The Maguffin
• America's post-O.J. preoccupation with
justice and the breakdown of the jury
system gives rise to the Maguffin.
• The Maguffin is the issue of public
dishonesty—specifically corruption in the
courts, the church, real estate, and the city
and state governments.
• The Maguffin is never dealt with overtly nor
is it resolved. It merely dwells beneath the
surface in order to move the plotline along
so that we can do what we are supposed to
do:
– watch the tortured journey of Vail—the
ultimate con man—who ultimately wriggles
on his own hook.
– watch the tortured journey of Venable—the
female lawyer—who ultimately fails as she
attempts to master the hierarchical legal
world and do what all female lawyers must
do: choose between her two fathers.
The Setting: The Windy City
• Chicago is central to the plotline
which involves contradiction and
corruption:
– The Archbishop abuses his position by
sexually abusing young teens.
– The State’s Attorney (DA) is lining his own
pockets through corrupt real estate deals.
– Vail's legal team (Andre Braugher and
Maura Tierney) shows signs of mutiny, as
evidence continues to point to their client’s
guilt.
• The windy city is portrayed as a fluid
operation which works well for the
unquestioning rich and powerful.
The Accused
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Aaron Stampler appears to be a stammering
Kentucky youth caught red-handed for hacking to
death Archbishop Rushman (Stanley Anderson),
one of the city's most respected figures.
His frustratingly uncooperativeness is soon
explained when he displays multiple personalities.
While a person with multiple personalities can be
judged based on the dominant personality only,
Illinois is relatively unique in allowing for a hybrid
penalty.
A jury can find a defendant “guilty but mentally ill”
(GBMI) if he suffers “from substantial disorder of
thought, mood, or behavior” that impaired his
judgment. They are sentenced to prison instead of a
mental institution but the court can require
psychiatric treatment in prison or recommend other
sentencing alternatives. The death penalty is usually
not given in GBMI cases. This hybrid system allows
for compromise between a finding of guilt beyond a
reasonable doubt and innocence by reason of
insanity.
In the end, his performance raises serious questions
about the role of legal professionals and the
effectiveness of the justice system generally.
Edward Norton was nominated for an Academy
Award for this role—his feature-film debut. The
Producers originally wanted Leonardo DiCaprio
but he passed on the part. After interviewing
2,100 potentials, Norton was cast. His audition
consisted of a fake accent and a lie that he grew
up in Kentucky.
Father #1:
Richard Gere
as Martin Vail
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Richard Gere plays the classic morally ambiguous protagonist.
Hollywoodland has transitioned from cops, to private detectives, and most recently
attorneys who solve crimes. Vail is the latest crime-solver in this chain of narrative
development.
Martin Vail used to eke out a living in the Chicago district attorney’s office but left under a
cloud. Now he is a superlawyer who'll represent anyone-as long as they're rich,
controversial, and high-profile.
He is a famous, self-assured, gorgeous, sexy, cool, winning, celebrity defense attorney.
On the other hand…
Martin Vail is a cynical, greedy, publicity-hound, ambulance-chasing, insecure womanizer
who can’t get enough validation no matter how much ink is spilled on his exploits.
Vail is ultimately transformed from an amoral (if you want justice “go to a whorehouse for
that”) attorney to one who actually cares about justice.
He lost out to the other father in the classic father-daughter relationship with Janet
Venable but seeks to reclaim her through his pursuit of justice.
Hence, he is positioned as Venable’s “good” father.
Father #2:
John Mahoney as
John Shaughnessy
– Like all Chicago/Illinois politicians, he becomes the powerful
State’s Attorney (DA) through his connections and corruption.
– A friend of the slain archbishop who wants to see the death
penalty imposed.
– He has battled Vail on other matters when they used to work
together—mainly for influence with Janet Venable.
– He takes a meddlesome interest in the Stampler verdict by
assigning his puppet (Venable) to the case.
– In this way, he can control the case and once again best Vail on
both a personal and professional level.
– Shaughnessy is positioned as Venable’s “bad” father.
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Convinced of Stampler's guilt and still steaming over Vail's
past behavior, Venable takes the case seriously and is
determined to best her old mentor and lover in a web of
Electra/Oedipal subconscious emotional and sexual
foreplay.
She provides the classic female lawyer paradox: She at
once represents achievement and equality as the lead
prosecutor in a high-profile case yet she is also a
subservient puppet to the hierarchical male–dominated
criminal process controlled by her two competing fathers
(her boss and Vail). Indeed, this is precisely why she was
selected by her boss for this case.
What is in her future? The choice for Venable is the same
choice faced by nearly all female lawyers working within
the hierarchy: she can continue being a servant of her
male superiors, the law, and the state and climb the malecontrolled political ladder or she can go join Vail in the
pursuit of justice—if Vail chooses to go that route—or fame
and fortune—if Vail goes back to his old ways.
No matter what she chooses it will be based on maledominated hierarchy.
We are pretty sure that she will ultimately choose the
“good” father Vail—mostly because she has already made
that choice, regrets it, and sees that he has “changed”
enough for her to consider it. Therefore, she wouldn’t be
“going back” so much as in her mind “moving forward.”
We, or course, no better as sleeping with your father is
never the right choice either literally or symbolically.
Portrayal
of Women:
Laura
Linney
as Janet
Venable
Portrayal of Women:
Maura Tierney as Naomi Chance
• What characteristics
does she display?
• What do we know
about her past?
• How did she come
to work for Vail?
• What is in her
future?
Portrayal of Women:
Alfre Woodard as
Judge Miriam Shoat
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What characteristics does she display?
Given what we know from female lawyer films and other films with female characters, what
would a picture based on Judge Shoat portray? What was in her past and what is in her future?
What does her stash of alcohol in her chambers tell us about her?
What do we know about her past?
How did she become a judge?
No-nonsense, authoritative, she allows the state to show bloody photos of the victim even
though evidence is not supposed to appeal to jurors’ emotions. Why?
When Vail attempts to change his client’s plea mid-way through the trial, she forbids it, thereby
forcing him to use an alternate method of getting his client off by reason of insanity.
However, Illinois law does allow for changing pleas during a trial. So why did Shoat forbid it,
knowing full well that she would be overturned on appeal?
She attained her judgeship via the corrupt political system of the state. She is therefore
beholden to political powerbrokers if she has hopes of promotion to the higher state ranks or
even the federal government as those positions too are controlled by state powerbrokers.
Portrayal of Women:
Frances McDormand as Dr. Molly Arrington
• Due to his frequent blackouts,
Arrington diagnoses the
accused with multiplepersonality disorder and
testifies as an expert witness at
the trial.
• What characteristics does she
display?
• What do we know about her
past?
• Because she is a psychiatrist,
she has an M.D.
• What is in her future?
The “Magic Negro” in Film
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In the 1950s, postmodern film critics began to recognize Hollywood’s use of
what the critics called the “Magic Negro”— a post-Brown v. Board of Education
(1954) black cinematic character who arises to assuage white guilt over the
role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing
stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure
for whom interracial sex holds no interest. He has no past. He simply appears
one day to help the white protagonist.
Examples: Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael
Clarke Duncan, Will Smith, Laurence Fishburne, and, most recently, Don
Cheadle.
Is Vail’s No. 2 Tommy Goodman (played by Andre Braugher) the “Magic
Negro?”
Was Jed Ward’s No. 2 Nick (played by Laurence Fishburne) the “Magic
Negro?”
1996 Review by the Washington Post’s Desson Howe: “But the showstopper is
Braugher, who appeared in "Glory" and plays Detective Pembleton in the TV
series "Homicide: Life on the Streets." As Tommy Goodman, Vail's right-hand
man, he's far too smart to be anyone's assistant, but this doesn't stop him from
doing an exemplary job. And as the case gets tougher, Braugher carries the
weight in his pained, ironic expressions. In a way, he's the touchstone of the
movie: Look at his face and you can see how everything's going. If "Primal
Fear" achieves nothing else, it makes a powerful case for him to take the
plunge and act full-time on the big screen.”
Is Judge Miriam Shoat (played by Alfre Woodard) the “Magic Negro?”
The “Magic Negro” in Non-Film Contexts
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Does this prototype apply in non-film contexts?
Was Magic Johnson a “Magic Negro?”
In March 2007, early in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential
nomination, columnist David Ehrenstein suggested that Sen. Barack Obama
(D-IL) was running in the public imagination for the office “Magic Negro”—a
kind of benign African-American figure who is there to help and for whom
even mild criticisms are waved away magically: “He used to smoke, but
now he doesn't; he racked up a bunch of delinquent parking tickets, but
he paid them all back with an apology. And hey, is looking good in a
bathing suit a bad thing?.... Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is
there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know
or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems,
the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't
project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.”
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Contrast this with all-star Gary Sheffield’s 2007 comments in GQ about the
dwindling number of African-Americans in Major League Baseball and the
growing number of Latin players: “I called it years ago. What I called is
that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English
going to be coming out. … [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players]
what to do -- being able to control them. Where I'm from, you can't
control us. You might get a guy to do it that way for a while because he
wants to benefit, but in the end, he is going to go back to being who he
is. And that's a person that you're going to talk to with respect, you're
going to talk to like a man. These are the things my race demands. So,
if you're equally good as this Latin player, guess who's going to get sent
home? I know a lot of players that are home now can outplay a lot of
these guys.”
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Is Sheffield a Magic Negro?
Conclusion
• Hollywoodland’s portrayal of
female lawyers in the 1980s and
1990s was paradoxical: while
women attained a certain level of
status they were still beholden to
the system.
• The classic Electra/Oedipal,
mother-father-daughter triangle is
once again present as the female
lawyer must choose between the
good and bad fathers.
• The “magic negro” is also present
in the form of Vail’s No. 2 Tommy
Goodman, but not Judge Miriam
Shoat.
Credits
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Bergman, Paul and Michael Asimow, Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies, rev. ed. (Kansas City, MO:
Andrews McMeel, 2006).
Ebert, Roger, “Primal Fear,” rogerebert.com, April 5, 1996.
Ehrenstein, David, “Obama the ‘Magic Negro,’” Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2007.
Howe, Desson, “’Fear,’ Then Loathing,” Washington Post, April 5, 1996.
Kempley, Rita, “A Houdini of a Whodunit,” Washington Post, April 3, 1996.
Parsons, Chad, “Parody Stirs Racial Debate,” Chicago Tribune, May 6, 2007.