Movies, hopefully, should be about more than their stars, or lack thereof. Whether or not you were charmed by the unique choice of Diesel for the starring role, you cannot ignore the blaring faults of this movie. It is a courtroom drama-a genre which should promise us conflicts of principle and belief; choices people have to make. (See "A Few Good Men," for example). The conflict in this movie? Is Diesel's gangster good or bad ? Why? Can he defend himself? Those are possible answers, but the only time we are made to believe he is otherwise are from the rants of the prosecutor. Why not show us examples of the mobsters life? Another possible theme-Is the U.S. Government being racist in its prosecution of Italian Americans ? Again, this is mentioned, but only one side of the argument is briefly explored. Perhaps the theme that was adhered to the most was that of the main character's loyalty to his "family." Yet, the strongest attempt to illustrate this poses Diesel as the simpleton gangster speaking from his heart to his co-mobster-defendants, waxing eloquent that he would never rat on the people he grew up with. A taps-like trumpet fanfare accompanies his speech at the end. Very dramatic, except that he is in a meeting concerning whether or not the group should unanimously decide to take a plea bargain-a situation which has nothing what so ever to do with ratting on one another. So when each member stands up and says "I vote no!" -who cares? Overall, this film took a potentially charming/strong character poised to stand for his beliefs, but only ends in playing at several hackneyed and borrowed dramatic ideas. There are some decent performances that unfortunately cannot save the meandering lack of direction in this movie. And it was BADLY edited.
Review of Find Me Guilty
