TIFF 08: A Film In Stages

I would like to now discuss another aspect of the film, Nothing but The Truth. Recently I have learned about Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development and I thought they applied to this film where no-one thinks what they are doing is wrong but why do they do what is in their minds the right thing. The first of the moral stages is fear of punishment which the main character of the film manages to surpass and is willing to spend time in jail to do what she thinks is right. She operates on the fifth of the stages Social Contract and Individual Rights, she does what she does as to uphold her own principles and she believes in her rights as given in the first amendment. The other characters in the film operate at other stages. The government's prosecutor played with humor and nuance by Matt Dillon operates at stage 4 Maintaining the Social Order, he wants to do what he is told is right and stop, at any cost, what he is told is wrong. The film is very much worth seeing because, as you see here, it makes you think.