Eyewitness the movie and the issue of identification Essay

witness the motion picture and the issue of identification - Essay ExampleEyewitness the Movie and the Issue of Identification universe For many years, a public debate on the issue of eyewitness identification and witness has been raging with come down the justice system.One camp pushes the concept that that eyewitness identification is not reliable and is, in fact, detrimental to the sake of genuine justice. This side of the argument insists that eyewitness accounts down many times resulted into the resolution of cases based on testimonies, which could be subjective and inaccurate, instead of on the merits of physical evidences, which could be to a greater extent concrete and objective. The opposing camp, on the other hand, insists that eyewitness accounts are necessary to hasten the resolution of criminal cases in court. It stresses the point that without the testimony of a person who saw the crime committed, positive identification of the suspects cannot be achieved. Even as the debate on the merits and demerits of the two sides continue though, there have been scenes and television shows that tackle the issue directly and indirectly. The movie Eyewitness may not have presented a courtroom drama that dealt with the pros and cons eyewitness testimony plainly it did present the filmmakers own perspective on the issue. It did so by depicting a character that wishes to present himself as a witness to a crime not because he is enkindle in seeing the resolution of a murder case but because of his personal objective of engaging the affection of a person. Weakness of Eyewitness Testimony Eyewitness is a movie that was released in 1981. The film was directed by Peter Yates and written by Steve Tesich. It stars William Hurt as Daryll Deever, the janitor who discovered the body of a murder victim in the building he is working in. Sigourney Weaver plays the role of a impatient television reporter, Tony Sokolow, who wants to get a scoop of the murder case. D eever sees the opportunity of becoming close to Sokolow when he presented himself as someone who discovered the body. While this may be true though, Deever goes to the extent of insinuating that he saw more than just the dead body but also the actual crime while it was committed. This leads Tony to be interest in Deevers account, hoping to be the first to broadcast the story to the public. Tony actually is already in a relationship with someone else, Joseph played by Christopher Plummer. However, just to have a story, she manages to flirt a itsy-bitsy with Deever. Joseph, on the other hand, is also very raise about what Deever knows which is why he is not rather concerned about the relationship between Tony and Daryll. The attempt by Deever to maintain Tonys interest in him later turned into the source of conflict in the film. The murderers begins to consider the possibility that Daryll may have thence witness the commission of the crime and that Tony already knows about it. Fo r fear of being caught by the police, who are already doing investigations on the matter, they run after both Tony and Daryll with the aim of silencing them before their identities are divulged to the public. The police for their part have also begun believing that Daryll may have indeed witnessed the crime and that he could identify the perpetrators. However, the issue that is at stake here really is regarding the credibility of the eyewitness. Deever is obviously motivated by his desire to become in person close to Tony. On the other hand, Tony, who can amplify Deevers claim because she is a journalist, is only interested in getting a scoop. The police, whose objective is to see that the crime is solved as soon as possible, also have the tendency to believe in whatever story Deever may come up with because of convenience. Here lies the central issue of eyewitness identification. Without determining the possible motivation of the witness, a case could be brought to court with suspe cts pointed out through the most biased and unscientific means. Through the jury system sedulous by the American judiciary, the honesty of the witness has a very profound impact on the