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Runaway Jury
Director: Gary Fleder (2003)
Distributor: 20th Century Fox Film Co. Ltd. Certificate: 12A
Spoiler notice: If you read on will become aware of
how the film ends.
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Main Characters:
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Set in present-day New Orleans this tense thriller is based on
the book by best-selling author John Grisham, though the film shifts emphasis
from the tobacco industry to the arms industry of the United States. Following
a massacre in an office-building some years earlier, a court case is about to
commence in which the young widow of one of those killed is set to sue the arms
corporation that manufactured the automatic weapon used.
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To ensure victory, the arms consortium employ ‘consultant’ Rankin Fitch as part of the defence team to oversee the selection and compliance of the chosen jury. Backed up by high-tech surveillance and intimidation where necessary, Fitch unscrupulously sets out to do whatever it takes – including digging up the dirt on jurors to ensure that they are in his pocket. |
Meanwhile, the mysterious Nicholas Easter, one of the jurors, is working equally hard to persuade the jury to find the arms consortium guilty. Easter is aided by his girlfriend Marlee and, between them, they also seek to manipulate both Fitch and the prosecuting lawyer, Wendell Rohr, for their own purposes.
There are numerous twists and turns in the film and it is only very near the end when the reason for Easter and Marlee’s involvement becomes clear. I will not give the twist away, except to say that their motivation is not what it seems at the outset! If you do not particularly like courtroom dramas, don’t be put off. Runaway Jury is a lot more than that.
THROUGH THE LENS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
Some key themes: Integrity v Greed; does the end justify the mean?
Runaway Jury brings into stark contrast two legal officials with very differing outlooks on life. Rankin Fitch is a scheming, profiteering individual with little regard for justice. Wendell Rohr, on the other hand, is a man of integrity whose passion is for the right thing to be done. Sadly (although the film bucks the trend), it is often the case in this world that the greedy prosper, while the sincere and selfless suffer and are beaten down. Certainly in material terms Fitch is rich, powerful and successful – all of which is built on a ruthless streak that will stop at nothing. But he is morally bankrupt, something that most people will recognise. The outward glittering trappings are no reflection of the man himself.
Jesus’ way of measuring the value of a human being is very different. For him the worth of a person’s life is not determined by bank balance or naked ambition, but by the love and service that is shared with others. Jesus’ concern in the gospel accounts is so often bound up with compassion for the little people, the broken, and those who society counts as nothing. It is a very different way, but one which provides the blueprint for a Christian life. In Runaway Jury it is Rohr, the struggling lawyer who Fitch dismisses and ridicules, who is the man of integrity. It is not easy to swim against the current of materialism and self-interest that affects our society so extensively, but it is the task to which Christians are called.
Nicholas Easter and Marlee, meanwhile, play their own game of intrigue in seeking to swing the jury. At first they appear to be on the make and their involvement part of a money-making scam. But as the film unfolds it becomes apparent that they have a very different motive and use illegal means to achieve an end result that they see as a good. This raises a thorny question for Christians. Does the end justify the means if the end result is a greater good? Some would say that a good can never really be accomplished by dodgy means; others might argue that to avoid taking a dodgy action and thereby allowing a greater wrong to result would itself be wrong. I am not going to suggest what your answer might be, but simply leave you with a few questions that you might like to ponder and reply to on the discussion forum.
Have your say on the discussion forum....
· How realistic do you think it is for Christians to live a life of integrity in a world where money, status and power are so often the goals people are encouraged to seek?
· Were Easter and Marlee right to do what they did?
· Does the end always justify the means if the end result is good?
· Is it ever right to do wrong? For example, most people would argue that telling lies is wrong. But would you tell a lie to save another person’s life?
To discuss this further why not leave a message of the discussion forum.
