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“Marshall” Gives Supreme Court Judge Deserved Recognition

Marshall, an excellent court-drama showcasing civil rights hero Thurgood Marshall, a movie that recently hit Berkeley theaters, is absolutely excellent.

Entertainment

Marshall, an excellent court-drama showcasing civil rights hero Thurgood Marshall, a movie that recently hit Berkeley theaters, is absolutely excellent. Full of suspense, the movie tells a court case drama relevant to the civil rights movement.

Marshall shows how Marshall (Chadwick Boseman), in tandem with Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), defended a black man, Joseph Spell, accused of raping a white woman, Eleanor Strubing, in 1941. The movie doesn’t feel like a dry documentary though; instead, it feels like a court drama you can feel good about watching because of its historical significance.

It’s hard to go into detail without spoiling the movie, but Marshall keeps the audience questioning what really happened and how the court case will play out until the last minute. The movie keeps viewers eager for a resolution up until the very last minute of the movie. Viewers sit on the edge of their seats, unsure of the ending.

Even though black civil rights are at the heart of the movie, the anti-Semitism of the time period isn’t overlooked either. Marshall’s struggle for equality for black people isn’t pitted against the discrimination Friedman and his family face for being Jewish. Instead, both are seen as grave  dangers in their own right and both men face their realities while growing sympathetic to what the other one lives through.

Naturally, the serious topics of the film are treated with the dignity they deserve, but the theater echoed with laughter at humorous points in the movie. A movie that can both respectfully portray somber issues of racism and anti-Semitism and bring viewers to laughter in the same movie deserves to be a box office hit.

Not only that, Marshall educates people about its titular subject, the only lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1941, the lawyer who won Brown v. Board of Education, and the first African American on the Supreme Court in 1967, in an entertaining way. Marshall, in this sense, is similar to movies like Dolores,  about activist Dolores Huerta. Both sing the song of fighters for change overlooked in most history classes.

Especially given the current political situation in America, it is important to remember how hard people fought for equal treatment in the face of bigotry. Marshall not only reminds viewers that change takes work, it also celebrates those who broke down those racial barriers. The movie feels uplifting and sends the viewer home feeling happy and empowered to continue the legacy of people like Marshall, not disheartened by the scale of the problems facing the world.

As far as character development, Friedman’s arc throughout the movie is very well done. Though it’s exceedingly hard not to give anything away here, the viewer starts off with a Friedman unwilling to get involved at all with “black issues,” i.e. “not his problem,” and his transformation to relieve himself of this ignorance throughout the movie is believable and inspiring.

Marshall, too, strikes the audience as a human being, not as an idolized man on a pedestal. He can be sassy, witty, teasing, harsh, rude, or deeply emotional, and shows weaknesses and faults of character. A lesser actor than Boseman might turn Marshall into a one-dimensional hero and nothing more, but Boseman uses the script to turn the character of Thurgood Marshall into a multi-layered human being filled with shortcomings that make the portrayal of the character that much more realistic.

Josh Gad and Chadwick Boseman are both convincing actors who make the people they are playing feel genuine. With one facial expression or change in inflection, the audience knows exactly how their characters are feeling at that moment, a skill that furthers the actors own portrayal of the characters.

Dan Stevens, playing Lorin Willis, the prosecutor in the case against Spell, does a fantastic job playing a smarmy character. It’s not surprising that the audience feels like they’re rooting against Willis, but Stevens stirs up contempt against his character on a personal level as well as a political level.

One aspect that sets Marshall apart from other films cinematically is the “flashback” scenes that tell different stories. The short, chromatically distorted scenes show an interpretation of what Spell and Strubing did the night the court contemplates. In all honesty, the first “flashback” was a little confusing, but they made the story that much more engaging by supplying a captivating presentation of the backstory rather than just listening to an oral description by heightening the drama and emotion.

So what are you waiting for? Buy a ticket, sit back, and don’t relax; take a trip to Connecticut with Thurgood Marshall to feel your head spin, your heart rise to your throat, and the power to fight for justice with everything at your disposal. More movies like Marshall, please!