Stevenson comments that the fear and anger in the 1980s and early 1990s that fueled mass incarceration led to black and brown children being labeled as “superpredators” by criminologists. Discussions of murder and execution, but very little on-screen violence. And this was the scene where we actually bring the camera as close as possible to both Walter McMillian and Herbert Richardson. The movie is not without some issues, of course, as we’ve already detailed. A Vietnam vet with severe PTSD, Richardson caused the death of a young … LitCharts Teacher Editions. Specific examples of the lasting effects of trauma include Mrs. Williams' negative reaction to the police dog brought into the courtroom during Walter's hearing, and how, after being released and living in a nursing home, Walter continually fears that he has been put back on death row. New laws led to harsher sentencing for juvenile offenders, but by 2000 the juvenile population had increased while juvenile crime rates decreased, thereby disproving the superpredator theory. Our Favorite Quotes: 'We can't change the world with only ideas in our minds. locking Americans in prison at historically unheard-of rates—throughout the memoir. How does Stevenson say the system is broken? Early in the memoir, Stevenson states that the true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Racial injustice arises in ways overt and nuanced: Walter's wrongful conviction stems from the fact that he is black and the murder victim is white; Stevenson is harassed and presumed guilty by white police; Walter's hearing is moved by a white judge to county likely to have white jurors; Walter's supporters are excluded from the courtroom through police intimidation at his hearing. Everything gonna be aight.”. Summary of Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson | Includes Analysis . Interestingly, the real-life events in Just Mercy unfold in Monroeville, Alabama, which is the birthplace of Harper Lee, author of the similarly-themed (fictional) book To Kill a Mockingbird . You can check them out below: https://www.gradesaver.com/just-mercy/study-guide/themes. It focuses on an early, pivotal episode in Stevenson’s career, when he represented Walter McMillian, an Alabama man who had been sentenced to die for a murder and who insisted on his innocence. ‘Just Mercy’ Review: Echoes of Jim Crow on Alabama’s Death Row, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/movies/just-mercy-review.html, Most Read: Patti Harrison and ‘Together Together’. It allows us to stand up when they tell us to sit down, and to speak when they say be quiet.' Racial injustice is a prevalent theme in the majority of cases Stevenson focuses on in the memoir, and is particularly relevant in Walter's wrongful conviction. Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson) Summary & Study Guide Bryan Stevenson This Study Guide consists of approximately 43 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Just Mercy. Rated PG-13. In part due to the Equal Justice Initiative's social justice work, by 2014, mass incarceration rates had stabilized. J ust Mercy is a memoir by lawyer and activist Bryan Stevenson that details his advocacy for life-sentence and death row convicts.. … This excerpt from the prologue of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man is mentioned during a seemingly inconsequential moment in Chinonye Chukwu’s sophomore feature effort, “Clemency,” yet its essence reverberates through every frame. The drama of “Just Mercy” is mostly procedural. As one of the EJI's main focuses, the charging and sentencing of children as adults arises several times throughout the memoir. Partly a memoir of Stevenson’s career as an activist and a lawyer specializing in death-penalty appeals, it is also a meditation on history and political morality, a clearsighted and compassionate reckoning with racism, poverty and their effects on the American criminal justice system. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Stevenson says we are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. Just keep your mind on that. He details the dramatic rise in the number of people imprisoned since he began his legal career in the... What do you see as the causes of Walter's wrongful conviction? - Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy) Click To Tweet 'Hope allows us to push forward, even when the truth is distorted by the people in power. All the major themes illustrate the broken system. These powerful Just Mercy movie quotes had me crying, shaking, angry, and hopeful. The new film based on the book, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (“Short Term 12”) from a script he wrote with Andrew Lanham, conveys at least some of its gravity and urgency. There's a reason Jamie Foxx is calling his new film Just Mercy "one of the most important movies that I've ever been a part of.". Date February 18, 2020 “ Just Mercy,” the film based on the memoir of the same name by Harvard Law graduate Bryan Stevenson, ends with a sobering statistic: For every nine people executed in this country, one person on death row has been exonerated. A powerful and thought-provoking true-story, "Just Mercy" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. Before entering the Marvel universe with 2021's 'Shang-Rai,' Destin Daniel Cretton offers an Earthbound story of justice starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. Just Mercy opens with Bryan Stevenson going to visit Henry, his first death row prisoner. