Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami

Got to hand it to ya,

Bleckner did a great job directing in this gripping drama piece. But what I found the most impressive aspect of the production was the casting. This is an ensemble of high elegance and talent.

Robert Davi is totally convincing as the "terrorist on trial" And both Sam Waterson and Ron leibman is in the position where you could'nt imagine anyone else in their roles, this is textbook casting.

I had rather low expectations to this movie, mostly because of this DVD release, its a common Scandinavian release, the picture quality is as poor as the soundtrack. But in the end this does not matter at all-.

The story as it is told is as important today as it was then. we deal with some of the same conflicts today. And through this story you get to see the conflict from the Palestinian point of view and their story, and I gotta say it could be a wake up call for the ignorant.

It surprises me that so few people seem to be aware of this excellent look at the U.S. legal system.

Sometime in the future a Mid Eastern terrorist (played by Robert Davi) is kidnapped overseas and brought to the federal court in Virginia to stand trial. His reluctant defense attorney is played by Ron Liebman. Sam Waterston is the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case. Jo Henderson, in her last role, is the judge.

Strong performances, an excellent cast, and a good, legally accurate script characterize this superb drama.

It is a very good movie.

I have it on DVD (in Australia), but it is titled 'In the Hands of the Enemy', and copyrighted 1994. I thought the producers were very brave to take on a subject such as this, and the script, direction and acting is superb all round. It is very realistic, and you can imagine it happening now, particularly with the current world situation. It is a very entertaining movie, and I would recommend it to any one 13 or 15 and over, as it may disturb some younger viewers - you remember how hard it was to explain 9/11 to most kids. It would also be a great movie for teachers to show in class, being great for social studies classes, legal studies or English classes, and would also be good to show for non-educational related purpose in any fun lesson. This is possibly the role that won Sam Waterston his role in Law and Order, and I would recommend fans of that show watch this movie, as the characters are close.