Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Law is at war with ambiguity, with uncertainty. In the courtroom, the adversary system—plaintiff against defendant—guarantees that someone will always win, someone loses. No matter if justice is evenly with each side, no matter if the issues are indefinite and obscure, the rule of law will be declared.—Scott Turow

Law is a complicated, open to interpretation, set of rules essentially used to understand what is right from what is wrong. In that sense, it can be very relative. Human laws are not fixed in nature as are physical laws. Scientists can define gravity and prove it on a paper with the help of their tools. But morality is a more complex animal. There is no black or white in the legal world, only grey. What is right for you maybe wrong for me and so on and so forth. Judging is tough game being a judicious mix of philosophy, logic, antecedents and I guess reason and evidence. In Anatomy of a Murder, Otto Preminger deals exactly with this complex subject. How do some people get away by doing somethings that could be totally wrong but could be unproven in a court of law? Complicated yes, trivial? no. In that sense, Anatomy of a Murder is surely one of the finest legal dramas I have even seen along with the likes of legendary movies such as 12 Angry Men, Witness for the Prosecution among others.

Jimmy Stewart as Paul Biegler delivers yet another mind blowing performance. A down-on-his-luck attorney, who is more interested in fishing than fighting, Biegler stumbles on a rape/murder case, which promises to bring in some much-needed fees. Lt. Frederick Manion claims temporary insanity after hearing that his beloved wife has been brutally raped and in that fit of insanity murders the rapist. This is a classic case of the much controversial acquaintance rape, which seem to bring out no consensus amongst legal experts even to this day. Kathryn Grant, who plays the victim Mary Pilant, steals the show with a fine and nuanced performance. Mary is sort of a loose canon, who loves the party life. Her Husband Manion is a jealous guy with some serious temper problems. One fine night, Mary, who loves mens' attention, is busy clubbing in a rowdy pub wearing skimpy clothes while Manion is sleeping at home. The next thing we know is that Mary is raped, beaten and bruised. Manion, being the quick temper that he is, goes to the pub and shoots the rapist, who happens to be the pub owner. Manion quickly surrenders and claims temporary insanity and hires Biegler as his lawyer.

Jimmy plays to perfection the role of a lawyer who recently lost the DA job to someone else. He brings his characteristic sense of quirky charm to his role, especially in the court room scenes where he is questioning the evidence. One of the best parts is when he whispers in the ears of the judge about the usage of a particular word in the court room, which makes light of a grave situation. The DA who argues against Manion is a sharp guy who believes that Manion is guilty and also believes that Manion was in full senses when he committed the murder. Arguments keep eliciting more and more evidence and deeper analysis into the crime scene.

In the end, we figure, to our chagrin, that the verdict reached was totally wrong despite the best intentions of the innocent. Since this is a spoiler-free review, its a surprise ending. And this, I think, is Preminger's point. Its so easy to paint a picture of innocence or guilty to a case with a clever use of questioning and planting evidence. How would anyone other than the perpetrator of the crime know if s/he is guilty or not? The complexity of legal systems, the ambiguity of morality, the verisimilitude of evidence and the duality of justice are some of the topics touched by Preminger in this classic film full of mind-twisting analysis, good-bad dichotomy. All said with a sweet touch of wit. No matter how obscure the issues are and no matter how wrong the judgment may seem to be, it will be delivered. They just don't make movies like this anymore.