Heavens Fall

Not even 100 years ago, the south ... America wise and geography wise .. still had issues with colored people. It's not that nowadays everything is better ... and maybe a case like this would/could still happen ... but I'd like to believe that it is not as likely as it was back then.

Because it was "easy" to just claim a (or multiple) black people did something unlawful ... and everyone just took your word for it. No evidence nothing more needed. Well apart from the testimony ... well rather coerced guilty plea by those who were accused of doing something wrong. It is not a spoiler and it is not really something that should surprise you, that the crime they are accused of here, is something they did not commit.

Still it is about how the systems worked back then and what hoops one has to go through to get a somewhat fair trial ... not an easy watch, but very well acted by all involved ... with the addition of a young Anthony Mackie.

I wanted to see HEAVENS FALL since some years mostly because it stars Timothy Hutton (one day I hope to finish all his movies) and Leelee Sobieski (one of the actresses of which one day I'll watch all her movies because she has the reputation of a bad actress). Last June I finally saw it and I have to say it, it's one of the best movies accounting for both also for the subject.

The story is about the Scottsboro accident in 1931 when two white women (one played by Sobieski) accuse nine black youths of r**e in the South. One day defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz (Hutton) arrives and he will do his best for defending the nine black youths also with the help of William Lee (Anthony Mackie), and he'll succedd but not after lots of trials and tribulations in the real sense of the word.

The main reason for seeing this is the acting. While Hutton and Sobieski have reputations of having half of their filmographies full of badly rated titles, here they give some of their best performances and they both seemed very natural here. A pre-Marvel movies Mackie, David Strathairn and James Tolkan give just some of their many good performances. It's also a nice 'history lesson' about a lesser known fact, it gives the message of being against racism's prejudices and the ending is some sort of relief for the viewer.

If you stumble upon this movie on YouTube (it's available there) give it a try. Even tho you don't know the subject like me it's still worth a viewing for the aforementioned reasons.

As a featured extra on the film, jury foreman, I very much enjoyed working on the film. Everyone was very very good to work with. I have done theater but this was my first film in front of the camera. EVERYONE was really great!!! Not only on camera but behind the scenes they were all wonderful people. The actors and crew were all very nice, helpful and understanding of the mistakes we made as non professionals. I have worked with other directors and Terry is one of the best.

We here in Monroeville would love to give them a very special thanks for all the things they did to help save the courthouse and the other work they did before and after hurricane Ivan.

I liked the movie a lot, and when I saw that it was inspired by a true story, well that got me thinking: 1 Is that possible that someone even one person could do such a thing without any remorse's? 2 If it's possible than can't we really do anything to stop and prevent such an awful act from happening? 3 And last but not least, are there still places not only in U.S. but on earth were such a thing is still possible? I understand that it's in their culture to HATE the black community, it's their educations foul, from father to son and so on and so fourth,but really,come on wake up... This of course applies to the past but I'm afraid that it's appliable in our present to.

There is much about this film that makes it a good film, the cast are all very good and seem perfect in their respective roles. There are many different emotions and ways of thinking being portrayed and this is all done really well. In many ways this film reminds me of 'A time to kill', but it is shocking to think that the events portrayed really happened, and not that far into the past either. The racism and segregation that existed in the southern states of the USA are in many ways worse than apartheid in South Africa. To think that otherwise intelligent, moral and well mannered people can have such idiotic views regarding people of a different colour is astounding and America should be deeply ashamed of this. I wonder what some of the real people as portrayed in this film now think of their Black President? I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoyed 'A time to kill' or 'To kill a mocking bird'.