If I could get hold of Christopher Nolan, there is one story that I would like to pitch to him. As the modern progenitor of films that play with the concept of time, I think that he hasn’t tackled the ultimate struggle. Sure, Memento and Tenet go far in making us recontextualize our relationship, but that’s nothing compared to reality. I’m talking about a very specific experience that would be right up his alley, allowing for a more human drama that captures the anxieties of man’s decisions right down to the minutiae. I’m cool with him adapting Homer, but maybe next time I want him to consider… jury duty.
Is Pauly Shore to blame for the shortage of stories centering around the time-honored tradition? I know that Nolan is British, but that hasn’t stopped him from hopping shores elsewhere. As I’m sure he’s getting into old age and feeling required to do his courtroom drama, he must consider a premise that is more than a conventional murder plot. There is a need to play with time, and nothing embodies that more than the feeling of calling in.
I speak from personal experience here. Over the past few days, I have participated in a time-honored tradition that I’ve done sporadically since 2009. Every few years, you get that jury summons and must throw yourself at the whim of the court. Your job be damned, your civic duty matters more. It’s a position that has been romanticized by hundreds of narratives, most notably in Young Mr. Lincoln where the future iconic president is seen playing a southern gentleman learning how to navigate the legal system. In theory, it’s aspirational for those who believe in justice by the people. If a figure who now bestows our pennies can make a difference, then surely so can I!
But maybe, just maybe, the legal system hasn’t considered that some people are anxious, who live on deadlines and schedules that are more methodical than those bottle boat thingies. It is great that we have the advantage to call in instead of the old way of waiting at said courthouse in a grand case of uncertainty. That much has been updated, but it still feels a bit too favoring of an old way of things. It sounds like a better time in the sense that it’s less bothered by a go-go economy and that business can lessen for a period. However, when news is 24/7 and packages can be delivered in under an hour, how do you stop the marble from running down the ramp? It throws the process into a chaotic disposition. It may be nice to slow everything down but, if you’re anxious, you’re just going to get existential and turn into a parody of Albert Camus.
To lay everything out, there are too many variables of uncertainty to make jury duty a nightmare of time construction.
For up to five days, you MAY have to cancel your plans to sit in a courtroom. You MAY NOT have to go in at all. You MAY get called into a case. You MAY NOT do anything but sit around entertaining yourself in a solitary corner of the waiting room. If you get called in, you MAY get selected or you MAY NOT. From there, you MAY only be there a few days, or you MAY be there for a longer, undisclosed period. Did I mention that if you’re like me and anxious in a way that causes you to wiggle often in your chair, one of the lawyers will see that as being eager to start the case and not just some infrequent ailment? But again, you MAY NOT have to go in at all, so that you get to Thursday afternoon and realize you spent the whole week worrying about nothing at all.
There’s other subtextual elements that come into how I feel about jury duty, but for me, it’s a topic whose ambiguity frightens me sometimes. Not so much that I risk failure, but that the time construction feels archaic. I’m not entirely sure how to make it easier for jurors, but there has to be a way to plan around jury duty. I get the need to be secretive around cases. I get the overall function as being an ultimate good. However, there is something in an anxious mind that can’t help but get caught up in the possibility of things tilting in the worst, most time-consuming alternative of this equation. Everything must be put on hold in the event you must fulfill a duty that, ideally, every citizen participates in.
So yes, I recognize that a jury summons isn’t the most thrilling thing to base a story around. I’ve read enough Reddit posts highlighting people who “lost” their mail and just went about their lives. I’m not encouraging that, but just that the week of jury duty comes with an either/or that is a tempting equation for the best storytellers. You’re either going to have complete freedom, or sacrifice it all until the collective can decide a conclusion.
I guess it’s a fate more fitting of Franz Kafka than Nolan, but I still have to think that something’s there. Paranoia can be mined for endless potential of separating one’s self-image of order and the larger system that they function within. There has to be a way to capture that uncertainty of living day to day and knowing that you could be 12 hours from leaving it all behind for a while. Most of all, I think it could work for Nolan, who could do with moving more into more intimate character pieces. Oppenheimer was great, but I want to imagine what a smaller film would feel like, one where he’s forced to limit his settings while still creating a surreal disposition. Jury duty is not within itself confusing. But, as other stories have proven, it can be the perfect study of individual worth from a multi-pronged perspective.
Long story short, I just finished calling in for the week and am relieved to announce that I don’t have to go in. I’ve only had to twice. At least now I have some breathing room for as long as time permits.
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