Word: jewison
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Directed by Norman Jewison...
...director schooled in the stylistic demands of black humor might have coaxed a few laughs from the material. Director Norman Jewison (Rollerball, F.I.S.T.) is not that man. His movie's helter-skelter tone swivels irrationally and usually heads straight for a dead end. Mad scenes, broad comic bits and mournful monologues are so indiscriminately mixed that the audience often does not know how to respond. At one point the movie comes to a halt so that we can go on a supposedly comic helicopter ride. There are also pointless interludes in which the hero visits his humorless grandfather...
Another serious touch is the tenderness of Kirkland's grandfather, Sam, the guiding force in the young lawyer's life. At one point, Kirkland tells his grandfather's friend, "You know if he (Sam) goes. I don't know what I'd do." But Jewison chooses an odd route of saving us from this terrifying conclusion--he never mentions Sam again...
...KIRKLAND DID EXIST, he'd had died of exhaustion long ago. Halfway through the movie, you're overwhelmed by the feeling that he should go into another field. Any field. Jewison said the cases in the movie are all based on actual incidents, a believable fact. But if the cases are true, they couldn't all be taken by the same lawyer--no one could handle a caseload like Kirkland...
...even after a look at the corrupt side of America's courts, Jewison still believes there's room for Arthur Kirklands out there somewhere. With a wry grin sitting in his 10th-floor suite, he attested "Arthur Kirkland is somehow true to himself. Justice is done." And Atticus Finch lives...