Back when dramas had real, naked humanity and weren't primarily Oscar bait and corporate virtue signaling. This film wrestles with the awful state of the carceral justice system and the conflicts of interest, routine systemic miscarriages of justice, and dysfunction of those in power, and the tragedies that result. Yeah, in the seventies. Surprisingly, due to the seventies-typical style (mostly lack thereof) it isn't demanding viewing, but simply engaging (or so was my experience.)

The bouncy disco music that bookends this film give it the feeling of a prototypical venture into postmodern farce, but only in so much as it is the film throwing its hands up at the messy humanity and inexorable nature of the problem. Lots of great performances, but Pacino was clearly giving it his all.