Law Abiding Citizen

Law Abiding Citizen
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	F. Gary Gray
Produced by	Gerard Butler Kurt Wimmer Mark Gill Lucas Foster Alan Siegel
Written by	Kurt Wimmer
Starring	Jamie Foxx Gerard Butler Bruce McGill Colm Meaney Viola Davis
Music by	Brian Tyler
Cinematography	Jonathan Sela
Editing by	Tariq Anwar
Studio	The Film Department
Distributed by	Overture Films The Weinstein Company
Release date(s)	October 16, 2009
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$53 million[1]
Gross revenue	$126,262,788[2]

Law Abiding Citizen is a 2009 American thriller film directed by F. Gary Gray from a screenplay written by Kurt Wimmer, starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. The film takes place in Philadelphia and tells the story of a man who decides to exact justice from both his family's killers and the criminal justice system. Law Abiding Citizen was released theatrically in North America on October 16, 2009.^[3]

The film was nominated for a Saturn Award as the Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film of the year, and the film also garnered NAACP Image Awards nominations for both Jamie Foxx (Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture) and F. Gary Gray (Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture).^[4]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Music 5 Release 6 Reception 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) saw the murder and rape of his wife and daughter at the hands of Clarence Darby (Christian Stolte) and his accomplice Rupert Ames (Josh Stewart). During their trial, prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) informs Clyde that DNA evidence incriminating Clarence has been deemed inadmissible due to botched forensics because, according to Nick, the actions of the police at the crime scene affected its solidity in court, and that Clyde's testimony alone is insufficient to prove either suspect's guilt. Nick, interested in maintaining his high conviction rate, strikes a deal: Clarence gives testimony that will send Rupert to death row, and in exchange Nick allows Clarence to plead guilty to third-degree murder, for which he will only serve three years in prison. Knowing that Clarence was the actual killer, Clyde is left feeling betrayed by both Nick and the justice system.

Ten years later Rupert is executed by lethal injection, but rather than being painless he dies in agony. Clarence is suspected, but Clyde helps him to escape the police only to then paralyze him with a neurotoxin and slowly torture him to death. Finding Clarence's dismembered corpse, Detectives Dunnigan (Colm Meaney) and Garza (Michael Irby) arrest Clyde as the chief suspect. Clyde offers Nick a full confession in exchange for a mattress in his cell, and Nick reluctantly agrees. Clyde represents himself at his hearing before Judge Laura Burch (Annie Corley) and is about to be granted bail, but launches into a tirade against the flaws of the legal system and is held in contempt of court.

Granted his mattress, Clyde confesses both to murdering Clarence and to switching the drugs used in Rupert's execution. He next demands an expensive meal by 1pm the next day in exchange for revealing the location of Clarence's missing attorney (Richard Portnow). The warden (Gregory Itzin) deliberately delays the meal past Clyde's deadline, and as a result the detectives arrive too late to save the attorney, who was buried alive with a limited air supply. Meanwhile, Clyde murders his cellmate and is sent to solitary confinement.

Nick's assistant Sarah Lowell (Leslie Bibb) finds evidence connecting Clyde with the Department of Defense. Nick and District Attorney Jonas Cantrell (Bruce McGill) learn from a CIA contact (Michael Kelly) that Clyde was a black operations assassin, a brilliant strategist specializing in eliminating targets through unconventional means. After Judge Birch is killed by an exploding telephone, Clyde tells Nick that the killings are not about revenge, but the failure of the justice system. He declares that unless he is cleared of all charges and released by the next morning, he will "kill everyone." When his demands are not met, several members of the legal staff—including Sarah—are killed by bombs planted within their cars' gastanks. Nick confronts Clyde for what he did. Clyde says that Nick didn't try to help Clyde's case only to help himself and his ego. Clyde also says if Nick had tried to convict Darby he would have accepted Nick's honest loss.

Jonas is killed by a remotely operated weaponized bomb disposal robot at Sarah's funeral and the mayor (Viola Davis) appoints Nick the acting District Attorney. Nick receives information leading to a garage owned by Clyde next to the prison, where he and Dunnigan discover a tunnel leading to the solitary confinement cells along with surveillance equipment, weapons, and disguises. They realize that Clyde tunneled into the prison prior to his arrest, and deliberately had himself sent to solitary confinement so that he could come and go, committing his string of killings while the authorities believed him to be locked up. Clyde's plans indicate that he has gone to Philadelphia City Hall to assassinate the mayor. There Nick and the detectives find a telephone-activated bomb connected to a napalm-like chemical warhead. They are unable to disarm it, and worry that Clyde may be monitoring them.

