This is one of those black and white crime dramas from the 1060's (1961) when movies embraced moral questions.
This is "West Side Story" but as a courtroom drama. The subject again is gang violence in NYC and a look at the social ills that caused it : race, poverty, slum life... and especially the consequent peer pressure related to gang life.
Briefly, a district lawyer played by Burt Lancaster investigates two Italian teenagers accused of the murder of a Puerto Rican boy.
There are no graphic depictions of entry or exit wounds, no blood splattered walls.... but rather we delve into the personalities of well drawn characters who inhabit a world we easily grasp as violent without these trappings.
The beauty of this kind of film is that we alternately side with the "good guys" and the "bad guys"and we aren't allowed to make up our minds till the final scenes of the movie.
The acting is great across the board. Vivian Nathan, for example, is excellent in a cameo as the mother of the slain boy.
This film ranks right up there with "Twelve Angry Men" , "Inherit the Wind" and others of the 50's and 60's but unfortunately never got the play of those famous movies.
But like those movies it stands the time test. If you like Burt Lancaster and well written and well acted dramas of this genre, then have a look around for this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment