A man stuck in an unfeeling bureaucratic machine.

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2012)

What a disappointing movie. Who really cares about what happened to Rubin Carter? Who knows whether he was innocent or guilty? The movie suggest that his arrest and conviction was unfair, and maybe it was. But how does that translate into something dramatic? The criminal justice system is not perfect, and miscarriages of justice happen. Now, do these miscarriages of justice make for good drama? The answer is no, because of the highly bureaucratic nature of the criminal justice system which reduces even the most explosive situations down to case files and case numbers, which perhaps is the way it is supposed to be. Mr. Carter's case was initiated, processed, and finalized, and while he was going through the process, many other defendants were going through the same process too. For each defendant the process is dramatic because their life is being affected, but for everyone else, it's just a case. If Mr. Carter was in fact wrongly accused and convicted, then that is a tragedy, but one the depth of which cannot be conveyed in a movie. The injustice is smothered by the sheer weight of the paperwork which highlights the essential indifference of an unfeeling bureaucracy which reduces its subjects to case numbers and treats them accordingly.