I was bored tonight so I went to see Runaway Jury, an adaptation of the book by John Grisham. Since I’ve read the book, I was surprised to see that Grisham allowed the writer and the studio to completely change the primary focus of the trial from the ‘tobacco’ industry to the ‘gun’ industry. In the book, as I recall, the lawsuit was over tobacco addiction and resulting liability.

It would be easy to assume that Hollywood would rather start pointing fingers at those evil firearms manufactorers, rather than tobacoo companies, particular as severel characters in the movie are taking plenty of drags on their Marlboros. Heck, maybe the tobacoo giants even paid off the studio to change the script! Well, that’s just a conspiracy theory.

Still, dang it, I spent most of the movie, fuming slightly inside that the change was made. The movie couldn’t help but emphasize the unfairness and unAmerican attitude of Gene Hackman’s character, who is sleazy enough to profile jurors and then actually try to buy a verdict, all for the defendants, the ‘gun’ industry…