Is Burial – The O’Keefe Case based on a true story?

Burial – The O’Keefe Case is a 2023 legal drama directed by Maggie Bates and starring Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. Having recently hit the small screens, the film is based on a true story mentioned in an article in The New Yorker In 1999 by Jonathan Haar. The film narrates true events with utmost honesty, and fictionalizes them wherever possible in order to maintain a high level of entertainment for the audience.

In the above article, attorney Willie E. Gary. Gary grew up in poverty A self-made man Who decided after years of hard work to go to law school and become a lawyer. He started out handling personal injury cases and gradually gained prestige and notoriety in the sector. However, the reason that will be fundamental to his career is exactly what the film narrated (here you can find our review). It has already been renamed BurialThe case in question dates back to 1995 when Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe filed a lawsuit against Ray Lewin and his company.

The Loewen Funeral Company was causing serious difficulties for small business owners in the area. Jeremiah wanted to buy back his parents’ home, which he lost during the Great Depression, to turn it into a small funeral home. But the arrival of the multinational company led to higher tariffs under its monopoly. Loewen’s system was like that, O’Keefe said in court a fraud He worked to build a monopoly by exploiting the poverty of the poor local population. Thanks to a strange but functional attack strategy, Gary was able to win the case with O’Keefe getting $500 million.

If you want to know more specifically about the plot of the film this article is for you, otherwise we refer you directly to watch the film which you can find at Prime Video. did you see Burial – The O’Keefe Case? Did you know the real story? Tell us in the comments!