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A Murder of Crows: Difference between revisions

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Lawson is arrested and interrogated. Detective Dubose was on the first case, and thinks Lawson sent him the book because he could understand. After all, he reasons, what's the point of committing the perfect murder if nobody knows about it? The book contained not only real murders, but specific details of the crimes which only the killer could know. Lawson denies everything of course and Pope manages to get him released for cooperation. He confesses to her what he did, plagiarizing the book, but Pope is doubtful. Even worse, he destroyed the original manuscript to erase any evidence for his plagiarism, while the only person able to confirm he did not write it was the dead man he took it from. More evidence (photos of the murder victims taken by the killer) is found planted in Lawson's home, causing him to flee the police while, in classic Hitchcockean style, searching for the real killer.
 
{{tropelist}}
This film contains examples of the following tropes:
* [[Amoral Attorney]]: The focus of the killings and movie's central Aesop.
 
* [[An Aesop]]: Defense attorneys are bad, especially if they get obviously guilty men off (although they are duty bound to give their client the best possible legal representation). Also, do ''not'' plagiarize-it can get you set up as a murderer.
[[Amoral Attorney]]: The focus of the killings and movie's central Aesop.
 
* [[Clear My Name]]: Lawson embarks on a quest to do this, while simultaneously fleeing the police.
[[An Aesop]]: Defense attorneys are bad, especially if they get obviously guilty men off (although they are duty bound to give their client the best possible legal representation). Also, do ''not'' plagiarize-it can get you set up as a murderer.
 
* [[Complete Monster]]: Arguably Thurman Parks III, Lawson's client.
[[Clear My Name]]: Lawson embarks on a quest to do this, while simultaneously fleeing the police.
 
* [[Frame-Up]]: Lawson experiences one. [[spoiler: The book was used to test Lawson, since his attempting to withdraw from the case made the killer reevaluate him. So he disguised himself as an old Englishman named Christopher Marlowe, who shows him the book and then apparently dies, allowing Lawson to pass it off as his own. Christopher Marlowe, as Lawson finds out, was a famous English writer well known for his adapting the Medieval legend of Faust into a play, in which the main character makes a pact with the Devil (which the killer dressed as in the beginning when he went to kill Lawson). In another disguise, he called himself Goethe, after the German philosopher and writer who also adapted Faust. When Lawson passed the book off as his own, it made him seem to be the killer himself, and have the motive too, as a disbarred lawyer disgusted with the legal profession. The photos planted in his house clinch the frame up]].
[[Complete Monster]]: Arguably Thurman Parks III, Lawson's client.
 
* [[Fridge Logic]]: Couldn't Lawson have proven his innocence by alibing himself on at least some of the crimes and telling them he plagiarized the book? He can't have been unaccounted for when they ''all'' took place, could he?
[[Frame-Up]]: Lawson experiences one. [[spoiler: The book was used to test Lawson, since his attempting to withdraw from the case
made the killer reevaluate him. So he disguised himself as an old Englishman named Christopher Marlowe, who shows him the book and then apparently dies, allowing Lawson to pass it off as his own. Christopher Marlowe, as Lawson finds out, was a famous English writer well known for his adapting the Medieval legend of Faust into a play, in which the main character makes a pact with the Devil (which the killer dressed as in the beginning when he went to kill Lawson). In another disguise, he called himself Goethe, after the German philosopher and writer who also adapted Faust. When Lawson passed the book off as his own, it made him seem to be the killer himself, and have the motive too, as a disbarred lawyer disgusted with the legal profession. The photos planted in his house clinch the frame up]].
 
* [[In Medias Res]]: How the film opens.
[[Fridge Logic]]: Couldn't Lawson have proven his innocence by alibing himself on at least some of the crimes and telling them he plagiarized the book? He can't have been unaccounted for when they ''all'' took place, could he?
 
* [[Master of Disguise]]: The [[Serial Killer]] turns out to be one of these. [[Justified Trope|Justified as he is a theater teacher, and obviously a talented actor too]].
[[In Medias Res]]: How the film opens.
 
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Lawson, a defense attorney (before he was disbarred) and son of a judge.
[[Master of Disguise]]: The [[Serial Killer]] turns out to be one of these. [[Justified Trope|Justified as he is a theater teacher, and obviously a talented actor too]].
 
* [[Off on a Technicality]]: {{spoiler|The man who killed Corvus' family was let go due to one of these , triggering his [[Start of Darkness]]}}.
[[Meaningful Name]]: Lawson, a defense attorney (before he was disbarred) and son of a judge.
 
* [[Off on aSerial TechnicalityKiller]]: {{spoiler|TheProfessor man who killedArthur Corvus', familywhose waskillings letLawson gois due to onesuspected of thesecommitting ,due triggeringto hisa [[Start of DarknessFrame-Up]]}}.
 
* [[Start of Darkness]]: {{spoiler|Corvus' occurs when the hit and run driver who killed his family got [[Off on a Technicality]]. He saw that the man was remorseful, but his lawyer simply delighted in winning (and his pay of course). So he became Corvus first victim, and other [[Amoral Attorneys]] followed}}.
[[Serial Killer]]: {{spoiler|Professor Arthur Corvus, whose killings Lawson is suspected of committing due to a [[Frame-Up]]}}.
 
[[Start of Darkness]]: {{spoiler|Corvus' occurs when the hit and run driver who killed his family got [[Off on a Technicality]]. He saw that the man was remorseful, but his lawyer simply delighted in winning (and his pay of course). So he became Corvus first victim, and other [[Amoral Attorneys]] followed}}.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
[[Category:A Murder of Crows]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murder of Crows, A}}
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