Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Spring 2018 - 28

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What if they made a movie about you?
Continued from page 27
After viewing Roman J. Israel,
Esq., and upon reflecting upon it, I was
left with several thoughts about, and
interpretations of, the film. The character
of Roman J. Israel is both protagonist
and antagonist, and the protagonist, who
seems to prevail in the struggle presented,
loves his life's work. Another is that a
form of Hegelian dialectic seems to play
out not only between the protagonistic
and antagonistic sides of Roman J. Israel,
but perhaps in a truer sense, between the
characters of Roman J. Israel and George
Pierce. These two characters at first appear
to be diametrically opposed, thesis versus
antithesis, if you will, but by the film's
conclusion, thesis and antithesis seem to
arrive at a synthesis; Pierce is shown to
care for, and be concerned about, Israel,

and to advocate for the legal cause that
Israel so passionately pursued for so long a
period of time.
My final thoughts about this movie,
which admittedly might have little or
no basis or foundation, concern what I
perceived to be the two distinct personas
of Roman J. Israel portrayed by Denzel
Washington. In one, the viewer is
presented with a stumbling, wrinkled,
socially inept man who has devoted his
life to a righteous cause. In the other,
whom the viewer sees for a briefer period
of time, the viewer is presented with
a sharper, slicker person who tries to
convince himself that self-interest and
greed constitute one's proper path in life.
In this latter persona, we even see Israel's
removing his modified-Afro, and combing

it back, and down. Might the former
persona be likened to Esau, and the latter
to Jacob/Israel in the Genesis story of
the two, as set forth in Genesis, Chapters
25-33? In this regard, doesn't Esau in the
Biblical narrative seem to care little for
material possessions, while Jacob seems
to care so much for them that he tricks
Esau, the older of the twins, out of his
birthright?
In the film, does not "Jacob,"at least
for a time, usurp the birthright of "Esau" by
challenging and negating "Esau's" approach
to life? "Esau" means hirsute, or hairy.
Do not the styles of hair in the character
portrayed by Washington, and the timing
of their appearances, figure obviously in
this regard in their denoting either "Esau"
or "Jacob"? Could not the middle initial,

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Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Spring 2018

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