THE STAR CHAMBER

US, 1983, 118 minutes, Colour.
Michael Douglas, Hal Holbrook, Yaphet Kotto, Sharon Gless.
Directed by Peter Hyams.

The Star Chamber is an interesting melodrama about American law enforcement and the administration of justice. Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood made a number of films in the '70s and '80s with a vigilante theme, highlighting the inadequacy of the police to cope with the amount of crime in America. These films were often condemned as being fascist in intention - Death Wish, Dirty Harry and the sequels. There were many imitations - especially with the advent of the martial arts films.

This drama is more upbeat. While it focuses on the police and the solving of crimes, its main concern is with the administration of justice, especially with the legal niceties of the law and the work of the judges. The film makes an emotional appeal to show the abuses with the exact application of legal precision. The film then makes an emotional appeal to people taking the law into their own hands and the possibility of error and destruction. It is not clear what the final conclusions of the film are - it is unsatisfying on an intellectual level. However, on an emotional level highlighting the ambiguities, it is very effective. Michael Douglas is earnest in the central role of the judge. Hal Holbrook shows his ability in being persuasive for good and for evil. (He was seen to advantage in a similar role in Peter Hyams' Capricorn One as well as in All the President's Men.) Yaphet Kotto has a sympathetic role as a harassed detective.

The film is in Panavision and has an important aura about it, perhaps more than the film demands. Direction is by Peter Hyams (Busting, Our Time, Capricorn One, Outland).

1. An interesting and entertaining drama? The blend of action, the administration of justice? The complex message of the film?

2. Authentic Los Angeles atmosphere. Panavision photography, colour, action sequences and the immediacy of chases? Violence? The world of affluence, the courts? The streets, the warehouses? The ugliness of murder, robbery, pornography? musical score?

3. The title and its reference to the court of judges at the time of Henry VIII and their taking over administration of justice when the letter of the law was inadequate? The application to the United States of the '80s? How appropriate such a Star Chamber? The administrators of the law working above the law?

4. The stances of the screenplay: the law and its protection - of whom? Victims, criminals? 'The law is an ass.' The reversing of the stance with showing the abuse of the law? Justice and legal ambiguities? Intellectual response? Emotional response?

5. The initial build-up of the horrendous crimes - the background of the multiple murders, the policeman chasing the guilty negro, his gun in the rubbish bin, their searching the trash, his arrest and confession? The trial and the inadmissibility of their evidence on a technicality? Audience response to this freedom? The two drug-takers in the van, their wanting to rob, their cruising around city, the police interrogation, suspicion of marijuana, the discovery of the murdered child's sandshoe? The inadmissibility of this evidence? The case being ousted? The response of the outraged father? The later detail of the cases considered by the Star Chamber? Audience reaction to this application of the law?

6. The interplay of justice, law and morality? The focus on Stephen and his work as a judge, hearing the evidence, knowing the precision of the law, consulting precedents? His having to throw out the cases? His own personal response (and even the response of council to the accused)?

7. Stephen as a judge, personality, the glimpse of his home life, relationship with his wife and dependence on her, her capacity for listening to him, helping him socialise? he kids and their video games etc.? The pressures of his work and decisions? Media coverage and interviews? His growing exasperation? His listening to his mentor? His being led on? The sports match and his exasperation? His readiness to join the Star Chamber?

8. His mentor as friend, past lecturer, judge? His socialising? Words of wisdom? Saying he could sleep nights by doing something about crime? His own hope? The presentation of the Star Chamber in action, their cases, passing of verdicts? The vacancy because of the death of the suiciding judge? The recruiting of Stephen?

9. The prologue with the judge being praised and his suiciding? The vacancy in the Chamber? The sittings, the verdicts? The emotional response to seeing their assassin in action? The explanation of the victims' guilt, seeing the victims, their deaths? The changing of the agenda by Stephen? Their inability to alter the hiring of the assassin? Wheels in motion - even leading to Stephen's death to protect the Chamber?

10. Stephen's dilemma - the urgency of his wanting to condemn the alleged guilty couple, the information about the true criminals, his pressure on his mentor, the calling of the meeting, the discussion, the threats? His going to see the detective for information, his going to the warehouse to warn the two men? The dramatics of the action chase in the warehouse. the possibility of the explosion, the explosion and his fall, the assassin disguised as the policeman, the possibility of his death as a victim of the Star Chamber? The irony of his being saved? The tension built up for the audience?

11. The glimpse of the father of the boy and the effect of his death, his wife's illness, the trial and his drawing the gun, his going to prison and his ironic comments on prison, his suicide?

12. The sleazy couple and their cruising, the background of the warehouse, the irony of the car thieves having taken their van, the informer arrested after robbing the cars, the pressure by the police, the information leading to the arrest of the true criminals? The ugly background of child pornography and child torture? The reaction of the investigating detectives?

13. The world of the detectives? The sympathetic detective, his integrity, work, hunches? The assistants and their wisecracks, comradeship? The arrest of the car thieves and the routine? Interrogations? The police and their work as partners, coping with crime on the streets?

14. The details of court procedure, law. Protection, the lawyers, the District Attorney and her not preparing her case well, judges' decisions? Media treatment?

15. The assassination of the criminals and audience response to this -and the sudden shift of perspective when the two seeming criminals were not guilty as charged? Stephen's responsibility to stop the assassination?

16. The exposure of the Star Chamber - where would it lead?

17. The film as a police and legal vigilante thriller of the '80s, highlighting the extraordinary difficulties of administering urban justice?