Trial by Fire is a movie characterized as a drama/biography film, directed by Edward Zwick. The film was released May 17, 2019 and released to Netflix Feb 13, 2025, running at two hours, seven minutes. It is now placing at number two on Netflix’s top 10 movies. Rotten Tomatoes summarizes this film with “Cameron Todd Willingham, a poor, uneducated heavy metal devotee who has a violent streak and a criminal record, is convicted of arson-related triple homicide in 1992. During his 12 years on death row, Elizabeth Gilbert, an improbable ally, uncovers questionable methods and illogical conclusions in his case and battles with the state to expose suppressed evidence that could save him.”
The cast of Trial by Fire includes the main cast, Jack O’Connell as Cameron Todd Willingham, Laura Dern as Elizabeth Gilbert, and Emily Meade as Stacy Willingham, and Jeff Perry as Hurst. The supporting cast includes Chris Coy as Daniels and Jade Pettyjohn as Julie Gilbert.
A top critic, Ty Burr, said, “Powerful stuff, but unpowerfully told, in part because the energies in “Trial by Fire” are split between proving Todd Willingham’s innocence and building an argument against the death penalty no matter what the verdict.” He gave this film a 1.5/4 while rotten tomatoes gave it a 63%.
An audience member, Skip D, said, “This story and movie was intense. The cinematography, the perspective of Todd’s thoughts. The people who believed him…” They rated this movie a 5/5 while the audience score was 71%.
This movie was very sad and there was a lot of mystery involved. You didn’t really know what would happen and how it would end since it’s based on a true story. I would’ve rated this movie as a 5/5 since it just portrays such a good message about the justice system and how sometimes it doesn’t work the way it should.