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. They gently and less gently suggest that as a native of Delaware with a northern education, he can’t possibly understand the tenacity of white Southern habits of racial domination, which some of the white residents insist are not racist at all. We need conviction in our hearts.' “Just Mercy” is saved from being an earnest, inert courtroom drama when it spends time on death row, where it is opened up and given depth by two strong, subtle performances, from Foxx and Rob Morgan. And I mean, you’ll see how close we are. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson.) Other lawyers have come and gone, taking money from Johnny D’s wife, Minnie (Karan Kendrick), and leaving him to languish on death row. What is clear is that Stevenson isn’t just challenging a single conviction, but also the deep legacies of slavery and Jim Crow. He recognizes that changes to the judicial system rely on popular support for reform. “Just Mercy” is saved from being an earnest, inert courtroom drama when it spends time on death row, … Both To Kill a Mockingbird and Just Mercy correlate with each other, are significant today, and can be tied back to racial profiling. Jamie Foxx, left, as Walter McMillian, a man fighting his death row sentence in 1980s Alabama, with his lawyer, played by Michael B. Jordan. Johnny D provides a welcome reminder of how good he can be; he conveys the man’s guardedness and his vulnerability, his kindness and his fury, with the smallest eye movements and vocal inflections, which makes the big emotional scenes all the more powerful. They’ll really make you think about the justice system and how bias and bigotry interfere. Their nose is out of focus. That is really going to be a big contrast to the moment when we go outside through Walter McMillian’s escape vision in his mind that takes him back to the moment in the beginning of the movie when he is out in the forest and looking up at the trees. Often it is the gratitude and good nature of his clients and their families that inspires him to continue with his work. The following contains plot details from Michael B. Jordan's new movie "Just Mercy." “Hi, my name is Destin Cretton. JUST MERCY The Movie. Stevenson, played by Michael B. Jordan, is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School who arrives in Alabama in the late 1980s with a quiet idealism that many of the locals — both those who are hostile to his cause and those who support it — take for naïveté. Like many of the lynching victims of the past, Johnny D threatened racial hierarchies, both because he was economically independent (owning a successful pulpwood business) and because of an affair he had with a white woman. Just Mercy finds the middle ground, showing how faith can inspire and motivate believers in the real world. Much of Stevenson's work and wisdom has to do with challenging the way the judicial system mistreats vulnerable people: the poor, the disabled, the abused. Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder pervade the cases Stevenson discusses. Just Mercy is a 2019 American biographical legal drama film co-written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, and Brie Larson. GradeSaver "Just Mercy Themes". Foxx, 15 years after his Oscar-winning turn in “Ray,” still somehow seems underrated and underutilized. Stevenson returns to the theme of inhumane prison conditions to shed light on the needlessly torturous practices that demand serious reform. Parents need to know that Just Mercy is a fact-based courtroom drama that tackles the subjects of racism and the death penalty. Walter McMillian is one of Stevenson's clients. And that was something that we were playing with with the camera, was leading up to this very scene. Stop reading now if you don't want to know. His inner life is a territory the film leaves unexplored. Just Mercy study guide contains a biography of Peter Abelard, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Played by Jamie Foxx, and Herbert Richardson, played by Rob Morgan. The injustice his clients experience has lasting effects on the condemned people and their families. Just Mercy is a seemingly inspirational tale about defense attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), who represents death row inmate Walter McMillan ().But behind the optimistic veneer, the film actually has a dangerous - or at least problematic - message. The finest moments of Just Mercy are the quietest, when the director, Destin Daniel Cretton, pauses to consider the simple power of freedom. Based on factual events, “Just Mercy” is the story of Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian, who in 1987 was arrested for a murder he didn’t commit, but who was railroaded by … Richardson’s arc is the one truly successful element of “Just