Just Cause (film)
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| Just Cause | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Arne Glimcher |
| Produced by | Arne Glimcher Steve Perry Lee Rich |
| Written by | Jeb Stuart Peter Stone |
| Starring | Sean Connery Laurence Fishburne Kate Capshaw Ed Harris Scarlett Johansson |
| Music by | James Newton Howard |
| Cinematography | Lajos Koltai |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1995 |
| Running time | 102 min. |
| IMDb profile | |
Just Cause is a 1995 film directed by Arne Glimcher and starring Sean Connery and Laurence Fishburne. It is based on John Katzenbach's novel of the same name.
[edit] Synopsis
Paul Armstrong, (Sean Connery), a liberal Harvard Law professor opposed to capital punishment, is persuaded to go to Florida, to investigate the conviction of Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood) for murder. Earl, a former Cornell University student, is a highly intelligent, charming, and articulate black man who was convicted of raping and murdering a young white girl. The law professor must save him from being placed on the electric chair. Bobby Earl tells Armstrong that he was tortured by a racist (coincidentally enough the Sheriff is Black), sadistic sheriff to get a confession. As Armstrong digs deeper into the case, he discovers that Tanny Brown (Laurence Fishburne), the chief detective on the case, did indeed coerce Earl's confession.
The plot thickens when Earl tells the professor that the murder was actually committed by Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris), a serial killer awaiting execution, who later reveals the location of the weapon used to kill the girl. When Armstrong discovers the weapon, Brown becomes even more reluctant and petulant. (It is revealed that murdered girl, Joanie Shriver was Brown's daughter's best friend.) Earl gets a re-trial and is freed from prison.
Armstrong then receives a call from Blair Sullivan, who asks him to visit his parents. Armstrong is shocked to find the butchered bodies of Sullivan's parents, and returns demanding an explanation. Sullivan gloats that he and Earl struck a deal: Earl would kill Sullivan's parents in exchange for freedom, while Sullivan would claim responsibility for the girl's murder. It turns out that Bobby Earl did in fact commit the crime he was imprisoned for, and used Armstrong to release him from death row.
Armstrong and Brown go after Earl, who desires revenge on Armstrong's wife (Kate Capshaw); she was the prosecutor in a previous rape trial which, while thrown out of court, resulted in him being brutalized and castrated in jail. Earl plans to murder Armstrong's wife and daughter (Scarlett Johansson) and then feed them to alligators, but Armstrong and Brown come to the rescue. They kill Earl and save Armstrong's wife and daughter.
