Trial by Fire

When compared to the true story they did quite good. There were a few things not explained properly like who was the woman who told Laura Dern to write to a prisoner? And they didn't show enough of the ex wife and her feelings. However it was an interesting movie with good acting that got me teary.

This was a well acted and thought provoking film which should challenge anyone's opinion of the death penalty and the serious flaws in the justice system. It was quite a long film, but worth watching.

Great directing and cinematography, and a fairly detailed account on the real story of Cameron Todd Willingham, played excellent by Jack O'Connell. Casting was great and all actors were convincing in their roles. Laura Dern was outstanding. The score/music was great and placed perfectly in certain scenes.

The first half of the film was paced perfectly and had great tense moments, but I feel the second half dragged out a little too long with slower pacing and overly extended scenes. The 127 min runtime should have been edited down minus 20 mins from the second half of the film.

Otherwise and outstanding production that had a roller-coaster of emotions and tense moments due to the excellent acting and technical details the filmmakers created. It really makes you think on how terrible the justice system was and still is, and how politics played out during then-Texas governor Rick Perry's poor judgement.

It's a shame this excellent production has some bad ratings/reviews, some reviewers saying it's predictable and cliched. This is how the real story played out, so any so-called cliches, sadly are actual facts. Thus a well deserved 9/10 from me, and a definite recommend if you can forgive the slow pacing in the second act. And if anyone thinks this review is fake, click on my username to see my 1000+ ratings and 700+ reviews. Now go see this excellent biopic!

Powerful, heartbreaking and tragic. This film is seriously underrated and I only imagine because its ratings have been influenced by politics.

Jack O'Connell delivered his career-best performance in this as Cameron Todd Willingham. The transformation of Todd is perfectly brought to life by O'Connell during the course of the film. It helps that he shares excellent, heartwarming chemistry with Laura Dern who has come to play such roles so effortlessly. It was a joy to watch them share the screen.

That's mostly where the joys end though. This is a sad film that takes the tragedies to a whole new level - just when you think it not possible. It will more than likely leave you depressed - as it did me. But it also does the story justice, and is sensitive in its delivery. It doesn't paint Willingham as some saint the whole time, which adds authenticity.

The bond which develops between Todd and main correctional officer, Daniels (Chris Coy) was great to watch.

Trial By Fire is a thought-provoking film and will not only get you thinking about capital punishment, but life itself. Highly recommend to those after a heavy-hitting drama, or for fans of O'Connell and Dern.

A well acted film well paced and directed.

There's far too many of these miscarriages of justice happening by people in a uniform or position of power.

There's more than enough evidence on the news and what I wasn't aware of is sometimes surfaced like here in a movie.

As shocking and depressing as these injustices are, it's compounded by failure of the system to acknowledge and correct it's mistakes, rooting out the corruption.

So well done to the film makers for shaming those involved.