The Star Chamber

Without spoiling it too much, the problem with this movie is that the audience desperately wants a "Judge Dredd" type of solution to the crime and the hopelessly helpless situation of the judicial system depicted in the film, but doesn't get it. At all. Instead you get the typical liberal message that violence doesn't solve anything, when in some situations a little fascism clearly does wonders. That's why people love Judge Dredd, or any Charles Bronson movie. Very weak film.

The Star Chamber is a film that operates under the premise that the legal system has gone awry and it's up to the judges to apply corrective action to the decisions they officially make in court. Interestingly enough Hal Holbrook who came to that conclusion as Lieutenant Briggs in the Dirty Harry film Magnum Force, is now taking a similar position as a judge. Michael Douglas as a young Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles has reached the same crossroads. After a couple of decisions on procedure that resulted in criminals being cut loose, he starts to question whether the whole criminal justice system is out of whack. That's when Hal Holbrook tells him about a most secret society. A panel of nine judges have taken it upon themselves to overrule their own rulings. Douglas eagerly joins them, but certain things to go off course for him and he questions whether he's made the right career move. The cases that Douglas came a cropper on is stuff straight out of the Law and Order episode file. In that series sometimes I think the judge's rulings are somewhat bizarre. Of course in that series it just makes Jack McCoy and his successor try all the harder to win. It's a nice film, but I do get the feeling that Star Chamber is a Law and Order episode stretched out for a feature film.

Missed this Michael Douglas film and thought I was missing something. Douglas plays a Judge, (Steven Hardin), "Don't Say a Word",'01, who has a hard time trying to judge criminals and sentence them directly to jail. The criminals have good lawyers who find Loop Holes in the law and force Steven Hardin to just simply release them all back into society. Hardin gets all twisted up like a pretzel and even his wife, Sharon Gless,(Emily Hardin),"Queer as Folk",'TV Series, has a hard time getting him to concentrate on her and especially in the bedroom department. Finally, Judge Hardin gets into a deep conversation with his friend, Judge Ben Caulfield,(Hal Holbrook),"Purpose",'02, who has a great way to solve his problem and offers him the opportunity to judge criminals a very different way. Michael Douglas had a pained expression's from the beginning of the picture to the very end and I doubt very much if he liked very much the character he had to portray. There is very little effort in Michael's role to indicate he had any enthusiasm about this role.

source: The Star Chamber

10 out of 10 rating is truly earned. This film remains a very memorable experience for me. My subjective opinion puts it at the top. Most people have never heard of this movie, but everyone finds it intense and entertaining. It may cause you to think a little. The theme is not a hot topic today--criminals set free because of loopholes in the law. But on another level, there is current relevance. The system exists for a reason, even if it is not perfect. Our current political leadership is ignoring the constitution. Proclamations are now law--like with dictatorships. The Star Chamber is a group of judges acting outside of the law. They want to clean up after the system fails and allows obviously guilty criminals to walk free. They review a case in private, inspect evidence, and then vote on a verdict. If found guilty, a hit man is ready to carry out sentence. Young Judge Hardin is drawn in after letting 2 child killers walk free on a technicality. He joins the Star Chamber and asks for judgment on the child killer case. Things do not work out the way Hardin had expected. Acting and photography are striking in this film. Veteran actors give great performances in rich, film noir settings. How do you go wrong with Douglas, Holbrook and Kotto? Action scenes are filled with tension and excitement. The opening footrace takes the viewer along through neighborhood living rooms and back yards. A car chase puts the viewer behind the wheel. The style is realistic, increasing the tension. The final action scene finds Hardin in an out of control situation, both physically and in the plot. The viewer slides along with Hardin, spinning down an industrial chute to the final showdown. We find out how the judges in the Star Chamber, even with their good intentions, are a very dangerous group. Watch the Star Chamber and you will be ready to offer a recommendation to your friends. Someone will say that they need help finding something to watch, and you will recommend this movie and look like a genius.

Amusingly described by one review I read here as "a vigilante movie as it might be envisioned by John Grisham", "The Star Chamber" is a good, solid, entertaining thriller. It misses its chances for greatness due to predictability and a lack of credibility, but while it's playing out, some people, such as this viewer, may not mind too much. Michael Douglas, in one of his earliest star vehicles, plays Steven Hardin, a young judge who's frustrated by the legal system with which he has to work. Far too often criminal scum are able to escape just punishment due to legal technicalities and savvy defense attorneys. Stevens' cagey, witty mentor Benjamin Caulfield (a marvelous Hal Holbrook) eventually reveals to Steven the method he and some fellow judges have employed to deal with the situation: review old, particularly infuriating cases, make judgments, and pass sentence, utilizing the services of a hired gun. This is certainly slick stuff, well made technically with efficient direction by Peter Hyams and it's at least smart enough to provoke some debate. For example, what would *you* do: let the 10 guilty men go free or let the one innocent man get executed? It includes some fairly exciting foot chases as well as one brief and decent car chase in a parking garage. The climactic sequence in the abandoned building is appropriately atmospheric. And Michael Smalls' music score is haunting and effective. Douglas is good in the lead but it's the men in the major supporting parts that truly shine: besides Holbrook, Yaphet Kotto scores as a dedicated detective and James B. Sikking is touching as the father of a murdered child. Sharon Gless has little to do as Stevens' concerned wife. The cast contains an impressive Who's Who roster of character actors, including Joe Regalbuto ('Murphy Brown') and Don Calfa ("The Return of the Living Dead") as a pair of goofy creeps, as well as Jack Kehoe, Larry Hankin, Dick Anthony Williams, David Proval, Robin Gammell, Matthew Faison, Michael Ensign, Jason Bernard, and Robert Costanzo. David Faustino ('Married with Children') plays one of Douglas's kids and Douglas's own real-life mother Diana plays Caulfields' wife; Charles Hallahan ("The Thing", 'Hunter') appears uncredited as police officer Picker. The movie does move along quite well, getting off to a good start but not concluding as strongly. Still, it's good entertainment for most of the time, and may have people talking about its themes after it's over. Seven out of 10.

