6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
With lives and millions of dollars at stake, a ruthless jury consultant plays a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a jury member and a mysterious woman who offer to "deliver" the verdict to the highest bidder.
Starring: John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Jeremy PivenThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
German: DTS 5.1
Italian: DTS 5.1
Russian: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
Spanish DTS 5.1=Castillian
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
If jury duty were as interesting as it's portrayed in Runaway Jury, people wouldn't be so eager to avoid it. Unfortunately, most cases don't have the dramatic heft of the anti-gun manufacturer suit portrayed in the film (changed from the John Grisham novel's anti-tobacco suit after The Insider pre-empted the subject). Most judges don't run as efficient a courtroom as Bruce McGill's Judge Harkin, and most trial lawyers aren't nearly as entertaining (or well prepared) as the attorneys portrayed by Dustin Hoffman and Bruce Davison. And if there really is a sleek shark of a jury consultant like Gene Hackman's Rankin Fitch, complete with an army of hi-tech experts, then he'd be so expensive that even the biggest corporations wouldn't pay for him unless their very existence was at stake. In reality, the typical jury consultant is more likely to resemble the low-rent grunt played by Jeremy Piven, who all but volunteers his services to the plaintiff, because he's trying to build a reputation. And most cases aren't worth enough to afford even him. But no one ever made an entertaining thriller by sticking to reality. Besides, director Gary Fleder has said repeatedly (and I agree) that Runaway Jury isn't a courtroom drama; it's a film about a con. The courtroom is just the locale where the grifters work their swindle. When I first started in law practice, I was shocked at the number of senior trial lawyers who told me never to go to court expecting truth or justice. Eventually I came to understand their cynicism as a realistic appraisal of the limits of any human institution, which always falls short of its ideals. Runaway Jury simply takes that notion to its logical conclusion by making a jury verdict the McGuffin of a plot in which everyone is after a particular result. Some pursue it by traditional means. Others take alternate paths of a more, shall we say, "creative" nature.
Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood) shot Runaway Jury, and the 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from Fox nicely reproduces his trademark fluid camera movement and use of shadows to create depth. The film was made just before the era when digital intermediates became standard practice, so that it was finished photochemically. However, the elements used for this Blu-ray are in excellent condition, and the image harvest has been well performed, yielding a film-like image with a natural grain field and an impressive amount of detail, including in long shots of the crowded courtroom and the busy streets and sidewalks of New Orleans. The color palette is on the warm and "dusty" side, which is appropriate to the locale. The notable exception is in Fitch's "war room", where the glow of plasma TV monitors and computer screens casts a cool and bluish tone everywhere. Black levels are good enough that nighttime scenes, which often involve clandestine meetings, easily differentiate between various levels of darkness and provide sufficient shadow detail. I saw no indication of inappropriate digital tampering, such as high frequency filtering or sharpening, nor did I encounter any compression artifacts. (Note: User reviews complaining about a lack of "pop", contrast or sharpness have missed the mark. Runaway Jury was not shot in the hi-def video style that has since become common and also popular with Blu-ray fans. This transfer is both film-like and accurate.)
Fleder has said elsewhere that he believes in using sound subjectively in film, and Runaway Jury continues this approach, e.g., when Rankin Fitch rushes out from a restaurant into the street in pursuit of someone, and all the speakers fill with the sounds of the environment as Fitch would experience them. Another example occurs at the very beginning during the invasion of the brokerage office, when Jacob Woods realizes they are under attack; everything suddenly becomes much louder, then abruptly much quieter, as Jacob's life ends. Similar striking moments occur throughout the film, and they are reproduced with punch and presence by the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. However, the sound mix is sufficiently subtle that it doesn't distract by calling too much attention to itself. It blends seamlessly with the action on screen, and one can watch the entire film without consciously realizing just how active and immersive the mix really is. Bass extension is deep and powerful, although the LFE is sparingly used. The dialogue is generally clear and centered, except for an occasional word that Dustin Hoffman swallows because of Rohr's southern accent or that Rachel Weisz mangles because she was still working on her American accent. The score by Christopher Young (Copycat) is reproduced with good fidelity and gets the job done.
The extras have been ported over from the 2004 DVD.
Lawyers making closing arguments usually try to flatter jurors by talking about the jury's crucial role in administering justice and the historical importance of trial by jury. But when you look at American popular culture, the institution of the jury doesn't come off so well. For every Twelve Angry Men, there's always a To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the jury clearly reaches the wrong verdict. Anatomy of Murder, which is still one of the most technically accurate portrayals of a criminal trial on film, primarily shows how the facts disappear under the spin and manipulation of the lawyers for both sides, and in the end it's very much in doubt whether the right result has been achieved. The Verdict is a magnificent morality play, but it's so riddled with errors (many of them deliberate) that it begs for a sequel called The Reversal. And let's not forget Perry Mason, who, despite being the greatest defense lawyer ever to try a fictional case, had so little faith in juries that he never let them deliberate; instead, he always got the real murderer to confess on the stand. (Cousin Vinny did much the same thing by getting the state to drop the charges.) So the cynicism about juries reflected in Grisham's novel and the screenplay adaptation for Runaway Jury is nothing new. Grisham and the screenwriters simply expanded the number of players trying to push the jurors' buttons and move them one way or the other—by any means necessary. The result may not be literally true to life, but it's an apt metaphor for the cacophony of voices vying to influence each of us in important decisions (how to vote, what to think, where to spend our money). And it makes for an interesting battle of dramatic personalities and an entertaining film. Highly recommended.
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