Mercy,” and Morgan’s excellent, heartbreaking performance is being unfairly overshadowed by Foxx’s this awards season. The Plotcast Episode 2 - Just Mercy (2019)Another great one! The film is based on the memoir of the same name, written by Stevenson. Film Just Mercy: Der junge Anwalt Bryan Stevenson versucht, die Unschuld eines Mörders zu beweisen. Copyright © 1999 - 2021 GradeSaver LLC. Bryan Stevenson said in his book that you cannot really fully understand a problem unless you allow yourself to get very close to it. Morgan keeps doing remarkable work (in “Mudbound” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” as well as on the Netflix series “Stranger Things”), and he deserves a louder fanfare. So in this scene in particular, there really is just the light source that’s coming in from outside the jail cell, which gives this kind of amber hue. Stevenson is portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in the movie. Just Mercy is a very emotional and moving film starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson. Just Mercy takes us inside America’s broken criminal justice system and compels us to confront inequality and injustice.. Based on the bestselling book, the Just Mercy movie presents the unforgettable story of Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and the case of Walter McMillian (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx), who was convicted and sentenced to death for a … Just Mercy by Bryan Steven It’s not just a hypothetical, however realistic some of those narratives may be, but the reality of the world you’re currently living in. In actuality, some of the most gut-wrenching and nearly unbelievable stories told are the ones that tend to be rooted in fact, for the simple reason that nobody would be able to buy into them otherwise. Jordan plays Stevenson as a man of heroic decency, but this kind of role comes with constraints. He is consistently admirable but not always dramatically interesting, and whatever fear, doubt or anguish he experiences in his work is telegraphed through speeches and music-heavy moments. They’re directly next to each other. Destin Daniel Cretton narrates a sequence from his film, featuring Jamie Foxx and Rob Morgan. Preview: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a legal memoir by Bryan Stevenson. But those are relatively minor in relation to its redemptive payoff. Though he and the EJI face numerous setbacks to their legal efforts, Stevenson uses adversity as motivation to continue to fight for a more just society. Part memoir, part exhortation for much-needed reform to the American criminal justice system, Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy is a heartrending and inspirational call to arms written by the activist lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based organization responsible for freeing or reducing the sentences of scores of wrongfully convicted individuals. To capture the performances of this scene, we actually shot with two cameras running simultaneously, with Jamie Foxx in one cell and Rob Morgan in the other— which was very helpful for a scene like this, because it was quite loose. Their eyes are in focus. The movie is based on lawyer Bryan Stevenson's 2014 bestselling memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. It’s emotionally moving as well as intellectually accessible. Bryan explains how he became passionate about criminal defense law and defending death row prisoners after an internship with the Southern Center for Human Rights in the Deep South. Though he and the EJI face numerous setbacks to their legal efforts, Stevenson uses adversity as motivation to continue to fight for a more just society. And it allowed the two actors to really be in it and respond to each other. I’m the director of ‘Just Mercy.’ This is a scene between Walter McMillian. Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy” is a painful, beautiful, revelatory book, the kind of reading experience that can permanently alter your understanding of the world. Stevenson also describes how it is too common for male guards to rape female prisoners, some of whom become pregnant and are made to deliver their babies while handcuffed. Since Walter has a sullied reputation as an interracial adulterer, investigators are willing to overlook evidence that could prove his innocence. Instant downloads of all 1438 LitChart PDFs (including Just Mercy). And both sides of the conversation were captured. He details the dramatic rise in the number of people imprisoned since he began his legal career in the early 1980s. Stevenson also runs up against the malevolent arrogance of the sheriff (Michael Harding) who led the investigation and the duplicity of the new district attorney (Rafe Spall), whose initial politeness turns to condescension and contempt. Stevenson and his colleagues, including Eva Ansley (Brie Larson), work to establish Johnny D’s alibi and to challenge the testimony of a dubious witness (Tim Blake Nelson). Just Mercy is Bryan Stevenson ’s account of his decades-long career as a legal advocate for marginalized people who have been either falsely convicted or harshly sentenced. The