In the spring of 1931, nine black men were arrested for
allegedly raping two white women stowed away aboard an
freight train. With alarming immediacy, all nine men were tried and sentenced
to death in the electric chair. What followed was a firestorm of conjecture and
controversy that reached far beyond the Alabama state lines, as the entire
nation began to examine the facts of the case — and its own collective
conscience. That infamous story, of the “Scottsboro Boys,” gets a solid,
involving, dramatic retelling in writer-director Terry Green’s well-acted Heavens Fall, which examines the events
chiefly through the prism of the contested retrial of defendant Haywood
Patterson (B.J. Britt).
A lot of movies about racism, hate crimes and/or the civil
rights struggle — Rob Reiner’s Mississippi
Burning chief amongst them — get rapped for telling their stories through
the eyes of a white protagonist, and Heavens
Fall certainly opens itself up to this criticism a bit through the
inclusion of noted New York defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz (Timothy Hutton,
also serving as a producer) as a character. Yet the inclusion of reporter
William Lee (Anthony Mackie), a composite figure but strong character in his
own right, as well as the fact that as a Jew Leibowitz had experienced some
racial profiling and discrimination firsthand, helps strengthen the movie’s
dramatic grasp, and besides, Leibowitz is an elemental figure in this tale.
Green does a very good job of sketching out all of his
characters, and if Azura Skye and Leelee Sobieski,
as accusers Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, have difficult and somewhat thankless
roles, it’s somewhat understandable given the narrative. Bill Sage brings a
nice, full-bodied complexity to his role as lead prosecutor Thomas Knight, Jr.,
a dutiful but ambitious family man whose father none-too-subtly convinces him
of the political benefits of winning the case. As presiding Judge James Horton,
meanwhile, David Strathairn
brings an engaging humanity and gravitas to his role.
On DVD Heavens Fall,
which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival, is presented in anamorphic
widescreen, and comes with a 16-minute making-of featurette that, while awfully
over-edited and featuring a soundtrack mixed too low, does go out of its way to
include tidbits from as many cast and crew members as possible, including
cinematographer Paul Sanchez. There’s also a separate, 15-minute featurette
entitled “Surviving the Fall,” which is fascinating in its own right, detailing
as it does the September 2004 production’s on-location battle with the
category-five Hurricane Ivan, which cut a path of destruction through
Finally, there’s a moving tidbit in which the now elderly son of the real-life
Horton accepts a community honor, the JFK Courage Award, for his deceased
father; after rendering the verdict that he did, and overturning a jury
sentence, Horton was bounced from the bench in the next election, ostracized,
and never again elected for public service. This is a great inclusion, and
highlights the humanity on display in the film. To purchase Heavens Fall via Amazon, click here. B (Movie) B+ (Disc)