Trial from 1955 is directed by Mark Robson who earlier told a dark tale of a boxer in Champion, once again subverts potentially inspirational tale to something much more vicious in nature. He it seems a socially conscience film about a lawyer defending a Mexican teenager being accused of murder. Although that would seem like enough a film it does not take as simple of an avenue as that. We even have the good lawyer, played by the perhaps too straight forward Glenn Ford, working with a hot shot lawyer Arthur Kennedy who is more than meets the eye. It stops being about passion, and instead reveals to be as much as some sort of cautionary tale of Communist infiltration into social causes. That technically is a very interesting topic, that I honestly I would think we be something to explore, but given the time it is used instead as a hurdle against our hero. As the film frames it as good vs evil, not surprising given the time of the film's release, with the communists wishing to purposefully lose the case in order to create a martyr. The film perhaps should have delved deeper yet still stands as an engaging film of its type.
3.5/5
1 comment:
Yeah, I think this could be a really great modern masterpiece in the right director's hands. Say, Kyle Chandler in Ford's role, Walton Goggins in Arthur Kennedy's?
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