Clyde returns to his cell via his tunnel and finds Nick waiting for him. He offers Nick one last deal, but having finally begun to understand what Clyde has been trying to teach him, he refuses to make a deal with a murderer. Clyde exults at having finally changed Nick's ways. Nick cautions him against activating the bomb, but Clyde does so anyway. Nick seals the cell door and flees the building while Dunnigan seals the hatch to the tunnel. Clyde realizes too late that they have handcuffed the bomb to a rail beneath his cot. Clyde sits, staring at the bracelet given to him by his daughter. He seems at peace as the bomb detonates, consuming him in fire and killing him before presumably backdrafting and destroying a chunk of the prison.

Nick and his wife watch their daughter perform on stage.

[edit] Cast

• Jamie Foxx as Nick Rice
• Gerard Butler as Clyde Shelton
• Bruce McGill as Jonas Cantrell
• Colm Meaney as Detective Dunnigan
• Viola Davis as the Mayor of Philadelphia
• Regina Hall as Kelly Rice
• Leslie Bibb as Sarah Lowell
• Michael Irby as Detective Garza
• Gregory Itzin as Warden Inger
• Annie Corley as Judge Laura Burch
• Michael Kelly as CIA Operative Bray
• Roger Bart as Brian Bringham
• Christian Stolte as Clarence J. Darby
• Richard Portnow as Bill Reynolds
• Josh Stewart as Rupert Ames

[edit] Production

Filming began in August 2008 and took place in and around Philadelphia. Filming locations included Philadelphia's City Hall and the old Eastern State Penitentiary.

Butler and his production company developed the film. For the two years of planning, Butler planned to play Nick Rice. At the last minute he decided that it would be interesting to take on the role of Clyde. Since Jamie Foxx was already signed on to play Clyde, he asked if he would mind switching roles. Foxx loved his performance in 300 and thought that as a viewer he would love seeing Gerard "beating people and blowing stuff up".^[5]

[edit] Music

The score to Law Abiding Citizen was composed by Brian Tyler, who recorded his score with a 52-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage with help from Kieron Charlesworth.^[6] The movie also uses "Eminence Front" by The Who and "Engine No. 9" by Deftones on Clyde's iPod while he is eating his steak in his cell. While Clyde calls Darby to help him 'escape' the police after Ames' execution, "Bloodline" by Slayer is Darby's ringer. The tune at the end for closing credits is "Sin's A Good Man's Brother" by Grand Funk Railroad.

[edit] Release

The film was released theatrically on October 16, 2009.^[7] The first theatrical trailer was released on August 14, 2009 and was attached to District 9.^[8]

The premiere was held on November 15, 2009 at the Cineworld complex in Glasgow - hometown of Gerard Butler. Many British tabloids have labeled this event as the "Homecoming Premiere", in reference to the Homecoming Scotland celebrations.^[9]

[edit] Reception

The film took second place in its opening weekend, with $21,039,502, behind Where the Wild Things Are. It went on to gross $126.2 million total worldwide.^[10]

Law Abiding Citizen received mostly negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 25% of critics gave positive reviews based on 131 reviews with an average score of 4.4/10. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating based on 100 reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 34% based on 26 reviews. One notable exception was Roger Ebert. In his review for the Chicago Sun Times, Ebert said,"Law Abiding Citizen is the kind of movie you will like more at the time than in retrospect." He then went on to say, "Still, there's something to be said for a movie you like well enough at the time." Ebert rated the film 3 out of a possible 4 stars.^[11]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Law Abiding Citizen at the Internet Movie Database
• Law Abiding Citizen at Box Office Mojo
• Law Abiding Citizen at Rotten Tomatoes

v · d · eFilms directed by F. Gary Gray 1990s Friday (1995) • Set It Off (1996) • The Negotiator (1998) 2000s A Man Apart (2003) • The Italian Job (2003) • Be Cool (2005) • Law Abiding Citizen (2009) 2010s Kane & Lynch (2011)