The Star Chamber (1983)

Director:

Peter Hyams

Writers:

Roderick Taylor (story)
Roderick Taylor (writer) ...

Release Date:

5 August 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

THEY HAVE COMMITED EVERY CRIME IN THE BOOK. Yet the law cannot touch them. They are free to walk the streets. UNTIL TONIGHT'S MEETING OF... [THE STAR CHAMBER] [UK Theatrical]

Plot:

Disgusted with criminals escaping the judicial system via technicalities, an idealistic young judge...

Plot Keywords:

Hitman | Drugs | Conspiracy | Child Murder | Courtroom

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Michael Douglas	...	Superior Court Judge Steven R. Hardin
Hal Holbrook	...	Judge Benjamin Caulfield
Yaphet Kotto	...	Det. Harry Lowes
Sharon Gless	...	Emily Hardin
James Sikking	...	Dr. Harold Lewin (as James B. Sikking)
Joe Regalbuto	...	Arthur Cooms
Don Calfa	...	Lawrence Monk
John DiSanti	...	Det. James Wickman
Otis Day	...	Stanley Flowers (as DeWayne Jessie)
Jack Kehoe	...	Hingle
Larry Hankin	...	Det. Kenneth Wiggan
Dick Anthony Williams	...	Det. Paul Mackey
Margie Impert	...	Louise Pacinni
Dana Gladstone	...	Dept. Dist. Atty. Martin Hyatt
David Proval	...	Officer Nelson

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Germany:12 (re-rating) (2006) | West Germany:16 (original rating) | Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Frank Yablans Presentations

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Peter Hyams]a character named Spota.

Quotes:

Superior Court Judge Steven R. Hardin: The law. Nothing is right or wrong! It’s either the law or its not the law. Well, we got a problem here, because it’s not working anymore. It turns out that right and wrong count.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009) (V)

They were making a cerebral vigilante movie and an action film broke out.

When "The Star Chamber" was released to theaters in 1983, the movie bombed at the box office. I was lucky to see the movie in its second week of release. I have seen the movie several times on cable TV and video and even though the movie had some good ideas, it was ruined by turning it into a mindless, sometimes laughable action thriller.

The story (by Roderick Taylor with the script co-written by Taylor and director Peter Hyams) rose slightly above the usual vigilante movie clichés. The movie asks what if some judges, frustrated by the law that they are supposed to uphold, took matters into their own hands? Despite strong evidence that would incriminate the accused, the judges have to reject the evidence on technicalities, freeing the accused individuals.

Though the film has a strong cast, I though Michael Douglas was a little too young to play a judge (he was 39 at the time the movie was released). Hal Holbrook is essentially playing the same role he played in Hyams other "what if?" conspiracy thriller a few years earlier (Capricorn One): the veteran judge who is involved in this conspiracy and gets the Douglas character involved.

Yaphet Kotto does what he can in the underwritten role of the L.A. police detective investigating the case. Sharon Gless is wasted as Douglas' understanding wife. Veteran character actors Don Calfa and Joe Regalbuto (Frank Fontana from "Murphy Brown") played the unsympathetic, cartoon criminals who are on the Chamber's hit list.

Only James B. Sikking's performance as a victim's father who finds himself in prison when he tries to take the law into his own hands, came through. It was a very sympathetic and heartbreaking. In retrospect, it's interesting that Sikking played the SWAT commander on "Hill Street Blues" when the movie was released.

Hyams' films (including "2010", "The Presidio", "Outland", the previously mentioned "Capricorn One", even the Jean Claude Van Damme flicks "Timecop" and "Sudden Death") are interesting to look at. "The Star Chamber" is no exception. But many of his films tend to disappoint and, sadly, "The Star Chamber" is also on that list.

Update (July 2006): The current DVD cover of the movie is misleading. It has Michael Douglas holding a gun. In the film, his character never used a gun. What's up with the 20th Century Fox marketing department trying to mislead potential viewers of this movie?