Just Mercy (film)

Notes on Just Mercy, with the screenplay link and the two lines Kyle kept — on coming out of law school with grand ideas about changing the world, and on hope: hopelessness is the enemy of justice; hope allows us to push forward even when the truth is hard.

Notes

• Screenplay: https://d2bu9v0mnky9ur.cloudfront.net/academy2019/screenplay/jmrcy/justmercy_ampasformat.pdf
• “This man has taught me a lot in the time I’ve known him… I came out of law school with grand ideas in my mind about how to change the world. But working with Mr. McMillian made me realize that we can’t change the world with only ideas in our minds, we also need conviction in our hearts.”
  • https://twitter.com/dreddie27/status/1267751239112175616?s=20
• “This man taught me how to stay hopeful, because I now know that hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Hope allows us to push forward, even when the truth is distorted by the people in power. It allows us to stand up when they tell us to sit down, and to speak when they say be quiet. Through this work, I’ve learned that each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done; that the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth, the opposite of poverty is justice; that the character of our nation isn’t reflected in how we treat the rich and privileged, but how we treat the poor, the disfavored and condemned. Our system has taken more from this innocent man than it has the power to give back. But I believe if each of us can follow his lead, we can begin to change this world for the better. If we can look at ourselves closely, and honestly, I believe we will see that we all need justice, we all need mercy and perhaps, we all need some measure of unmerited grace.”