El mudo

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!!!!!

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.)

Obituary for Lowell Jack Myers

Lowell J. Myers, 76: Deaf Lawyer and Advocate for Deaf People

Lowell J. Myers, who lost his hearing at a young age but found in himself a strong, unwavering voice as a champion for the deaf , the bullied and the underdog, even arguing 17 cases before the Illinois Supreme Court, died Nov. 7, 2006 of a brain aneurysm. He was 76.

Mr. Myers was born in Los Angeles in 1930 to deaf parents and educated in Chicago. He had some hearing until age 10, when he, too, became deaf. That setback, and the adversity faced by his deaf parents, fueled a two-fisted determination to succeed, that resulted in him attending both Roosevelt University (BA) and the University of Chicago (MA) at the same time in order to receive his education.

After graduating with college degrees from two universities simultaneously, he applied to the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. But the dean refused to admit him, saying he feared Mr. Myers, as a deaf person, would not be able to keep up, much less graduate. Were Mr. Myers able to do so, the dean suggested, he would not be able to pass the Illinois Bar Exam, or, if that obstacle was overcome, to practice law in a courtroom.

The dean relented to allow Mr. Myers to attend the law school for one semester - as a trial period. In a foreshadowing of what was to come, Mr. Myers did well at this trial; he went on to graduate second in his class of 80 students, the first deaf student to graduate from the school and one of the first to graduate from law school in the country.

Mr. Myers was also a CPA and worked in the tax law department with Sears, Roebuck & Co. for 30 years, but it was his compassionate work outside of this arena that earned him acclaim.

In his most famous case, he defended a deaf man accused of murder who did not know sign language and could not communicate with anyone. A book about the case, Dummy, was published by the "Book of the Month Club," selling more than 100,000 copies. It was later turned into a TV movie, starring actor LeVar Burton as the deaf defendant.

But it was not only deaf and hard of hearing people that Mr. Myers became an advocate for. He also viewed himself as a voice of reason in defense of those he felt were being bullied or taken advantage of. He successfully sued the Chicago Police Department for the shootings of deaf people, and his efforts resulted in the department instituting training to help officers more effectively work with the deaf.

He argued cases before the Illinois Supreme Court 17 times - and never lost! In one of those cases, he represented a group of taxpayers who had been overcharged by the government, and his pleas were so impassioned and his work so extensive in the case, the justices later awarded him legal fees of $90,000, nine times the $10,000 fee he requested.

Mr. Myers used his influence as a legal advocate for the deaf community to write laws to help deaf people that are still being used throughout the United States. His book, The Law and the Deaf, also became a model used by others in foreign countries. A second book detailed how to handle legal cases of police brutality. He also wrote and self-published a student version of The Law and the Deaf that was widely used in high schools for the deaf. The Illinois State Bar Association honored him in 2006 as a "Senior Counselor" for 50 years of service to the profession.

Recently, Mr. Myers moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C. to be closer to his daughter, Lynda Rae Myers, a deaf social worker, and his grand-daughter, Ariana Myers (deaf), of Takoma Park, MD. In addition to them, he is also survived by his son, Nathan Benjamin Myers of Chicago, who followed his father into law; and two sisters, Jean Markin and Dorothy Doyle of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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

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