Mauern des Schweigens

I remember watching this film twice as a kid, I haven't seen it since. Ernest Tidyman wrote the screenplay for it (he is the same guy who wrote The French Connection). LeVar Burton made his debut as Kunta Kinte in Roots (what a great way to start your career). He said at the time that this was the most challenging role imaginable, playing a deaf and dumb young man accused of murder. Donald Lang is a 20 year old who lives with his siblings and works on the loading docks, he is charged with murdering a prostitue. Lowell Myers is a deaf lawyer who takes on his case. Paul Sorvino is an excellent actor who always delivers and he takes on this challenging role as well. This movie makes it out like there is evidence that Donald Lang was innocent and didn't kill the hooker Ernestine Myers. A woman tells his lawyer that she heard Myers having an argument in the alley where she was murdered with another man and she heard his voice! Lang is taken back to the alley where she was killed and "acts out" a scene where he fights with another man who was the real killer. Sorvino makes an excellent speech at the conclusion where he talks about how a deaf mute is still entitled to the same rights as everyone else. He points out how Charlie Chaplin could make an audience laugh and cry and not use one single word. Its a great speech that tugs at your heartstrings its true, but folks I need to point out something. Every time Hollywood makes a film about a real life murder case, they always make it out like the criminal in question was INNOCENT! Why in the hell do they do this? Is Hollywood full of bleeding heart liberals who pee their pants every time someone is accused of a crime and God forbid if they are poor or African American! Evil comes in all colors and Donald Lang was evil and he was GUILTY! Five years after the murder of Ernestine Myers he was released from the asylum. Shortly afterwards, there was another woman who was murdered and he was seen leaving a bar with her. This time, there was overwhelming physical evidence that Lang was the killer and he was sent to prison for the rest of his life. If our legal system worked the way it should, this woman needn't have died. Donald Lang really was a killer and no amount of moralizing by Hollywood can change that cold hard fact. This film sort of reminded me of The Hurricane about Rubin Carter. It is a well made film with fine actors, but at the same time you have to take it with a grain of salt folks because the murdering son of a bitch really did it! CASE CLOSED!!!!!

i saw this film a very long time ago and its impact was tremendous. so much so that although i had long forgotten the title i had not forgotten the film. only since i have been on the internet have i been able to trace the name of the film and subsequently look out for it on british tv or sky. so far though i have not come across it again. this film is more than worthy of a reshowing and i, for one, would be very pleased to see it again. i would go as far as to say that this film has haunted me for all this time.

I knew Donald Lang between the two killings. He was kind, bright, very strong and hard working. He had ape like qualities that Lavar Burton could not emulate, nor should he have tried.

Lang was always being victimized by pimps, whores and scumbags wandering the ghetto. Lang had a sense of honor, justice and compassion that his tormentors did not have.

I believe he was a lot smarter than most people thought and could understand volumes. He communicated with me by grunts and pointing. I could swear he could understand what I was saying to him.

The only time anyone cared to teach him sign language and communication skills was to try him for murder. That never happened. I don't know where Lang is today but I know he's not in the Illinois prison system.

He only needed a better understanding of how to deal with the evil people in the world. I really think that he felt that killing people who would rob him was okay. His world was truly a jungle and the laws of the jungle applied to him.

Lowell Myers was a fine man. Sorvino did not look like him but captured all of his humanity in the film. Someday I'd like to talk to him about this film. I had a chat with Brian Dennehy who played Lang's boss earlier in his career. It's a great story and should be released on DVD someday. A jail guard from the Cook County jail named Cheserleigh played himself in the film. He too knew Lang

The previous comment missed the point entirely. The question isn't if the guy was guilty or not, but, does the justice system have any mechanism in it for someone who can't hear, speak, read, sign or communicate in any other way. THIS was the crux of the matter- if someone can't communicate at all how does he participate in a court proceeding? How could he understand what was going on? Donald Lang could not communicate ideas at all- he could not lip-read, could not hear,could not understand sign language of any kind- he literally COULD NOT COMMUNICATE- It wasn't about his guilt or innocence- it was about a situation where the courts could do as they pleased with someone because he could not understand anything. This is un-American- we are a land where people have DIED defending a system which provides rights which cannot be trampled by police powers. THAT is what the film was about. (FYI I live in Chicago and know Lowell Myers well, and have spoken to him about this.... so my info is directly from the source.)

I saw this movie tonight for the first time since 1979, when i was a little girl, it was powerful then, and it still is. It still has the ability to make me cry....the ending still has me puzzled. I highly recommend this movie..it gave me a new respect for those of us, who are living with overwhelming disabilities, and still surviving like champions. BTW, Levar Burton is a helluva an actor! Bravo!!! Elaina