Justice and Vengeance: A Critical Analysis of 'Runaway Jury' Film

This journal assignment critically examines the film 'Runaway Jury' to explore the themes of justice and vengeance. It discusses the plot of the movie, where protagonists seek revenge on a lawyer who defended a gun company, leading to a broader discussion on personal vengeance within the American legal system. The assignment argues that in the context of the film, vengeance is justified because it addresses systemic corruption and seeks justice for potential victims of gun violence. The reflection section personalizes the analysis, considering whether the author would make the same decisions as the protagonists, emphasizing the failure of the legal system as a justification for their actions. The analysis concludes by highlighting the importance of disrupting corruption when the legal system fails to deliver justice.

Running head: Critical thinking
CRITICAL THINKING

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Critical thinking
Table of Contents
Reading assignment.........................................................................................................................2
Question 1....................................................................................................................................2
Question 2....................................................................................................................................2
Journal assignment...........................................................................................................................3
Argument for the acceptance of personal revenge in the film.....................................................3
Reflection.....................................................................................................................................4
Reference list...................................................................................................................................5

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Critical thinking
Reading assignment
Question 1
Cue words help the readers in identifying conclusions and reasons in any arguments.
Thus, there are certain common cue words for signaling conclusions in arguments. For example,
therefore, so, hence, thus, then and so on can be used as cue words that can be useful in guiding
the readers in the right way. On the other hand, phrases like thereby showing, you see that,
implies that, shows that and more can also work as cues for the readers to identify conclusions in
an argument.
Question 2
In any argument, reasons are the elements that direct the readers to the conclusion and
thus there are some common cue words that signal the reasons but still it relies on the readers to
identify the right reasons that directly support the conclusion in an argument. Cue words like
since, because, firstly and phrases like as shown by, in view of, assuming that, as indicated by
can be used as signals for identifying reasons in any argument.

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Critical thinking
Journal assignment
Argument for the acceptance of personal revenge in the film
This study has been based on the critical review of the 2003 legal thriller movie namely
Runaway Jury directed by Fleder. This movie has adapted its plot from the 1996 novel having
the same title, written by John Grisham. In order to summarize the plot, it can be said that this
film is about two high school friends (Nick and Marlee, not their real names though) who once
lost one of their classmates in a random gun shooting by a random high school student many
years ago (imdb.com, 2019). So, these two plotted to take revenge on the lawyer who helped the
gun company to win the case and succeeded in establishing the point that it is not an
irresponsible act of the gun companies to sell guns to anybody who can pay. After many years, a
similar case happens where many innocent people got killed due to gun attack by robbers and
now the question arises is that whether it is right to sell guns, usually used for assault purposes,
to any random citizen of America just because it is their constitutional right to have a gun for
safety or not (rottentomatoes.com, 2019). Finally, the two protagonists succeeded in
manipulating the jury to be in favor of the plaintiff who recently lost her husband in the gun
attack.
Now, the question is that whether personal vengeance is acceptable in the scenario just
discussed or not. It is true that vengeance can never be an answer to get justice because the legal
system of America is there to look after the proper implementation of laws so that each and
everyone gets justice if they rely on the legal system for the same. On the other hand, I think
vengeance is justified in the context of the particular film. This is so because the film shows how
ignorant some money minded people are that they can easily buy jury in order to win a case
without thinking twice about the people and their safety. Another important thing to notice here
is that the protagonists wisely planed their revenge plan and gradually we can see that they never
hurt anyone innocent for achieving their personal revenge. On the contrary, they turned their
revenge into seeking justice for every innocent citizen of America who can become a victim of
‘senseless deaths’ in no time because of these random gun holders. Moreover, in the end, Nick
clarifies that he actually did nothing to manipulate the jurors to be in favor of what they wanted

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Critical thinking
and rather they just invested their time in stopping the antagonists from buying the jurors. Thus,
revenge is justified but only in the context of this film because the result of this revenge served a
better cause and not just their personal interests.
Reflection
When I reflect on the film by placing myself inside the plot of the movie then I think that
I would do the same as the protagonists did. I am not saying this just because I became emotional
knowing how nine high schools students died because of one random gun holder. Rather, I
would do the same because they first relied on the legal system to get justice for their loss but the
legal system failed them. This happened because the system itself was corrupted from inside and
thus it was unable to give them justice. Thus, there was two options left, one was to sit back and
wait till the corruption vanishes all by itself and two was to stand up and do something to disrupt
it. They chose the second option not only for themselves but also for other citizens and thus I
think I would do the same what they did in the film.

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Critical thinking
Reference list
imdb.com, (2019), Runaway Jury, Retrieved on: 3rd Feb, 2019, From:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313542/
rottentomatoes.com, (2019), Runaway Jury, Retrieved on: 3rd Feb, 2019, From:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/runaway_jury