Jack Gwaltney Movies

The detectives and the lawyers again run up against the brick wall of military jurisprudence while investigating the death of a Navy pilot. McCoy finally narrows the suspects down to the dead man's lover, also a pilot. Unfortunately, the Navy and the Judge Advocate General form a united front to block further investigation -- and, perhaps, to prevent justice from prevailing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Joanne Whalley-Kilmer stars as a woman corrupted by the criminal justice system in this courtroom suspense thriller. She plays a civil servant named Valerie Alston, a single mother living in New York City, who gets placed on a jury trying the case of mob boss Rusty Pirone (Armand Assante). A former homicide detective gone bad, Tommy Vesey (William Hurt), is now working for Pirone. He kidnaps Valerie and threatens her and her son with more harm if she votes to convict Pirone. At the trial, District Attorney Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne) proves himself to be willing and able to stoop to unethical means to convict Pirone. In the jury room, Valerie skillfully exploits factions among the jurors in order to win an acquittal. Now cynical and corrupt herself, Valerie seduces mob boss Pirone to extract her own rewards for her service. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Originally scheduled to air on October 11, 1990, this Law & Order episode was bumped forward to November 20 of that year. The flames of racial unrest are fueled when a young African-American honors student is shot by Freddo Parisi (John Finn), a white cop. Much to their dismay, detectives Greevey (George Dzundza) and Logan (Chris Noth) are faced with the likelihood that the cop may have planted a weapon on the deceased to get himself off the hook. Likewise made uncomfortable by the implications and possible consequences of the incident, assistant D.A.'s Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) nonetheless set a trap to catch Officer Parisi in his own web of deceit. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Casualties of War was based on a New Yorker article by Daniel Lang. This, in turn, was inspired by a true incident which illustrated the dehumanizing aspects of the Vietnam experience. Michael J. Fox plays Eriksson, a member of an American squadron stationed in the deepest jungles of Southeast Asia. Sean Penn co-stars as Meserve, the squadron sergeant, who vows revenge after his best friend is killed. He orders his men to invade a village and "requisition" a young Vietnamese girl (Thuy Thu Lee), who is repeatedly tied, gagged and gang-raped. The horrified Eriksson refuses to participate in these atrocities, and he does his best to console the girl and to attempt to free her. Before this can happen, however, Meserve orders another man to kill the girl. Once he returns to camp, Eriksson attempts to file a report on the tragedy and to bring Meserve and the others to justice, but he is stonewalled by the brass and threatened with death by his fellow soldiers. Eventually Meserve and his co-conspirators are jailed for their crimes, but Eriksson can never forget his "compliance" in the incident by failing to save the girl. The script is by well-known playwright David Rabe. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi