March 23, 2006
find me guilty
Here at sugarhigh!, we're told that voir dire means "to speak the truth" — it looks to one with humble French like the literal translation would be "to see to speak." That seems to give a fair narrative account of the trial fromat, from the juror's perspective: for a long time one looks, and then at the very end one is set loose to pronounce a sentence. Just like a film critic!
Twice in Find Me Guilty, mobster Jackie DiNorscio, arguing his own case before a jury, says “I’m a gagster, not a gangster.” Both times the plea is shot from the jury box. We’re the jury, of course; despite the Sidney Lumet imprimatur (where are the Dog Days of yesteryear?), the film is nothing but Vin Diesel’s case to be recognized as a comic actor, instead of the bigtime tough guy he has failed to be (a failure, we hear, forced by his testing as ugly to a big chunk of the international audience).
So, really, the patio at the Chateau Marmont is the jury box; the good citizens there sitting in judgment are the ones who must be persuaded to hire Diesel sometime down the line, to set him free from the prison of his physique and rehabilitate him as an amusing and employable guy.