Trial By Fire (2018) - Hits Harder Than Expected - REVIEW

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skiptvads1.5 K24 days ago8 min read

Right now its one of those times of the year that Im short on movies so Im just picking from my bucket list, a very long bucket list because when things get on fire between movies and TV series there is just not enough time so have to put things aside, comes in a movie that I have put aside for some time, not only because I didnt have time but because its the kind of movie I wouldnt watch every day but its a good drama from 2018 that at some point I had to watch, Trial by Fire dropped back in 2018 and honestly took me forever to finally watch it, mainly because I wasn't sure what to expect from another prison movie but damn this one really hit different than most of them. The whole thing tells the story of Cameron Todd Willingham who got executed in Texas for supposedly burning down his house and killing his three little daughters, except the evidence was complete garbage and he was probably innocent the whole time. Jack O'Connell plays Todd and this dude really knows how to carry a heavy movie on his shoulders, I mean this is the third prison movie I've seen him in after Starred Up and Unbroken and he just has this way of making you feel every single emotion his character is going through. What really gets me about this movie is how it doesn't try to be flashy or over dramatic, it just sits with you and makes you uncomfortable in the best possible way, like you're watching something that actually matters instead of just another Hollywood cash grab. The movie starts with this house fire scene that sets everything up perfectly, you see Todd running out of the burning house screaming about his babies being inside and right away you know this is gonna be one of those movies that stays with you for days afterward.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3263946/
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Laura Dern shows up as Elizabeth Gilbert, this playwright who starts writing letters to Todd after he's been on death row for years, and their relationship becomes the heart of the whole movie even though they barely know each other. The movie does great in many aspects specially how it shows that sometimes the people who care about you most are complete strangers who just see something in your story that resonates with them, not the family members or friends who are supposed to be there for you but end up abandoning you when things get tough. The way Todd's wife Stacy just completely gives up on him after the trial really pisses me off, I mean I get that losing your kids would mess anyone up but the guy is sitting on death row claiming he is innocent and you just walk away? That's some cold shit right there but it also makes Elizabeth's involvement even more meaningful because she's willing to fight for someone she doesn't even know personally. Their conversations through letters and visits show how two broken people can find hope in each other, Todd dealing with the reality that he might die for something he didn't do and Elizabeth trying to process her own grief and find some kind of purpose in life. The movie does this really well where it doesn't make their relationship romantic or weird, it's just two humans connecting over shared pain and the desire to find truth in a world that doesn't seem to care about justice anymore.

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The cinematography has this muted color palette that makes everything feel heavy and serious but not depressing to the point where you want to turn it off, the hole prision and about to get executed auro is heavy AF. Edward Zwick directed it and you can tell he understands that this story doesn't need fancy camera work or dramatic music to be powerful, it just needs honest performances and a script that respects the real people this happened to. The prison scenes feel authentic without being over the top, you see Todd struggling with the daily reality of death row but the movie never makes it feel like its too depressing about to take your live and it also doesnt try to shock you with unnecessary violence, people have this misconception about prison, after all at some point in time everybody inside a prison is a human too, they are not 24/7 savages. Jack O'Connell brings this quiet intensity to Todd that makes you believe he was really living this nightmare that came out of no where into his life, there are moments where he was just sitting in his cell and you can see the weight of everything crushing him but he never gives up hope completely, thats some really cold moments and its the waiting and uncertainty that eats you up from the inside. The supporting cast does great work too, especially the guards who could have easily been written as more traditiona side villains making his life imposble but instead feel like real people doing a difficult job in an impossible situation. There is a lot of legal stuff on the movie to make it belivable, not going to say everything in here sticks with the law but it really impressed me is how the movie handles the legal aspects without getting bogged down in courtroom drama, it shows you enough to understand how the system failed Toddand never loses focus on the human story.

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The fire investigation stuff is where the movie for the most part got me piss off because you start to understand how completely fucked up the whole case was from the beginning. They bring in these so called experts who basically make up evidence to support what they already decided happened, drawing conclusions about arson patterns that modern fire science has completely debunked since then, I had to look this up just to make sure so just to clarify I'm no fire fighter myself but you get my point. Watching these people destroy a man's life based on junk science while acting like they are serving justice made me want to throw something at the screen, especially knowing this actually happened to a real person who got executed because of their incompetence. The movie doesn't beat you over the head with the political message but it makes it pretty clear that the death penalty system is broken beyond repair when innocent people can get killed because prosecutors care more about getting convictions than finding the truth. Todd's final scenes are brutal to watch, not because they are gory or dramatic but because you are watching someone die for something he didn't do while the people responsible just go on with their lives like nothing happened. The fact that Texas still refuses to admit they made a mistake even after all the evidence came out shows how fucking stubborn and corrupt the whole system really is, they would rather let an innocent man stay dead than admit they screwed up.

Trial by Fire works because it treats its the entire story with the respect it deserves while still being entertaining enough to keep you engaged for two hours, yeah not a short movie and it drags a big so got to stay strong but its worth the wait which is harder to pull off than it sounds. This isn't one of those movies that makes you feel good about the world or gives you easy answers about right and wrong, it just shows you what happened and lets you figure out how to feel about it. Jack O'Connell continues to prove he is one of the best actors working today especially when it comes to playing characters who are trapped by systems bigger than themselves but refuse to give up their dignity. The movie made me think how sometimes a single moment can turn around your life in matter of minutes it actuall scare me, we often dont think about this things, a very common case is when driving a car people either talking over the phone, watching the phone or too drunk to drive and we dont understand how that moment right there can change everything, no the specific case because we talking about an innocent guy but its just a single quick split of a minute that changes everything. Then there are those innocent people in prison who got railroaded by prosecutors and junk science while the rest of us go about our daily lives not thinking about them. Elizabeth Gilbert represents all of us in a way, someone who could have just minded their own business but decided to get involved because sometimes that is what being human requires. If you can handle watching something that will probably make you angry and sad but also give you some hope that there are still good people fighting for justice, then you need to check this movie out, all I can advice you is to be prepared to lose some sleep thinking about it afterward because this is the kind of story that sticks with you whether you want it to or not, a solid 7/10 for me.