THEWASHINGTONPOST.
FRIDAY,JULY31, 2020EZ14
Movies
nists as superheroic Davids doing
battle with a looming, largely
unseen Goliath. Afforded unprec-
edented access to the ACLU’s of-
fices and inner workings, the
filmmakers have created a por-
trait of idealism and hard work
that might be mistaken for a
promo piece for the organiza-
tion’s 100-year anniversary,
which it’s celebrating this year.
Still, directors Elyse Steinberg,
Josh Kriegman and Eli B. Despres
(who made the equally engross-
ing 2016 documentary “Weiner”)
have found real-life characters
who are every bit as pluralistic
and paradoxical as the American
citizens they represent. What’s
more, they are on the scene whenphobia punctuate what is easily
the film’s most heartbreaking
case. In this engrossing and ulti-
mately inspiring examination of
ideals in action, the team behind
“The Fight” wind up illustrating a
cardinal rule of nonfiction film-
making: When it comes to hu-
manizing even the loftiest princi-
ples, a documentary lives or dies
by its principals.
[email protected]The Fight
MAGNOLIA PICTURESPG-13. Available on demand at various streaming platforms, including theavalon.org a nd jxjdc.org. Contains strong language, mature thematic material and brief violence. 96 minutes.BY ANN HORNADAYW
ithin days of his inau-
guration, President
Trump issued an exec-
utive order that sus-
pended immigration rights for
Syrian refugees and prohibited
citizens from seven mostly Mid-
dle Eastern countries from enter-
ing the United States.
What became known as the
“Muslim ban” would be one of the
most defining and notorious wa-
tersheds of the Trump adminis-
tration. And its rollback is rivet-
ingly portrayed in “The Fight,” an
artfully crafted and improbably
entertaining documentary about
the American Civil Liberties
Union. Viewers expecting a plod-
ding and self-righteous tutorial
on American jurisprudence are
instead invited to witness, first-
hand, the litigation of four hall-
mark cases in which ACLU attor-
neys attempt to preserve immi-
gration rights, reproductive free-Doc illuminates an entertaining battle
dom, the ability of transgender
individuals to serve in the mili-
tary and voting rights — in one
case, all the way to a young law-
yer’s first appearance before the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Although the Muslim ban epi-
sode kicks off “The Fight” and
skillfully establishes context and
highly pitched emotional stakes,
it is not the film’s primary focus.
Instead, the filmmakers proceed
to follow ACLU attorney Lee
Gelernt, a rumpled veteran who is
battling Trump’s family separa-
tion policy, which for the despon-
dent woman he’s representing
means she hasn’t seen her young
daughter in months. Brigitte
Amiri, deputy director at the
ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom
Project, has taken on the case of a
teenager from Central America
who has been barred from receiv-
ing an abortion in Te xas. Chase
Strangio and Joshua Block are
challenging Trump’s attempt to
ban trans people from serving in
the military. A nd Dale Ho i s trying
to remove the citizenship ques-
tion on the upcoming U.S. census.
Gracefully toggling between
these disparate but related cases,
“The Fight” portrays its protago-the ACLU decides to advocate for
the white supremacists marching
in Charlottesville in 2017, a move
that’s met with outraged dissent
within the ranks.
If “The Fight” gives short shrift
to the contradictions embedded
within the ACLU’s mission — de-
fending the Constitution at its
most distasteful, offensive and
reprehensible edges — the film is
exceedingly well-made, making
arcane legal theory legible and
comprehensible, maintaining a
swift and engrossing pace and
getting inside inaccessible court-
rooms by way of stunning anima-
tions directed by Arvid Steen.
Most impressively, Steinberg,
Kriegman and Despres follow just
the right people to give the audi-
ence a candid and often amusing
glimpse of the workaday life of an
ACLU a ttorney, w hether it’s A miri
celebrating a victory with “train
wine” on Amtrak (where she
seems to live half her life) or Ho
tensely rehearsing for and then
nervously awaiting the results
from an argument at t he Supreme
Court.
The unintended star of “The
Fight” might just be Gelernt,
whose hilarious bouts of techno-Ratings guide
Masterpiece
Very good
Okay
Poor
Plus
Common Sense
Media 16Film follows the fight
in four hallmark
legal cases for the ACLUBrigitte Amiri, left,
and Dale Ho appear in
“The Fight,” a
documentary that
follows the court
battles over
immigration rights —
including what became
known as the “Muslim
ban” — voting rights,
reproductive freedom
and transgender rights.