Based on a true story, the Prime Video film The Burial recounts a landmark court case in which an undefeated and unconventional personal injury lawyer, Willie E. Gary (Jamie Foxx), helps funeral home owner Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) sue a large burial company over a contractual dispute. Below, we discuss the outcome of the case and explore the ending of the film, which will, of course, contain significant spoilers.
Jeremiah O’Keefe was a family man, who wanted to keep his father’s business alive. He wanted to pass it down to the next generation because he had 13 children himself. However, when he needs to make a deal with another funeral home corporation because of a fumbled insurance deal, O’Keefe lands in some hot water. It does sound like it’s hard to follow, but Maggie Betts is able to pull out important notes from the trial to help the audience understand in layman’s terms.
There is no way a small-town business owner can go up against a large corporation and win, right? Well, O’Keefe takes a shot with Willie Gary, a flashy lawyer who hasn’t lost a case in 12 years. The only difference is that Gary works in personal injury, whereas O’Keefe’s case is corporate. Gary takes the case to prove that he can do anything, and because the more he gets to know O’Keefe, the more he believes in the case.
The Burial Ending Explained
What begins as a little guy taking on a big corporation snowballs into a moral battle in court. Not only does Gary address the Loewen Group taking advantage of smaller companies, but his team digs a little deeper and it becomes so much more. The Loewen Group made a deal with the Black National Baptist Convention, which gave Loewen the opportunity to buy the graveyards at NBC. Loewen would use Black church workers as sales representatives to sell the burial contracts in underprivileged areas, and then hike the prices.
Is The Burial based on a true story?
The Burial is based on a true story but does make some artistic changes to the case.
Director Maggie Betts recently told TIME that Doug Wright’s script was originally “dated”:
“It was a good script, but the point of view was dated. It felt like it was from another era, from the ’90s.”
Along with bringing this tone up to more contemporary standards, one of the more significant changes was making sure the legal team had a “Black flavor” and ensuring that “none of the Black characters had a need for white people in their life. Completely self-sufficient.”
Who wins the case?
Maggie Betts found the information the Loewen Group was hiding and brought it to light. She used fictional characters to address the truth that no one had bothered to explore. It’s not necessarily a story about race, but when the truth is uncovered during the trial, each piece of injustice is more shocking than the last.
In the end, Loewen Group did take advantage of the Black community and this wouldn’t have been uncovered if Jeremiah O’Keefe didn’t take the stand for his small dispute. When lawyers dig deep they can make connections and find anything. That’s why it’s important to fight for what’s right.
O’Keefe and Gary win the case and receive more money than they had imagined. Leowen Group eventually agreed to a $175 million settlement. Given the state of the case and the jury being predominantly Black, after finding out what Loewen did, the jury ruled in favor of Willie Gary’s client, awarding them almost $500 million in damages.
What did you think of the ending of The Burial? Comment below.
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