Midnight in the garden of good and bad

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Movie
German title Midnight in the garden of good and bad
Original title Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Country of production United States
original language English , French
Publishing year 1997
length 149 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Clint Eastwood
script John Lee Hancock
production Clint Eastwood,
Arnold Stiefel
music Lennie Niehaus
camera Jack N. Green
cut Joel Cox
occupation

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Original title: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ) is an American drama directed by Clint Eastwood from 1997 , based on the bestseller of the same name by John Berendt . The novel relates to facts that occurred in the 1980s.

action

Jim Williams, a small-scale millionaire, art collector, antique dealer and bon vivant, lives in Savannah and organizes fancy parties in his house. The New York journalist John Kelso, who is supposed to report on the Williams Christmas party for Town & Country magazine , is fascinated by him. At the party, Kelso witnessed a scene between Williams and his lover Billy Carl Hanson in which Hanson asked Williams to give him money. When he does not receive it, he threatens him. Williams then threatens his lover, whereupon he leaves the house. That same night, Hanson was shot dead in self-defense by Williams in his home after he missed Williams with two shots.

Kelso abandons the plan to write an article about the Christmas party and does research to write a book about the case. The investigative authorities have doubts about an act of self-defense by Williams, so that Williams is suspected of murder. For Williams, on the other hand, the investigations are owed to the fact that he is homosexual and would not like to see this in town. His lawyer hopes that Kelso could create publicity and influence the outcome of an upcoming lawsuit through appropriate research and reports. Kelso makes a deal to get information from Williams and in return to share his research with Williams' attorney.

Williams takes Kelso to a midnight voodoo session in a cemetery, where the voodoo priestess Minerva wants to use the time before midnight (“good time”) and after midnight (“bad time”) to get the dead Hanson to do so To leave Williams alone. According to Williams, the priestess is the most important person on his defense team because he believes in spiritual power.

A short time later, charges were brought against him and he was arrested. During the trial before a jury , the public prosecutor's office also substantiated doubts about a self-defense situation by the fact that no traces of smoke were found on Hanson's hand . Kelso later finds out that the corpse's hands were only protected with plastic bags in the hospital and could therefore have been manipulated at will until then.

When he wanted to tell Williams about this circumstance, which was important for the discharge, the latter informed him beforehand that he had shot Hanson without the latter having shot him. Hanson could not unlock his gun. He then fired the shots from Hanson's gun and pressed them back into his hand. He wanted to say this in the process, even if it would convince him of the lie ("I would rather go to prison as a liar than as a murderer").

Since Williams 'attorney arrives a short time later and brings him the news about the plastic bags, Williams' resolution is no longer valid. For Kelso, this leads to an internal conflict, since the truth does not come to light, but Williams' lies remain unpunished. He becomes much more reserved towards Williams, even when he thanks him after his acquittal and gives him a picture.

Williams dies of a heart attack shortly afterwards in the same room as Hanson died. The dead Hanson appears to him in agony. The latter nods to him with a smile.

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that the film looked like a "sleepwalk" and made it difficult for the viewer to concentrate. It is intended for a small, exclusive audience - not because it is bad, but because it demands patience (“it demands a certain temperament to enjoy a long, unhurried experience like this”). The film thematizes the conflict between “good” and “bad” in every human being, using the character of John Kelso as an example. This conflict is shown more subtly than in the film On behalf of the devil . The film would work better in this regard if the “good” sides of Kelso's personality weren't shown in “disjointed” scenes.

The Lexicon of International Films wrote: “A film based on the bestseller of the same name by John Berendt, which is initially designed with a keen sense for the eccentricities of the characters and atmospheres, but in the second half slips into the conventionality of a not even really exciting court case. "

Awards

Kevin Spacey won the Society of Texas Film Critics Award in 1997 . The film was nominated in 1998 for the GLAAD Media Award and for the Political Film Society Award for Human Rights .

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating “particularly valuable”.

background

The film was in Savannah ( Georgia turned). Its production amounted to an estimated 30 million US dollars . The film grossed approximately $ 25.1 million in US cinemas.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by James Berardinelli
  2. ↑ Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Midnight in the garden of good and bad on fbw-filmbwertung.com
  4. ^ Filming locations for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
  5. ^ Box office / business for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil