Hi people this is an unedited review I wrote as part of my an assignment for college some years ago. I am curious to know what all would have to say about this. The Devil’’s Advocate Although the movie deals with supernatural issues it has tried to give those issues a concrete existence. It renders a fine balance between myth or fantasy and reality and through this balance, is able to create situations that are alarmingly real enough to consider with respect to our lives. In the following passages it will be shown how a blend of both the supernatural and conventional elements have been used to reach the message that a person is responsible for his own actions and can blame no one but himself for misfortune. “The people in this story who get into trouble are people who have made certain choices, ” explains Hackford (producer). “Tony (screenplay) and I don’t believe in blaming the Devil for these terrible events; when people have the opportunity to exercise their free will, they choose to damn themselves nine times out of 10. We wanted to show that you make your own choices in life—the Devil is merely the impulse inside of us to choose what we know is ethically wrong. It’s not some guy with a forked tail—we ourselves are responsible.”
The movie has been structured such that it corresponds to the above views, and in doing so the movie is able to appeal even to those who do not subscribe to the essentially Christian beliefs tackled. This is because the mythical or fantasy elements have been stripped to a bare minimum. To start with, Satan in this movie (played by Al Pacino) is no mythical black coloured creature with a tail. He assumes the form of a human with the name John Milton. There aren’t any horns; he hasn’t any tail or any pitchfork. He is the head of a powerful law firm that has clients all over the world. However as indicated above, the movie doesn’t strip Satan of all his supposed characteristics. At one point Milton through his powers of clairvoyance is able to tell a stranger that his wife is sleeping with another man. Later talking to Kevin he seems to simultaneously orchestrate the death of one of his employees. He possesses the ability to be in two places at the same time. Due to this he able to be with Kevin in a courtroom while at the same he rapes Kevin’s wife at their home. Thus the evil, sinful and supernatural nature of Satan is retained. We get impressions of Satan’s nature even when he does not perform feats that contradict everyday logic. Consider Milton’s first appearance. In this scene Kevin is shown walking away on a street and while he walks away the camera moves in a circular fashion towards the top of a staircase to reveal Milton watching Kevin. This shot of Milton seemingly towering over the world gives an impression of underlying evil and planning.
Another example is the place where Milton lives. The walls are painted with dark colours, the furniture is unlike that of a normal house and there isn’t even a bed. An important belief held by Christianity is that Satan is a tempter and the movie supports this belief throughout, and it comes closest to idea of Satan directly tempting a person in the following scene. In this scene Milton goes up to his house with two women and asks Kevin whether he’d like to join him. When Kevin says no Milton looks behind to the women suggestively and exclaims “are you sure?”. In other parts of the movie Satan constantly sets up situations which call for the right or morally correct decision of the person involved. But it is important to note that in all of these situations it is the decision of the person involved that leads to the ensuing events. This in effect leads to the conclusion that all the unfortunate happenings are the fault of the persons involved. Satan does not cause people to make immoral decisions; he just “sets the stage”. Thus the movie presents Satan as a very powerful and believably real entity. Consider now Mary Ann the wife of Kevin. She is thrust into a new and disturbing world and experiences difficulty in trying to adjust to a high-class society. A simple decision like wall paint colour is made very difficult for her by her neighbour. For every colour that Mary Ann chooses the neighbor finds some reason to dislike it. The colour may not compliment Mary Ann’s complexion or it isn’t fashionable enough. The whole scene consists of dissolves and fades into shots of Mary Ann applying paint samples to the wall and her neighbor explaining why such and such colour isn’t appropriate. This succeeds in a buildup of pressure on Mary Ann as well as in emphasizing the essence of evil in the neighbour. The woman is increasingly seen as an evil figure. Later when Mary Ann goes shopping with her neighbours it is difficult for her to digest their extravagance. Statements like having “an affair with his (her husband’s) money” disturb her. To make things worse one of them undresses in front of the shy Mary Ann and starts talking about her breast size. She even makes Mary Ann feel her breast to prove that they are real and not enhanced by silicon.
To top it all Mary Ann sees a split second transformation of the woman’s face into that of a grotesque apparition and back to normal . In this way a mix of both the supernatural and conventional elements is used to bring about the strain on Mary Ann. Kevin’s fortunes rise after he decides to continue defending his client in a sexual abuse trial in spite of knowing that he is guilty. During a requested interval he ponders about whether to continue in defense of his client. “You can’t win them all” says a reporter when he meets him. This intimidates Kevin who has never lost a case and he decides to go on defending his client. After this he is hired by Milton and goes on to defend criminals, again meeting with success at every turn. However his success is only the beginning of his misfortunes. The ensuing tragic situations are Kevin’s own doing. Being heavily involved with his cases he is unable to give time to his wife whose mental stability is deteriorating. Milton offers to take Kevin off the case for this reason but Kevin refuses. He says that he is afraid that he may hate Mary Ann for coming off the case.
However at the end, after Mary Ann’s suicide when Kevin confronts Milton, Milton says that it was not that Kevin didn’t love Mary Ann, but he was too” involved with someone else…”, himself. Kevin has been vain enough to think only about himself. His own decisions have brought about his pain and he can’t even blame the devil for his misfortunes. Furthermore in this case Satan actually gave him a chance to go back to his wife but he did not take that chance. Thus ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ has created situations, situations that could involve anyone, not necessarily a lawyer. It is the decisions made and undertaken in these situations that result in the ensuing events, good or bad. The movie has shown that a person cannot look for a supernatural reason for his or her failures. A person, Christian or not is left with his free will to live life by, and as Satan says in the movie.. “Free will, it’s a bh”