Just Mercy has two fine performances and a strong message

Destin Daniel Cretton's Just Mercy (2019) doesn't break much new ground - it seems there have been many other films about attorneys taking on nearly hopeless death-row appeals cases (think: Dead Man Walking, Making a Murderer) , though this one may be one of the few to focus on the racism that leads to so many unjust convictions in the South - and, familiar or not, it's a powerful movie, based on an actual case (and based on the book by its title character, Bryan Stevenson - played really well by Michael B. Jordan - the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative) of bravery and fortitude. In short, Stevenson, just out of Harvard Law School, goes to Alabama to work, initially as a volunteer, on death-row cases; he focuses on that of Walter (Johnnie D) McMillan (another excellent performance, this one from Jamie Foxx), who'd been targeted (because of an affair w/ a white woman) and framed (co-erced testimony from another prisoner who got a lighter sentence in return for his fabrications). Should have been and open/shut appeals case, as the conviction was so spurious and the evidence so obviously tainted, but the judges and prosecutors in Alabama, at least in the late 80s/early 90s, were so frightened about public outcry - from the white community - god forbid that an (innocent) black man was freed from prison! - that they made the most cowardly and despicable decisions as McMillan's life drained away. There's not much ambiguity or nuance in this film, but you can't help but be caught up in the sweep of the narrative, and Jordan's Stevenson is an incredibly likable protagonist throughout. I for one didn't know anything about Stevenson's agency or his work - which till now anyway has been overshadowed by the Innocence Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's amazing and frightening that these injustices persist today, and not just in the South. This film does a good job throwing light on the heroic work of some lawyers who have devoted their lives to justice.