Juvenile. A plot that a teenager could (and has) come up with many times. Very unrealistic.

A taut, tense thriller that shows us a man who has to choose between the lesser of two evils. In the end, I think he chooses correctly. The U.S. court system, massively flawed though it may be, is far preferable to an elite group (or for that matter, an individual) taking matters of law into their own hands. There have been too many "dirty harry" type movies. Somebody had to make a movie like this, a movie that blurs the supposedly clear-cut line between "right" and "wrong," a line that Hollywood has tended to present to us as clear-cut black and white, especially in the action/thriller genre. It's refreshing to see a thriller that's also thought-provoking. The movie itself is flawed in many ways, but in my opinion it gets its point across well enough, and manages to be reasonably entertaining at the same time. 7/10.

this is one of my favorite movies of all time! Not only does it have an all star cast, but is well written and really brings up some very good points about the law. The acting is amazing and is a great story. Deserves 4 stars instead of the two it received. Star Chamber has some of the best actors in it, including Michael Douglas, Hal Holbrook, Yaphet Kotto, Don Calfa, and Joe Regalbuto, just to name a few of the most popular. If you haven't seen this movie, SEE IT. It deals with the law and how the American Justice system is sometimes perverted, and an idea that even though the law isn't always right, it has its reasons for being that way.

********SPOILERS******** This movie really takes the saying "I would rather have a hundred guilty go free then have one innocent found guilty" to the limit. Judge Hardin, Michael Douglas,is disgusted with how the law is administrated when he's forced to let criminals go free due sloppy police work. A case that comes before his bench is that of a ten year old boy, David Lewin, who was found tortured and murdered in a city park. The two suspects Monk, Don Calfa, and Cooms, Joe Regalbuto,arrested were found to have a bloody sneaker belonging to David in their van but because the police had no cause to arrest them at the time all the evidence against them had to be thrown out and they let free. When Judge Hardin announced his decision the dead boys father Dr. Lewin, James B. Sikking, goes berserk and pulls out a gun and tries to shoot the two released defendants but misses and shoots a cop instead. Later in jail Judge Hardin visits the distort father who tells him that another young boy, like is son, was murdered the same way an that he'a as as guilty as those that killed him because he let them go free. Judge Hardin later watching the TV news learns that Dr. Lewin committed suicide in his cell. Sick and depressed Judge Hardin is told by a fellow jurist Judge Caulfield, Hal Holbrook, that there's a Star Chamber that secretly holds trials on persons who escaped the long arm of the law and if there found guilty there secretly dealt with. Caulfield then asks Judge Hardin if he would want to join since one of the members died, he actually committed suicide, and there was a opening for him. Judge Hardin accepts and when the Star Chamber meets to preside on cases he brings up the David Lewin case and they vote that the two suspects that were let go are guilty and they are sentenced to death. The Star Chamber sends out a hit-man, Keith Buckley, to do the job. Later the police find that the Van where the bloody sneaker of the murdered David Lewin was found was stolen and returned to those who were charged with the murder, Monk & Cooms, after the crime was committed without their knowledge. Judge Hardin gets in touch with the detective who cracked the case Det. Lowes, Yaphet Kotto, who tells the judge that the evidence was overwhelming that they caught the real killers. Even more upsetting to the Judge is that one of the suspects gave a full confession and that both Monk & Cooms were innocent all along. Judge Hardin shocked that he unleashed a hit-man to kill two innocent men tries to stop the "hit" on Monk & Cooms but he's told by the members of the Star Chamber that it's too late and he'll just have to live with what happens to them. Finding out where the duo lives Judge Hardin runs there to warn them of the danger. When the, what seems like, less then stable Judge tries to get in contact with them they attack and beat him. Monk & Cooms think that he's nuts and being high on drugs as well as paranoid lunatics, they were also operating a drug lab, they weren't very receptive to what Judge Hardin was trying to tell them. With Judge Hardin trapped Monk pulls out a gun and is about to shoot the Judge when a policeman pops up and shoots and kills him and his partner Cooms. It turns out that the policeman is really the hit-man sent out by the Star Chamber to do the hit. Seeing Judge Hardin with them the hit-man turns his gun on him but before he can shoot theirs a shot fired, off screen, from Det. Lowes and he falls to the ground dead. The movie ends with the Star Chamber discussing another criminal to be executed but Judge Hardin is not with them. He's outside in a car with Det. Lowes recording what their saying to be used against them when their on trial for breaking the law that they were sworn to uphold.