The Public

Have you ever been criticised for being a “bleeding heart”, or find someone mocking you, slinging off, for taking up causes and expressing compassion? If so, this is definitely a film for you. On the other hand, if you are critical of bleeding hearts, if somebody suggests that you are “heartless”, this is probably a film that you should avoid – although the Cincinnati prosecutor played by Christian Slater who is proud to be heartless, campaigning to become mayor on law and order issues, eliminating crime from the streets, might prove something of a mirror/challenge.

The title indicates that this is about the range of ordinary people. More specifically, it is a reference to the Public Library in the city of Cincinnati, a haven for those who want to read, for those who want to go online, a refuge for many of the homeless people who form a kind of sub- community there, using bathroom facilities, going online, going inside to keep warm on wintry Ohio days.

The film has been written and directed by Emilio Estevez who is probably best remembered by older audiences as being one of The Breakfast Club. He is not a prolific film director but, his films in the last 15 years or so include Bobby, a film about the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and The Way, the film he directed about the Camino starring his father, Martin Sheen (a long-time social activist who would be very proud of his son for this film and its themes).

Action takes place over a couple of days, record lows in temperature in Cincinnati. We are introduced to Stuart Goodson (now that’s a symbolic name) one of the librarians (Emilio Estevez himself) – and learn more about him and his previous years on the streets – who lives alone, is friendly with his landlady, Angela (Taylor Schilling), and co-worker, Myra (Jena Malone). We also see him mixing with the range of mainly homeless men, friendly but reticent. His boss, Jeffrey Wright, summons him to warn that he and a fellow worker are to be sued by a homeless man because they asked him to leave the library after many complaints about his smell. The city prosecutor is, as mentioned, Christian Slater, sure and smug running, from mayor against a local black pastor.

So, where is this taking us? To a situation in the library which serves as a fable for concern about those in need and whether the heart should bleed or not.

In fact, a lot of the clientele want to stay in the library because there are not enough shelters around the city. They are to be ousted but they decide to barricade the doors, Stuart and Myra still inside, the media turning up thinking that it is a violent hostage situation, the chief police negotiator (Alec Baldwin) who is on leave to try to find his drug-addicted son, taking command of the situation, calling police reinforcements…

On the one hand, there is plenty to appeal to our bleeding hearts as we empathise and try to work out what we would do in a similar situation. On the other hand, there is a critique of hard hearts, of television anchors wanting to get scoops and ignoring the truth.

In case we should find ourselves in a similar situation, the ending of the film provides quite an original solution as to how to bring the situation to a peaceful end – one might say it forces the authorities to face some bare facts!

In an era where homelessness is becoming more prevalent even in prosperous cities and countries, where cerebral consideration of economic situations and budgeting debate seem more important than stressful realities, here is a humane film which can be proud of its bleeding heartedness.

Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.

This American drama is written and directed by Emilio Estevez who also takes a lead role in the movie. It tells the story of an act of civil disobedience when homeless people, and other people in need, take shelter in a public library to escape from the bitter cold in Cincinnati, USA. The title, seemingly innocuous, refers to a public library, the public at large, and the public good.

When Cincinnati is hit by an Arctic blast, a large group of library patrons at the city’s downtown library handle the problem by refusing to leave the library at closing time. What begins as a moderately routine act of disobedience, escalates quickly into something more serious.  The local riot police, under the control of crisis negotiator, Detective Bill Ramstead (Alec Baldwin) enter the fray, and above them in a position of authority is the local district attorney, Josh Davis (Christian Slater) who has political ambitions of his own, and tries to solve the problem self-interestedly.

Ramstead negotiates poorly, because he is worried by his son’s drug addiction, and Davis is running on a law-and-order ticket, and wants himself to be seen by “the  Public” to do the right thing. Also involved are two librarians – Head Librarian, Stuart Goodson (Emilio Estevez, the Director), and his assistant, Myra (Jena Malone), who are caught in the middle of the conflict.

Goodson is informed that the group will peacefully defy the orders to leave, but the situation quickly escalates. All emergency shelters in the city are full, the library patrons can’t easily leave, and Ramstead’s attempts at negotiation aren’t effective. The library occupiers include people who are homeless, mentally ill, and marginalised, and the library’s staff acutely feel the conflict between their own frustration and wanting to care for their patrons. Conflicts and frustrations abound among all the people involved.

A homeless man, Jackson (Michael K. Williams) leads the sit-in, and a local reporter, Rebecca Parks (Gabrielle Union), sensing a good story, rushes to TV coverage, determined to portray a protest movement as a hostage situation to better sell the news, and to spread her media worth.

This is a movie that is passionate about its causes, and sees a public library as the “last bastion of fading democracy in the country”. Emotions run deep, as the film debates the pros and cons for civil disobedience in multiple ways.

The film presents the viewer with sundry sub-plots, full of moments that are directed by Emilio Estevez with force. It is a movie that aims to raise public consciousness about a range of significant justice issues, and Estevez puts them all together into an absorbing mix.

In this movie, the viewer is exposed to the plights of the homeless, the need to behave compassionately towards unsheltered people, the trauma caused by drug addiction, corruption at state government level, intellectual vanity, the distorting effects of inaccurate media reporting (fake news), the plight of the mental ill caught in crisis situations, and the need to maintain hope in human adversity.

In its wide sweep across the issues, the film is thought-provoking and challenging, and it never loses heart in the humanitarian support it offers for the poor and the deserving. As the film says, they usually “don’t have anything that anybody wants”.

The film is not based on a true story but we are made frequently aware that it could be. Moving at a quick pace, and at times melodramatically, it presents viewers with an enormous range of social issues. But above all, the film argues for the relevance and significance of justice issues relating to human rights in a remarkably compassionate way.

Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian  Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting