Trial by media Down Under

An oppressively authentic recreation of a 1958 murder trial in South Australia in which a young aboriginal was convicted of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old white girl, Craig Lahiff 's dark movie promises more than it ultimately delivers.

The inclusion of British actors Robert Carlyle and Charles Dance as opposing lawyers gives it an extra kick, but several characters walk an unsteady line between archetype and stereotype. The subject matter, however, could not be more timely, nor more uncomfortably appropriate.

Hauled in by the police on the flimsiest of evidence, Max Stuart (David Ngoombujarra) is apparently coerced into signing a confession to the murder of the child. It is clear, argue his lawyers, David O'Sullivan (Carlyle) and Helen Devaney (Kerry Fox), that the illiterate drifter with a shaky command of English has been stitched up by the cops. Stuart is nevertheless convicted and sentenced to hang.

Against all advice (including from his own partner), the terrier-like O'Sullivan takes the case through a series of appellate courts, right up to the Privy Council and the Royal Commission. In the process, Stuart is granted a stay of execution seven times and O'Sullivan's professional career is eroded almost to the point of extinction. At times, it seems that he is engaged as much in a class war with the arrogant Crown Prosecutor Roderic Chamberlain (Dance), as he is in trying to achieve justice for his client.

Lahiff puts together his elements and juggles the facts and timing with some aplomb, until the last chapter, when he makes a curious mess of Chamberlain's revelation about his understanding of the events. In a scene that resembles something out of an Agatha Christie novel, Dance re-enacts the murder before his appalled house guests; even then, the truth of the matter remains unclear.

The most intriguing aspect of the

story is the media's belated assistance in O'Sullivan's case. As editor of Australian tabloid The News, the young Rupert Murdoch (Ben Mendelsohn) grasped the opportunity to campaign against the death penalty and deliver a sound spanking to the Establishment in the process. The public pressure brought to bear on the judicial system as a result granted O'Sullivan a Pyrrhic victory. It is sobering to reflect that trial by media is not such a new thing.

Black And White
Cert: cert15