Given the question: Build a movie plot around this: how is the screenplay? Understandable
The answer is:
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)Arthur Kirkland (Al Pacino), a defense attorney in Baltimore, is in jail on a contempt of court charge after punching Judge Henry T. Fleming (John Forsythe) while arguing the case of Jeff McCullaugh (Thomas G. Waites). McCullagh was stopped for a minor traffic offence, but then mistaken for a killer of the same name and has already spent a year and a half in jail; Fleming has repeatedly stymied Kirkland's efforts to have the case reviewed. Though there is strong new evidence that Jeff is innocent, Fleming refuses McCullaugh's appeal due to its late submission and leaves him in prison. After being released, Arthur takes another case, that of a transgender Ralph Agee (Robert Christian), arrested for small crime and becoming a victim of the legal system.Arthur pays regular visits to his grandfather Sam (Lee Strasberg) in a nursing home, who is progressively becoming senile. It is revealed that Arthur was abandoned by his parents at a young age, and it was Sam who raised him and put him through law school. Arthur also begins a romance with a legal ethics committee member, Gail Packer (Christine Lahti). Arthur has a friendly relationship with Judge Francis Rayford (Jack Warden), who takes him on a hair-raising ride in his personal helicopter, laughing as he tests how far they can possibly go without running out of fuel, while a terrified Arthur begs him to land. Rayford, a veteran of the Korean War, is borderline suicidal and keeps a rifle in his chambers at the courthouse, a 1911 pistol in his shoulder holster at all times, and eats his lunch on the ledge outside his office window, four stories up.One day, Arthur is unexpectedly requested to defend Fleming, who has been accused of brutally assaulting and raping a young woman. As the two loathe each other, Fleming feels that having the person...