The Dark Comedy of the Courtroom: Norman Jewison’s And Justice for All

Abstract

This article examines And Justice for All’s (1979) peculiar spin on the courtroom drama. Though the film embraces a mode of seriousness to portray sexual violence and an unjust criminal justice system, it also includes an undercurrent of dark comedy and absurdity. The article shows how the film incorporates dark-comedic absurdity to emphasize how severely malfunctional the criminal justice system is. While the film reproduces the lawyer-as-hero trope known from earlier eras in American film history, it is very disillusioned with the state of the criminal justice system as such. In this sense, it gives viewers a recognizable lawyer-hero to root for even though the film invites viewers to be very skeptical of the state of the system.