FIND ME GUILTY

US, 2006, 125 minutes, Colour.
Vin Diesel, Ron Silver, Linus Roache, Annabella Sciorra, Peter Dinklage.
Directed by Sidney Lumet.

Sidney Lumet is a veteran director from the Golden Years of Television in the 1950s who made his first feature film, Twelve Angry Men, in 1957 and continued through the decades with some very fine films (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, The Verdict, Q and A, Prince of the City). He made Find Me Guilty at age 81.

The film takes him back to a subject that has interested him for decades: crime in New York. He has explored the police, undercover agents, corruption, court cases. These ingredients are all to be found in Find Me Guilty. Basically, this is a courtroom drama and the screenplay has incorporated much of the trial proceedings verbatim. In the 1980s, a group of 76 Mafiosi were arrested and brought to trial together – with a variety of lawyers representing them. One drug dealer, Giacomo DiNorscia?, ‘Jack’, decided to be his own defence despite his complete lack of training and know-how.

But Jack was innately shrewd and could manage an audience capitalising on his ignorance, rushing in, then apologising while, all the time, really charming the jury. He reminded them often that he was not a gangster but a gagster! This made the capo extremely angry, trying to ostracise him. But, Jack’s talent led to his charming most of his co-defendants, a bizarre group of underlings, numbers men and runners. And he drove the prosecuting attorney beserk. On the other hand, while the judge had to warn him so often during the almost two year trial, he came to have a grudging admiration for him. Lumet keeps this interesting and entertaining while, at the same time, it is an appaling travesty of justice.

The surprise of the film is its star, Vin Diesel. We have not been accustomed to seeing him act. He is either fast and furious or some kind of xXx agent or, lately, trying to control children with military style as a pacifier. For his acting, it is best to go back to Saving Private Ryan and Boiler Room. Dieself carries off the peforming Jack with great panache and, rather disconcertingly at first, with hair (though there is a final credit to wigmakers).

Linus Roache is the exasperated prosecutor, Ron Silver the patient judge and Alex Rocco the capo. Annabella Sciorra appears in one scene to great effect as Jack’s wife.

Lumet continues his illuminating movies about crime and the law.

1.The work of Sidney Lumet? Over many decades? From Twelve Angry Men to Find Me Guilty? Court cases, witnesses, judges, juries?

2.The New York settings, the 1980s? The hold of the Mafia? New York and New Jersey? The court settings, the prison, the confined nature of the action of the film? Musical score?

3.The visual style of the court sequences, the points of view, the defendants, the lawyers, the judge? The close-ups and the cutting? The intensity? The musical score?

4.The period: décor, costumes, styles? The musical score and songs: ‘When You’re Smiling’…?

5.The prologue, Jackie and the confrontation by Tony, Jackie’s daughter? The shooting, Jackie wounded, Tony declaring his love? The hospital? The avoidance of police?

6.The context of Rudolph Giuliani and his clean-up? The seventy-six defendants? The context of Jackie, the Hispanic deal? His being caught? Kierney and the meal set-up? Jackie’s visit? The questions? The proposal? Jackie’s refusal to deal?

7.The judge, Ron Silver’s presence and performance? His stances, tolerance, being fair, the issues of contempt of court, his overruling decisions? The fire? Jackie’s reaction? The side bars? Jackie’s mother’s death and his sympathy? The visit to his chambers? The way that he presided over the case?

8.The defence lawyers, the range of lawyers, the differences? Ben Klandis, Peter Dinklage’s presence and performance? No-one referring to his height except to put the stand near the microphone? The seventy-six defendants themselves, at the different tables? Napoli and his performance – collapse, coming into the court on support? Jackie and his attitudes, his wanting to do the defence himself, the judge explaining patiently the difficulties? The attitude of the other lawyers? Of the defendants? Of Nick Calabrese?

9.Kierney and his team, as prosecutors, determined? The history, the deals? The planning? The witnesses and their reliability – or not? His continual gathering of information? The FBI witnesses? His reaction to Jackie’s cross-examination, the comic touches?

10.The jury set-up: the group, the mixed group, their reactions, their positive responses to Jackie’s performance, the end, their verdict?

11.Vin Diesel as Jackie? In himself, the Italian background and culture, his relationship with his wife, the separation, his daughter? With women? The cocaine habit? His cousin Tony, working with him, loyalty? His place in the Mafia hierarchy, in the family? The way that he grew up, childhood friends, childhood loyalties? The church? Prison experience? His bad back, the chair? Sylvester and his treatment in the cell? Kierney and his provoking him, depriving him of comfort, especially of his chair and bed? Difficult to lie down and sleep? Food restrictions? The search of his room and his being bashed, explaining that he had a fall? The truth about his stories, his generosity, love? Decisions? His taking on his own defence, his performance, joke about being a gagster rather than a gangster? His using such phrases as ‘sort of’? the advice, the reaction of the lawyers, of the group? Nick and his disregard of him, contempt, the meals, his being ostracised? The gangster and his heart trouble? Jackie and his jokes, offence, withdrawing? His questions? The Macchiavelli discussion? The FBI agent and his stereotyping Italians? Tony, the homosexual overtones? The FBI response? His reactions, angers? Success? Respect? At the end – and his being found guilty? The others being released? The episode with his wife coming to visit him, the revelation of himself, his relationship? His father’s support, his mother’s death? His daughter in court? The end and his being cheered? The final information about him and his sentence, his death?

12.The range of witnesses, the FBI, the Mafia people, reliable or not, the agents and their judgments? Kierney, his personality, his desperation to win, his team and their reaction?

13.Bella, her visit, the intense interaction between the two? Her love, her being hurt?

14.Jackie’s father, support, the visit? His daughter, her personality, being present at the initial shooting?

15.The scenes of the defendants, their meals together, their discussions, Jackie and his impassioned appeal about pleading, the change of heart, forcing Nick to support them?

16.The jury, the people watching, the jury liking Jackie?

17.The verdict – just, on the basis of the evidence?

18.A character study of the eccentric, of the American justice system? Of the role and influence of the Mafia? The administration of justice?