Andy Garcia in Night Falls on Manhattan

When I wrote about Andy Garcia a short while ago, I checked the list of movies that he did. He played the main character in the movie Night Falls on Manhattan back in 1997, and I thought that I should write about the movie. Night Falls on Manhattan is a very good drama, and the movie asks questions about honesty and integrity. Not a lot of people talk about the movie, but Night Falls on Manhattan is one of few movies that ask questions about honesty and integrity and the movie tells a good story. Andy Garcia does a great job of playing the main character, Sean Casey.

Some people apparently don't like how Andy Garcia plays the role of Sean Casey, but I kind of like his acting in the movie, and I actually think that he is a good fit. Sean Casey is supposed to be a little older than the rest of attorneys in DA's office; Andy Garcia does look a little older (than 26, 27). He is also kind of attorney who has a lot of passion and energy. The way in which Andy Garcia raises his voice shows that. Also Sean Casey is supposed to be a kind of person who strongly believes in honesty and integrity. I don't mean to say that a lot of actors look dishonest, but not a lot of actors can play the role of Sean Casey and makes the audience believe that Sean Casey is a man of honesty and integrity.

Trivia:

Jordan Washington (played by Shiek Mahmud-Bey) is loosely based on Adam Abdul Hakeem (formally Larry Davis).

Adam Hakeem was a fourteen year old African-American youth when he was recruited into a drug selling ring by detectives from the South Bronx 44th precinct (sometimes colloquially referred to as "Fort Apache"). When Hakeem decided to get out at the age of nineteen and inform the F.B.I., he went into hiding-- fearing reprisals--which initiated an intensive police search to find him. Thus began his long odyssey through police, court and correctional systems which resulted in a bloody gun battle, successive prison terms, and paralysis from the waist down (supposedly the result of recurrent beatings at the hands of correctional officers and other inmates).

Source - Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture

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Also Sam Vigoda, Jordan Washington's defense lawyer (played by Richard Dreyfuss) is very loosely based on William Kunstle.

Bill Kunstler loved life and hated racism. He was brilliant, humorous, witty, passionate, and fearless. Journeying south to defend civil rights demonstrators in 1964, he found himself and his life's work. Bill was tireless and uncompromising. In his memory, his family and friends have established the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice to help continue the fight he loved so well. The Fund supports the WMK Racial Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, makes grants to fierce and energetic projects to help guarantee Bill's legacy, and helps to coordinate and implement projects and initiatives in the interest of racial justice. For the past five years, the Fund has helped organize vigils of families affected by the Rockefeller Drug Laws in New York City and throughout the state. In the last year, the Fund has begun to investigate how the 'War on Drugs' is being fought across the country, and has helped mobilize families and publicize the unduly harsh sentencing and racially biased enforcement of drug legislation throughout the United States.

Source - William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice

The movie is ultimately about honesty and integrity though the movie asks important questions about the police force and judicial system. However, making the movie (loosely) based on a true story enables to tell a compelling and moving story.