FILM: Marshall

Chadwick Boseman made two superhero movies this past year, and I just got the chance to watch the other one. Both heroes were endowed with great intellect and judgment in their quest for justice, but unlike the Black Panther whose physical abilities were enhanced by technology and magic herbs, Thurgood Marshall's only power was the law, and an appeal to his fellow citizens' sense of justice. It was not a superpower that enabled him to overcome two-on-one odds in a bar fight, but it was a superpower that enabled him to win over a reluctant co-counsel, a white jury in Connecticut in 1941, and over time help transform a nation. The story is at core a good old-fashioned courtroom drama, very black-and-white, if you will, about which side to root for, and just enough twists to provide a reasonable doubt about the inevitable outcome. The film does a great job of capturing the time and place, with a color palette that gives that vintage impression of sepia tone, while actually being in color. It also conveys the racial atmosphere of the time and place, showing us that a black defendant getting a fair trial wasn't a problem limited to the South, as well as showing the personal courage and the obstacles large and small faced by these early crusaders for racial justice in the courts. Crusaders is plural here, as, though the young cock-sure Thurgood Marshall is the main hero, this is also the origin story of lesser-known crusader Sam Friedman, a Jewish attorney who gets dragged into this case unwittingly as local counsel, but by the end, finds his calling with the NAACP. Bravo both to Boseman and Josh Gad for their sensitive portrayals of these heroes. Especially at this moment in our history, it is good to be reminded which way the arc of the moral universe bends.