...And Justice for All is a 1979 American legal drama film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Al Pacino, Jack Warden and John Forsythe.

Lee Strasberg, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Lahti, Craig T. Nelson, Thomas Waites and Sam Levene (in his final screen performance) appear in supporting roles.

Arthur Kirkland, a Baltimore defense attorney, is in jail on a contempt-of-court charge after punching Judge Henry T. Fleming while arguing the case of Jeff McCullaugh.

McCullaugh was stopped for a minor traffic offense, then mistaken for a killer of the same name, and has already spent a year and a half in jail without being convicted of a crime.

Although there is strong new evidence that McCullaugh is innocent, Fleming refuses to consider his appeal due to its late submission, so he remains in prison.

Kirkland starts a new case defending Ralph Agee, a young black cross-dresser arrested for a robbery who is terrified of being sent to prison.

Rayford, a Korean War veteran, is borderline suicidal; at all times, he keeps a rifle in his chambers at the courthouse and an M1911 pistol in his shoulder holster.

One day, Kirkland is unexpectedly requested to defend Judge Fleming, who has been accused of brutally assaulting and raping a young woman.

Fresnell arrives at the courthouse late and forgets to give the judge the corrected version, causing Agee to be sentenced to jail time.

Kirkland pleads with him to surrender, promising to get him out, but a police sniper shoots and kills McCullaugh when he moves in front of a window.

Kirkland's client Carl Travers hopes to receive free legal services by offering photos of Judge Fleming engaged in bisexual BDSM with a prostitute.

"[7] The film was shot in Baltimore, including the courthouse area, the Washington Monument of the Mount Vernon district, and Fort McHenry.

Mayor William Donald Schaefer and the city film commission fully supported the production, which spent $1.5 million locally.

[1] Robert Osborne of The Hollywood Reporter raved, "The film is loaded with virtues...it has all the makings of an enormously popular movie.

[2] Dewey E. Chester of the New Pittsburgh Courier drew parallels to the Watergate scandal and the recent arrest of a state politician on a sodomy charge.

[7] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the film was so overstuffed that it was an "anthology" held together by "one of those high-voltage Al Pacino performances that's so sure of itself we hesitate to demur."

"[17] Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the general hysteria of the actors as if they had been directed to play "the last act of Three Men on a Horse".

He calls Pacino's character "a hyperventilating idiot" and speculates that everyone in the film has "such low thresholds of emotional distress that I wouldn't trust one of them to see 'The Sound of Music' unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.

"[20] The Jewish Advocate compared the film unfavorably to The Hospital for its inability to match Paddy Chayefsky's mordant screenplay.

[23] The opening juxtaposition of the majestic courthouse, with grubby interiors and children mangling the Pledge of Allegiance, sets the film's thesis: "the promise of law is at worst superficial and at best idealistic, nearly impossible to experience or achieve".

[24][25] William Schoell pointed to Kirkland's reaction to Agee's suicide as one of the "strongest scenes Pacino has ever played", and gives the actor credit for "triumphing over an impossible script".