Movie Type: Psychological Thriller, Detective Film
Themes: Lawyers
Main Cast: Sean Connery, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Capshaw, Blair Underwood, Ed Harris
Release Year: 1995
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The novel by John Katzenbach becomes this legal thriller starring Sean Connery as Harvard Law School professor Paul Armstrong. A legal expert whose days of trying cases are long behind him, Armstrong is moved by a plea he receives from a Florida death row inmate, Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood). It seems that the educated, upstanding Earl has been railroaded by an overeager sheriff (Laurence Fishburne) zealously trying to solve the kidnapping and murder of a little girl. Once Armstrong arrives in Florida, he is able to locate the murder weapon and cast doubt on Earl's innocence, even identifying a much more likely culprit in the homicidal genius Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris). All is not as it seems in the case of Bobby Earl, however, and Armstrong is going to end up regretting his interest in the case. Ruby Dee, Kate Capshaw, and Ned Beatty costar in this film from producer-turned-director Arne Glimcher. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Christopher Murray - Wilcox; Brooke Alderson - Dr. Doliveau; Ned Beatty - McNair; Tony Bolano - Prisoner; Ruby Dee - Evangeline; Hope Lange - Libby Prentiss; Gary Landon Mills - Prisoner; George Plimpton - Elder Phillips; Chris Sarandon - Lyle Morgan; Lynne Thigpen - Ida Conklin; Liz Torres - Delores; Daniel J. Travanti - Warden; Melanie Hughes - Receptionist; Kevin McCarthy - Phil Prentiss; Richard Liberty - Chaplin; Victor Slezak - Sgt. Rogers; Scarlett Johansson - Kate; Taral Hicks - Lena; Colleen Fitzpatrick - Prosecutor
Credit
Dennis Bradford - Art Director, Michael Alden - Associate Producer, Kerry Barden - Casting, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Gary Foster - Co-producer, Anna Reinhardt - Co-producer, Gary Jones - Costume Designer, Ann Roth - Costume Designer, Tom Reilly - First Assistant Director, Arnold Glimcher - Director, William M. Anderson - Editor, Sean Connery - Executive Producer, James Newton Howard - Composer (Music Score), Scott Eddo - Makeup, Ray Delamotte - Camera Operator, Patrizia Von Brandenstein - Production Designer, Lajos Koltai - Cinematographer, Alexander Witt - Cinematographer, Arnold Glimcher - Producer, Steve Perry - Producer, Lee Rich - Producer, Cloudia - Set Designer, Maria Nay - Set Designer, Mark Garner - Set Designer, Michael Meinardus - Special Effects, James J. Sabat - Sound/Sound Designer, Danny Aiello III - Stunts, Pete Antico - Stunts, Chuck Picerni, Jr. - Stunts Coordinator, Jeb Stuart - Screenwriter, Peter Stone - Screenwriter, William McConnell - First Assistant Camera, John Katzenbach - Book Author
Paul Armstrong, (Sean Connery), a liberalHarvard Law professor opposed to capital punishment, is persuaded to go to Florida, to investigate the conviction of Bobby Earl Ferguson (Blair Underwood) for murder. Ferguson, a former Cornell University student, is a highly intelligent, charming, and articulate black man who was convicted of raping and murdering a young white girl. Armstrong must save him from being placed in the electric chair. Ferguson tells Armstrong that he was tortured by a racist police detective to get a confession. As Armstrong digs deeper into the case, he discovers that Tanny Brown (Laurence Fishburne), the chief detective on the case, did indeed coerce Earl's confession.
The plot thickens when Earl tells the professor that the murder was actually committed by Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris), a serial killer awaiting execution, who later reveals the location of the weapon used to kill the girl. When Armstrong discovers the weapon, Brown tries to threaten him into abandoning the investigation. (It is revealed that the murdered girl was Brown's daughter's best friend.) Earl gets a re-trial and is freed from prison.
Armstrong then receives a call from Sullivan, who asks him to visit his parents. Armstrong is shocked to find the butchered bodies of Sullivan's parents, and returns demanding an explanation. Sullivan gloats that he and Ferguson struck a deal: Ferguson would kill Sullivan's parents in exchange for freedom, while Sullivan would claim responsibility for the girl's murder. It turns out that Ferguson did in fact commit the crime he was imprisoned for, and used Armstrong to release him from death row.
Armstrong and Brown go after Ferguson, who desires revenge on Armstrong's wife (Kate Capshaw); she was the prosecutor in a previous rape trial which, while thrown out of court, resulted in him being brutalized and castrated in jail. Ferguson plans to murder Armstrong's wife and daughter (Scarlett Johansson) and then feed them to alligators, but Armstrong and Brown come to the rescue. They kill Ferguson and save Armstrong's wife and daughter.
Differences from the novel
While the film is generally faithful to Katzenbach's novel, it departs from it in a few key areas. Most notably, Ferguson in the novel does not kill Sullivan's parents; this plot device is used as a red herring. Also, the film omits a supporting character, Andrea Schaeffer, a homicide detective who helps in the investigation. Finally, the main character is named "Matt Cowart" in the novel, and is an investigative journalist rather than a college professor.