true story of Bryan Stevenson who attempts to prove the innocence of a wrongfully convicted man on death row (Walter McMillian)#JustMercy And they are in cells on death row in Alabama. Firstly, To Kill a Mockingbird and Just mercy … But it’s Morgan, as Herbert Richardson, another inmate awaiting execution, who leaves the deepest impression. I feel like I might have goofed a bit but i tried my best haha, enjoy! Just Mercy may rely on formulaic structures and predictability to illustrate its point, especially in its highly charged final third, but it is hard to walk away from this film without being moved. Just Mercy, the latest film from Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12), is based on a New York Times bestseller. Richardson, a Vietnam veteran, doesn’t deny his guilt, and the mixture of remorse, terror and simple grief he feels as he contemplates his fate is heartbreaking. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson.) Throughout Just Mercy, Stevenson returns to the hope and resilience he and his clients need to challenge a fundamentally skewed and despair-inducing judicial system. His inner life is a territory the film leaves unexplored. But it’s no easy film to watch. Stevenson returns to the theme of mass incarceration—i.e. It has a star-studded cast. It tells the true story of Walter McMillian, who, with the help of young defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, appeals his murder conviction. It is set in the 1980s and early 1990s and follows Stevenson's legal career as an advocate for Alabama prisoners who have been condemned to death, especially prisoners who have been wrongly condemned and unjustly treated by the legal system. His adultery is painful for Minnie and their children, and represents an unacceptable transgression of racial and sexual taboos to the sheriff and other white people. McMillian himself, known to his family and neighbors as Johnny D (and played by Jamie Foxx), at first refuses Stevenson’s help. It centers on idealistic young lawyer Bryan Stevenson ( Michael B. Jordan ), who travels to Alabama to help save a wrongfully convicted … These incidents showcase how the majority-white judicial system in the Deep South treats black people by a different standard. Just Mercy Summary. And the camera was literally a couple inches from their faces.” “In and out.” [BREATHING DEEPLY] “Now close your eyes.” “Our DP, Brett Pollock, was really wanting to shoot all of these jail cells scenes as close to reality as possible. Just Mercy Review SUMMARY Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx are the standout performers in this affecting but largely systematic telling of Bryan Stevenson’s work on death row. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. locking Americans in prison at historically unheard-of rates—throughout the memoir. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Impoverished people and people of color are over-represented in prisons, and this imprisonment is profitable to the companies that build, own, and maintain prisons. Just Mercy is about an upstart lawyer that deals with racial discrimination in the court system. Stevenson returns to the theme of mass incarceration—i.e. Stevenson details how constitutional challenges he brings to the Supreme Court lead to the mitigation of sentences for children serving adult sentences. Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan star in an adaptation of a memoir by the civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson. He also explores how many people are imprisoned for nonviolent offenses, as well as children serving adult life sentences. The injustice of his trial was so blatant that opposing it seems almost like a waste of time. GradeSaver. So we didn’t have to do too many editing tricks for this scene.” “I don’t want you to think about nothing else. Running time: 2 hours 16 minutes. Just Mercy is a deeply moving film, a human story about injustice and justice and how intangible and ephemeral they both really are. Throughout Just Mercy, Stevenson returns to the hope and resilience he and his clients need to challenge a fundamentally skewed and despair-inducing judicial system. Stevenson details how prisoners on death row are confined to box-like cells and traumatized by the smell of flesh burning in the electric chair. Stevenson touches on the prevalence of sexual violence in prisons when he learns that Charlie, a young boy sentenced to adult prison, is being gang-raped by adult inmates. And one of the really interesting things that I learned from speaking with Anthony Ray Hinton, who was on death row in Holman Prison for 30 years for a crime he did not commit, was the camaraderie and relationships that they had between jailmates that were completely based on conversations they were having without being able to see each other. Stevenson traces a historical line from this practice back to chattel slavery in the U.S. They share a wall. The cameras started off wider on these characters. A powerful and thought-provoking true-story, "Just Mercy" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. The Question and Answer section for Just Mercy is a great