Heavens Fall

Everybody should know the story of the Scottsboro 9 (you can Wikipedia it). This movie does not tell the whole story and I really have no quibble with it except they should have pointed out that Judge Horton could have dismissed the case for lack of evidence in 1933. If you add up the sentences of the nine boys, later men, it's over 100 years. The last Scottsboro boy incarcerated, Patterson, escaped in 1948 from hard labor on a chain gang, out on a road somewhere, just like in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". All of the Nine were incarcerated, beaten up, shot in the head, etc., for at least six years.One boy was being transported and got into a scuffle in the car and a deputy shot him in the head. The Communist Party started sending them food and so on. The guards really hated them. At one point they were put in a private prison which had been declared unfit for prisoners because of the rats, bedbugs, etc. No air conditioning in the South at this time, obviously. They also were in a room right next to the death chamber. It would be as if you had a bathroom next to your bedroom and occasionally the guards took someone from your (large) bedroom and fried him in the electric chair in the bathroom, and probably you had heard his story and maybe you thought he was also innocent.Anyway, Judge Horton's not doing the right thing and dismissing the case is probably glossed over because the movie makers wanted the audience to have a hero. The case ended Judge Horton's career and he was extremely erudite (you can read his written opinion of the case, accompanying his judgment to set aside, in books about the Scottsboro Nine and no doubt online somewhere), so it was a waste. He lived there for 30 more years and he should have been a judge all that time.He should have dismissed because there was no evidence whatsoever. In the second trial Ruby Bates said she had only been corroborating what Victoria Price said because she, Ruby, was intimidated and thought it best to do what Victoria said, "Follow my lead." In fact nobody had raped her or Victoria. Plus Leibowitz pointed out that the other eyewitnesses in the first Scottsboro Nine case had not been able to see the train.The actress who played Victoria Price should have made herself even uglier and more belligerent, like Charlize Theron in Monster. They should have made it plain that Victoria Price had been a prostitute for white and black men for years and had been transporting Ruby Bates, a minor, across state lines for the purposes of making money as prostitutes and had been in prison for fornication. (Something I read said some of the hobos were glad to go to jail to get something to eat so I am not sure how hard her jail sentence was.)Update: I have been doing some more reading and the person who started all this trouble, Victoria Price, was 27. She lied and said she was 21. She was afraid she was going to get into trouble for transporting a minor across state lines to make money as prostitutes. Ruby Bates was 17. It's called the Mann Act. She must have been a prostitute for over a decade. Nobody in that tiny cotton mill town could survive on what they made at the mill. The Aileen Wuornos story also shows how hardened someone becomes after years of being a prostitute. So I don't think LeeLee Sobieski should have been cast because she looked so fresh and innocent. Her acting was fine. The sheriff and the deputy from that tiny town were called in as character witnesses by Mr. Leibowitz and both said Victoria Price was a complete liar.Update: The code of the South required the lynch mob to be at the train stop just because the black boys threw the white boys off the train. No black person was allowed to get away with raising a hand to a white person. Obviously the mob would be even more likely to lynch the black boys/men accused of rape.So when Victoria Price called "Rape!" she was essentially saying, "I'll show you how to put these [word omitted] in their place -- I'll say they raped me." This is in addition to her wanting to keep them from investigating her hobo-ing, which is punishable as vagrancy, and pimping for Ruby Bates. Victoria had never been "the fair flower of Southern gentility" before and must have been a sociopath (consequences to other people don't enter a sociopath's mind).If the boys who had a fistfight had been white and the ones who got thrown off the train had walked to the nearest sheriff's office and said they wanted to file a charge of assault, the sheriff probably would have said they'll get away before we catch them and I'm liable to charge all of you with vagrancy, so go away and quit bothering me.I also think if "The Haywood Patterson Story" was made into a movie, a young Laurence Fishburne would have looked just like him. Just goes to show how superficial people are! In other words, Haywood Patterson did look kind of aggressive. If he had looked like Anthony Anderson and had not started slugging it out with the white guy who evidently tripped him or whom Patterson tripped or however it started, the whole thing would not have happened. Patterson did spend the longest time in jail, from the time of the alleged assault, March 1931, through his escape in 1948. Then he was re-arrested and died in jail of cancer in 1952.If I am saying Patterson was "guilty" of being "mean-looking," please forgive me as I am contrasting it with one of the other guys who was blind in one eye and only had about 25% of normal vision in the other eye and was hobo-ing from place to place trying to earn money to buy glasses so he could rejoin the human race. Would have been better for him if he had been a blind hermit.

I would have preferred that the movie concentrated on the Scottsboro Boys more than on the somewhat glamorized portrayal of Samuel Leibowitz; theirs is the true drama in this tragic miscarriage of justice. Leibowitz, described as the best defense attorney after Clarence Darrow, may actually have taken third billing to the man generally acknowledged as the best defense attorney of his day, Earl Rogers, father of Adela Rogers St. Johns, one of the 20th century's most celebrated women. Leibowitz was no less provincial in his thinking than those he opposed in Alabama with the notable exception of the truly honorable Judge Horton, and while he was convinced the "Scottsboro Boys" were not guilty of the crime alleged, he was also a victim of his own ego. Nevertheless, at great personal peril he continued the struggle in this legal battle but also the class/cultural struggle of the time.The cast is uniformly excellent with special kudos to Leelee Sobieski. This was really better suited to a mini-series like "The Murder of Mary Phagan" to do this story justice, but it is a good film.

This movie was made in my hometown and my son actually played a tiny role in this movie and since he's passed away it will be a great asset to his memory. But it is a really good movie.

David Strathairn does a good performance in this movie. Not the best movie he has starred in but I enjoyed it anyway. It is a true story - a trial of a couple of black men charged with raping a woman. Despite the evidence that they were innocent, they were found guilty of the crime and suffered the consequences of death. It evoked anger within me while watching this DVD.

History comes alive in this well done drama about a racial trial that the outcome of which appeared decided by the jury before the first witness took the stand. Nevertheless, it portrays the players in the legal system as real people who believe they are doing what is right. Persons who like good acting and fine drama will truly enjoy this movie. For full disclosure, I must point out that I was one of many who provided a small portion of the money needed to make this movie. However, it also must be pointed out that this movie won first place in the Hollywood film festival.

The movie itself is excellent. My complaint lies with the formatting on the disc. Specifically, subtitles.I am an English speaker, but I am also hard of hearing. I also live in an apartment, which means I share walls with other people and can't necessarily turn up the volume.The only subtitle option was Spanish.What a huge let-down.

This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat. The ending is quite unexpected. Timothy Hutton is wonderful and you will find yourself detesting LeeLee Sobieski's character because she plays it so well. This is worth watching!

Tuft subject matter. The subject compromised the enjoyment of the movie which was done well. It is hard to except such cruelty when ever it occurred when it was obviously not justified and a lie.

great

The movie was terrific! I am 67 years old and did not know about the history on these kids.