Benched: The Corporate Takeover of the Judiciary

Independent producer-director Wayne Ewing makes the kind of eye-opening films that are typically shown on PBS series such as Frontline, exposing injustice or abuse of power in the upper echelons of business and government. Benched is a fine example, a riveting 75-minute documentary that may be visually plain (Ewing's style is direct and to the point), but is a striking work of cinematic journalism, leaving no doubt about the veracity of its central claim: namely, that in the race for an Illinois State Supreme Court seat in 2004, tort reform (i.e. placing caps on judicial awards in cases involving medical malpractice, corporate wrongdoing, etc.) was the underlying issue of the race between Republican Lloyd Karmeier and Democrat Gordon Maag, and that Big Tobacco (including Philip Morris, which had been slapped with a $10.1 billion judgment in a class-action lawsuit) played a direct financial role in pushing the tort reform campaign. In this exposé of Big Tobacco's struggle to control the Madison County judiciary, onscreen correspondent Paul Johnson (whose own style is brashly confrontational) first debunks the claims of tort reformers through the testimonials of unfortunate victims (of malpractice, etc.) whose legal rewards—in most cases their only means of living—would be effectively denied by tort reform, and then he reveals Big Tobacco's clandestine efforts to eliminate juries that might rule against them. Not surprisingly, Karmeier won, and could cast a decisive vote to overturn the Philip Morris penalty. Presenting a sad and cynical example of government for sale to the highest bidder, Benched is recommended. [Note: Ewing's documentary The Last Campaign is also newly available.] Aud: C, P. (J. Shannon)