Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming / Just Mercy

By Ian Brockway

“Just Mercy” directed by Destin Daniel Cretton is the true story of Bryan Stevenson who is responsible for getting some 140 death row inmates, a judgment of relief, reversal or release. In 1989, Stevenson was in Harvard law school and he became compelled to help (among others) Walter McMillian, a black logger, convicted of murdering Ronda Morrison, an 18-year old white girl. The film is potent and deeply heart-rending to the point of tears.

Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) is a young student lawyer. As an intern at Harvard, he visits Walter (Jamie Foxx) an inmate on Death Row. Stevenson says he wants to help. Walter is suspicious.  He feels blighted at every turn. No one believes him; after all this is Alabama. He has been incarcerated for months without counsel. It is only a matter of time before his execution is set. The conviction was based on the false testimony of a felon (Tim Blake Nelson) in a plea deal to get his own charges dismissed.

The circumstances are further tensed by the racial claustrophobia that Stevenson feels under the bigoted gaze of white authority. He is stopped by the police at gunpoint and ridiculed. He is demeaningly ordered to strip and treated with derision, but he continues on.

Stevenson is joined by Eva (Brie Larson) his partner at the Equal Justice Initiative.

Michael B. Jordan is excellent, quintessentially calm and full of empathy. The actor portrays an almost Buddhist example of compassionate focus and intent. Jamie Foxx has never been better as a mild mannered man of heart and courage forced into a terminal condition by an irrational penal system. The pain that shows on his face is real, raw and percussive.

There is another prisoner Herb  (Rob Morgan) suffering from PTSD. He understandably has a breakdown during his fateful pronouncement and no one can blame him. Walter McMillian becomes the calm center that everyone looks upon for balance and security.

“Just Mercy” is one of the most directly affecting films you will likely see on the subject of those falsely accused, mistreated and misrepresented. Your heart will be wrung and justly so.

In addition to his legal work, Bryan Stevenson acquired six acres of former public housing in Montgomery, Alabama to build a museum honoring 4,000 persons who were lynched in the South from 1877 to 1950.

Stevenson was awarded the National Medal of Liberty by the ACLU in 1991. As a steadfast bachelor, it has been said that Stevenson believes that his work is incompatible with married life. The world is better for Bryan Stevenson and we can all take heart that his just cause still carries forward to this day.

This film is one of the Tropic’s Picks for the Pandemic. It is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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