The film could have used more rigor in contextualizing Crump as a public figure. Civil attempts to cover criticisms against Crump, but these are framed as not even worthy of consideration and treated as attempts to curtail Crump’s work. What constitutes Crump’s process is thinly sketched - his reasons for accepting a case remain in the hazy realm of making sure Black people receive justice. Hallgren ( Becoming) tries to create tension and amp the stakes by filming Crump from different angles and generously using close-ups, but it’s tough to make legal cases with no courtroom elements exciting.
We spend much of the running time watching Crump prepare for public appearances and talking vaguely on the phone about cases he is considering taking on. In addition to these suits, Crump makes regular appearances at rallies and on TV, where he waxes poetic about justice and the nation’s nonexistent moral compass.Ĭivil often feels more like an infomercial than a documentary. Crump takes on higher-profile police brutality cases because he wants to make it financially prohibitive for cops to murder Black people - a point he repeats often but doesn’t elaborate on. They receive hundreds of calls from clients seeking counsel for a range of issues, from wrongful discrimination to banks overcharging Black customers. The two took on personal injury cases as a way of making rent during their early days.Īccording to Crump, police brutality cases make up only a fraction of his firm’s load. After graduating from law school, Crump turned down big law jobs to open a civil rights practice with his friend Daryl Parks. The doc intercuts this present-day narrative with archival clips and interviews with Crump about his upbringing in North Carolina and, later, Florida. In Civil, Crump talks about Floyd’s death and the protests as an opportunity for the nation to heal, and as a critical case in his career.
The year Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd was a watershed period in America’s self-mythology. These scenes try to soften the highly curated public image. Throughout the film, Hallgren, who followed Crump from 2020 to 2021, captures tender moments of connection between the attorney and some of his clients, between Crump and his family or community. And yet the work he does is meaningful to many of the families who seek him out. These kinds of sentiments are part of a larger messaging that can be challenging to embrace. He speaks of his influence in divine, almost holy, terms: “Everything in my career led me to the George Floyd case,” he says at one point early in the film. He considers his work part of a broader pursuit of justice - a way to get the system working for these families and to help America live up to its ideals. Crump is a seasoned orator: He knows what to say and is quick to deploy clichés. This tension plagues the film and its subject. This solemn opening sequence has a studied, almost performative quality. He agrees to represent the family and promises Tera that she is not alone.
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She knows her cousin has been murdered and wants Crump’s advice on how to move forward. A previously recorded conversation between Crump and George Floyd’s cousin, Tera, plays as a voiceover. He stands before a wide window, phone in hand. The first time we see the man dubbed “Black America’s Attorney General” by Rev. Venue: Tribeca Film Festival (Spotlight Documentary)Īn admiring portrait, Civil deals almost exclusively in shadows.
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