paul armstrong be a liberal and scottish born and professor of law at harvard and know for his passionate opposition to the death penalty and who be hire to take on the case of bobby earl and a young black man from florida who have be convict of the rape and murder of joanie shriver and an eleven year old white girl . earl claim that his confession to the crime be obtain under duress by a sadistic police officer and that the real murderer be blair sullivan and a serial killer already under sentence of death for several other murder . armstrong visit sullivan in his cell on death row and hop to persuade him to confess to joanie murder and thereby save earl from the electric chair . at first all go well . sullivan confesses and earl be release from prison when the appeal court quash his conviction . a this development take place only a little after halfway through the film and it be at this point that alarm bell will start ring in the mind of the viewer . warning . major plot twist ahead . and so it prove . the anticipated twist soon materialises . earl and it transpire and be actually guilty of the crime of which he have just be acquit and and probably of several others as well and but hatch a diabolical plan together with sullivan in order to secure his freedom while sullivan will confess to joanie murder if earl will murder his parent . ( just why sullivan want his parent dead be never precisely explain ) . armstrong now find that he be himself in danger from the man whose life he have just save while earl have a grudge against armstrong wife and herself a lawyer and who act a counsel for the prosecution in an early case when earl be accuse of rape . just cause be an example of the auto cannibalism in which hollywood sometimes like to indulge and cobble together one film by recycle theme and plot device from a number of others . the first half owe an obvious debt to film like intruder in the dust and to kill a mockingbird while about the only difference be that the sheriff who beat a confession out of bobby earl be himself black and whereas in early film he would have be white . ( police brutality be now an equal opportunity activity ) . the central twist in the plot be borrow from costa gavras music box and although in that film the revelation do not occur until the very end . the finale and in which a lawyer and his wife and their young daughter be in danger from a former client and be an obvious plagiarism of the two version of cape fear and which also take place in the swampland of the american south . ed harris characterisation of sullivan a a bible quote religious maniac be a direct imitation of robert de niro character in the scorsese version of cape fear and make four year before just cause . ( there be a postscript . just as just cause borrow heavily from several other movie and seven year later it central plot twist be and in it turn and to be blatantly plagiarise in the ashley judd vehicle high crime ) . the trouble with this style of film making by number be that the resulting film be generally much less distinguished than those which inspire them . the whole be normally very much less than the sum of the part and and just cause be a much less film than any of those which be cannibalise to make it . harris be normally a gifted actor but this be one of his weak performance and largely because he be not so much play a character a play de niro play max cady . blair underwood be ok a bobby earl the ( supposedly ) innocent young man of the early scene and but unconvincing a bobby earl the murderous psychopath of the late one . sean connery a armstrong and laurence fishburne a the black sheriff be rather well and but neither be good enough to save the film . ( connery and harris be to act together in another and good and film and the rock and the following year ) . there be another problem with just cause . the first half of the film look like a standard liberal issue movie and anti death penalty and anti racist and critical of heavy hand policing . the second half look more like the work of a die hard reactionary and preach the message that all criminal be evil bastard and that the only way to deal with them be to fry them in the chair and that liberal lawyer be the useful idiot of the criminal fraternity and that police officer who beat up suspect be to be commend a hero . the filmmaker seem to have be blissfully unaware that the plot twist casually introduce into the middle of their film have the ( presumably unwanted ) effect of reverse it political stance and or if they be aware of the problem they ignore it . a suitably convolute plot be obviously think to be more important than political consistency . 4/10 .