Juror #2 (2024)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on December 23, 2024 @ tonymacklin.net.
When Clint Eastwood was promoting Million Dollar Baby (2004) I interviewed him for an hour and 45 minutes. It was a memorable experience.
We talked about the expiration date on directors' careers. It was an important topic for him.
"I was astounded from a director's point of view how many great directors were sort of discarded in their sixties," he said. "Billy Wilder -- people like that who live until their nineties -- all of a sudden couldn't get a job....I always felt as you are maturing and stacking up your computer, you should be able to expand and do more."
In recent years Clint went through a somewhat fallow period. His last essential Clint movie was Gran Torino (2008). Since then he's made several movies -- some good, e.g., Richard Jewell (2019), some not so good The 15:17 to Paris (2016). But nothing essential Clint. They made little at the box office.
But in 2023 with Juror #2, the essential Clint is back.
At the age of 93 [He turned 94 May 31, 2024], Clint Eastwood has made a movie that has his mind, and spirit. He utilizes what he has experienced and learned.
It wasn't an easy task. Clint halted the shooting, because of health. But he returned.
Unfortunately because Warner Bros has serious financial troubles, they have failed to support the film. It now can be seen on HBO Max, Prime, and a few theaters.
Juror #2 is the story of Jason Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) who serves on a jury in Georgia deciding the fate of a man accused of murder. Jason gets overly committed, because of personal involvement.
The film has qualities that make the film personal for Eastwood.
It has irony, a marvelous cast, and duality which Eastwood learned from Don Siegel, who directed Dirty Harry (1971).
Nicholas Hoult wasn't born until 18 years after Dirty Harry was released. I've been a fan of his since About a Boy (2002). Toni Collette, who plays the prosecuting attorney in Juror #2, portrayed the mother in About a Boy. Chris Messina plays the public defender, and J.K. Simmons plays a retired policeman, who gets involved beyond the jury room.
Duality is a major theme in Juror #2, as it was in Dirty Harry.
The film is full of meaningful pairs. Often the pairs are split in two -- one vulnerable. There is one shot of a statue of justice with only one scale. In the courtroom there is a shot of Jason and the suspect, one in the jury box, one on the stand. They are connected. It may remind one of the shot in Dirty Harry of Scorpio's face over Harry's in the bus window.
The title is Juror #2. There are two attorneys, only one suspect, and Jason and his wife mourn the due date of their twins who died in the past. Both juror's and suspect's names begin with J. And there's a crucial two lane road.
Near the end Jason and the female attorney now elected DA sit on a bench and discuss truth and justice.
Juror #2 has the perfect ending. I thought the penultimate Clint ending was his walk out the door in Million Dollar Baby. But the ending of Juror #2 is even better. The decision is up to the audience.
We are the jury.
But Clint Eastwood prevails.