Marshall stars Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman as a young Thurgood Marshall, who would eventually go on to become the first African American Supreme Court Justice, when he was a litigator for the NAACP. It focuses on his involvement in the State of Conneticut v. Joseph Spell as opposed to trying to chronicle his entire life and feeling like most historical biography films. His foil and temporary partner in law, Sam Friedman, ends up having to be Aaron to his Moses in the courtroom because the presiding judge would not permit Marshall to represent the defendant because he was not admitted to practice law in that state. They must learn to work together to defend their case and themselves from a hostile public.
The main reason that I did not see Marshall in theaters was because it was released in October 2017, which was an overwhelming month for me otherwise as a movie directed by and starring a black man, it would have led the pack. During that particular period, the movie theaters were filled with a glut of biographical movies—some excellent (Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House), some uneven (Professor Marston and the Wonder Women) and some foreign (The King’s Choice), and the competition at home on Netflix was quite fierce: The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson. Even though Boseman is a great actor, at that point, he was known as the actor who plays every historical figure, Jackie Robinson and James Brown, and while he always did a great job, some of his movies were not at the same level as his performance. So this movie did not do as financially well as it should have or would have if it were released after Black Panther.
If we lived in a world in which my weekend movie selection was not affected by the fact that movies helmed by black people are less likely to be funded if they do not have a lucrative opening weekend, I would have had reservations about seeing Marshall. I was not wild about what seemed to be a cynical choice to have a supporting white character played by a less well known actor share an equal amount of screen time with the titular character as if viewers needed a gateway character to empathize with and could not do so with a main black character. In addition, the trial is about rape, which is an important issue to address in movies, but not necessarily how you want to spend your free time trapped in a dark room with strangers unable to take breaks and with only the movie to focus on for almost two hours.
My preconceptions of Marshall were completely wrong. The historical drama with action elements was tastefully done and felt triumphant, not cynical. I secretly hope that it gets turned into a franchise or a TV series following Marshall like a legal action hero with two story lines in every installment: the case and the less experienced lawyer that he recruits and mentors as his latest member of his justice league. The complication of every episode would be when their investigation would get stymied by whether or not people in the system were racist or their client was lying to them. It would be like one of those CW comic book shows, but instead of vigilantes, it would be lawyers!
I know that most people are unfamiliar with the Detective Dee franchise, but I was delighted that Marshall got the Di Renjie treatment! In China, there was a real life judge and chancellor who later became the subject of popular mystery novels and now is the main character in a fantasy action mystery movie franchise. Marshall may be closer to real life events than Detective Dee, but when he and his partner are forced to throw down with racist locals in bar fights and on the street, I suspect the real life Marshall would not recognize himself in that fight choreography. I will happily sign a waiver sacrificing historical accuracy if it is done so well.
Also Marshall really embraced the odd couple, buddy cop vibe while nailing the intersection between racial and religious bias that has historically resulted in a civil rights historical alliance between Christian Black Americans and Jewish Americans instead of Friedman acting as a gateway white character. Marshall and Friedman share common vulnerable ground as the other. The movie wisely emphasizes this by casually alluding to the Holocaust and its devastating impact on his family. Friedman ends up fighting next to Marshall despite his more reserved nature because he knows that he is fighting the same evil at home. The best surprising scene takes place in a bathroom at temple.
Marshall depicts civil rights with verbal action on the local stage in the courtroom and the national stage with the press and physical action through self-defense. Viewers are accustomed to portraits of long-suffering civil rights activists being physically brutalized like lambs to the slaughter, but this movie is actually provocative by giving viewers an acceptable image of a black man defending himself by pairing it with a white man proactively getting the jump on a pair of bullies who are in better shape. It creates a space where violence is the answer so you can live to fight another day with your mind and becomes an implicit part of the spectrum on the home front in the fight against Nazis. I have no idea if it is historically accurate, but in light of how Stand Your Ground laws are used to create a legal safe house for murderers of black men defending themselves or others, it is helpful to create images that subconsciously make viewers root for those black men who use self-defense instead of seeing them as threatening monsters that need to be put down for responding to a physical attack in a human way. There was only one Jesus. The film also wisely uses a comedic undertone to undercut the serious moments in the bar fight and when Friedman’s wife helps him choose a more effective weapon.
Boseman gives a magnificent classic Hollywood performance of Marshall. Josh Gad as Friedman holds his own against Boseman’s leading man presence. If I was simply ready to write this movie off as a solid, entertaining movie that would not stay with me long after the credits, I was sorely mistaken. The final scene gut punched me as I burst into tears upon witnessing an unexpected cameo playing the role of parents trying to save their teenage son from state execution. Tears are welling up in my eyes just thinking of how they represent the turning point in this nation for many black Americans who had perfectly played to respectability politics then realized it was all for naught, and we may always be victims of state sanctioned violence by vigilantes.
I highly recommend watching Marshall until the end of the credits so you get an opportunity to contemplate his words, which are so germane today, “There are movements by the different branches of this government that are set to push back. Oh, now it’s being done, you know, cleverly.”
