness of the system, we see Kirkland's passions come to the fore. He is angry, helpless, wanting to strike out but feels impotent because the target is kept out of his reach by a system that has forgotten all about justice but is a stickler for procedure.

The movie may seem a bit loose as far as holding all the plots together, but what it lacks for in terms of finesse, it makes up for in raw passion, superb performances and a realism that drives home the feeling of despair.

Pacino delivers all right but the suaveness that we have come to expect from his later work is lacking here. The winning smile and a spirit trudging through the darkness are all there but it would be only in later years that we would see these as unmistakable symbols of his work.

See it for the shock that this might deliver to your cushioned sense of justice. Don't see it if you expect all the trappings of Pacino's later work, like "The Devil's Advocate", "Heat" and "Scent of a Woman".