Forum Topics for the Film Festival
Here are a sample of post-screening conversation topics for each of the films featured at the Film Festival:
“Thank You For Smoking”: Many jobs require conduct that do not violate the law but yet, in many ways, depend on immoral behavior to achieve success. Why is it that the law so often tolerates behavior that is clearly immoral but yet is ultimately lawful? Shouldn’t the standards be the same?
“12 Angry Men”: Would the film be less or more dramatic if the jurors initially believed that the accused was innocent and then, in their angry deliberations, ultimately found him guilty?
“The Accused”: What statement does this film make about the process and moral legitimacy of plea bargains? Why is it that the prosecutor believed that making sure that the accused were sent to jail should have been enough for the victim, and what does the prosecutor ultimately learn about what victims really need and want from the criminal justice system?
“A Time to Kill”: Is there such a thing as a time to kill, or is vengeance and revenge never permissible on either moral or legal grounds?
“A Civil Action”: What does this film say about the limitations of money as a solution to a civil lawsuit?
“Judgment at Nuremberg”: Why were the judges during the Third Reich prosecuted as if they themselves had committed crimes against humanity? Is complicity the same thing, legally and morally, as the direct involvement in mass murder? Should it be?
“In the Bedroom”: How does the legal system expect crime victims to go home and live their lives when the law fails to do what is just and allows the guilty to go free?
October 7th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Says:
To the question for “In the Bedroom”: The legal system believes that when a verdict is reached then the case comes to end. It ultimately fails too address the grievances people attempt to achieve “justice” for. I personally feel that the legal system is not very interested in establishing or finding the truth behind cases that end in a trial. It is most interested in a quick trial that ends with a solution. It is impossible for crime victims to have faith in the justice system when it is immoral. They cannot just erase what has happened to them for I’m sure if that was possible a trial would be unnecessary. They must continue to live a life with panic and fear because they know that justice cannot be achieved again. Hence, the legal system fails crime victims in the most basic way by failing to protect them.