The Verdict

I watched The Verdict late last night. Everyone had gone to bed in our house but I was up late. Starring Paul Newman the movie from 1982 was well received and earned five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor for Newman, and Best Director for Sidney Lumet.

The movie was riveting. Newman plays Frank Galvin, an alcoholic lawyer who is the proverbial washout. Hired out of law school by a top firm Galvin had run into some trouble with a jury tampering charge ( a backstory we hear more about in the film), was fired from his firm, lost his wife and now is barely getting by. He has had four cases in three years and lost them all.

An old friend Mickey Morrisey played by Jack Warden sends him a case that he cannot screw up. A medical malpractice case against two well regarded Doctors and the Catholic Hospital they work at. It is widely expected that there will be a settlement and for perhaps just one meeting Galvin will receive a large pot of money.

On his way to a meeting to negotiate the anticipated settlement Galvin stops in to see his " client." Actually his client is the patients sister who is struggling to pay for her care. The patient is in a permanent care facility, in a coma, that she is not expected to come out of.

Feeling compelled to use this opportunity, perhaps his last one, to do something good he refuses to settle the case angering the appointed Judge in the case, and surprising his opposing council.

We do not just see Galvin in court. We see him at his local bar, where he is a revered figure, we see him pick up an attractive younger woman and start a relationship with her.

Shortly after his refusal to settle however things go wrong. His star witness disappears, his last minute replacement flies into town and is barely qualified and to make matters worse is black. This movie is set in Boston in 1976, a black medical expert will not sell well to any jury.

As the case proceeds it becomes apparent that Galvin has made a mistake.

I found this movie to be very good, almost unsettling to watch. I suppose that is the sign of a compelling movie when you are almost nauseous because you are so close to the character, so that his mistreatment is felt by you. Newman is immense in this movie, after seeing him in this role, it becomes even more apparent that this man was one of our great actors, and certainly underrated.

There are some things in the movie that do not add up and puzzled me. The Judge in the case is almost a caricature of everything bad in jurisprudence. Milo O' Shea gives a brilliant performance, you are ready to strangle him by the end of the movie. Still, short of being called a bagman for the big boys in chambers, we never really get a glimpse of his motivation for the choices he makes in the courtroom. It would have been helpful to understand that.

Still Lumet knows more about movies than I do and his efforts in this one work resoundingly well. A very good movie.

Twelve Angry Men

This 1957 movie was a great film. It has been remade several times in several formats and will inevitably continue to be redone. The reason is that the story is timeless.

The cast of this movie was very strong. Henry Fonda, Lee Cobb, Jack Klugman, E G Marshall, and Jack Warden lead the cast as twelve jurors being asked to determine the guilt of a young man accused of murdering his own father. The case is seen by the jurors as an open and shut case and they quickly vote 11 to 1 to convict. Henry Fonda's character is against the immediate conviction. He is not sure he is innocent but thinks that with a young man facing the death penalty they should consider the evidence more clearly.

A pattern emerges. The case was very circumstantial. The truthfulness of eye witness testimony is debated. One must judge the potential motive of a murderer but also the motive of a witness. The real truth in this movie is that so often jurors can be maniipulated much as advertisers manupulate consumers.

Often what is seen is not what is fact and this applies to a courtroom as well.

Through the course of the movie Fonda's side starts winning converts leading to a very strong ending.

This is a great, very riveting movie.