Great Scene: “The Verdict”
Courtroom dramas. A staple of Hollywood cinema for decades. From a string of great films nearly a half-century ago Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) to more recent hits including Presumed Innocent (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), and Erin Brockovich (2000), movie-going audiences have shown a sustained interest in legal dramas.
One staple of courtroom dramas is the closing argument. I think it’s fair to say that most screenwriters would tend to go over the top and have their lead character ratchet up the drama through their dialogue. But in the fantastic movie The Verdict (1982), starring the late Paul Newman as alcoholic lawyer Frank Galvin, screenwriter David Mamet resists that temptation to go bigger. Instead the power of Galvin’s words form from their simplicity and honesty.
INT. COURTROOM - JUDGE HOYLE'S P.O.V. - FULL COURTROOM - DAY
All looking slightly to their right.
ANGLE
JUDGE SWEENEY Mr. Galvin...?
ANGLE - GALVIN
In front of the full jury box. Beat.
GALVIN
You know, so much of the time we're
lost. We say, 'Please, God, tell us
what is right. Tell us what's true.
There is no justice. The rich win,
the poor are powerless...' We become
tired of hearing people lie. After a
time we become dead. A little dead.
We start thinking of ourselves as
victims.
(pause)
And we become victims.
(pause)
And we become weak... and doubt
ourselves, and doubt our
institutions... and doubt our
beliefs... we say for example, 'The
law is a sham... there is no law...
I was a fool for having believed
there was.'
(beat)
But today you are the law. You are
the law... And not some book and not
the lawyers, or the marble statues
and the trappings of the court...
all that they are is symbols.
(beat)
Of our desire to be just...
(beat)
All that they are, in effect, is a
prayer...
(beat)
...a fervent, and a frightened prayer.
In my religion we say, 'Act as if
you had faith, and faith will be
given to you.'
(beat)
If... If we would have faith in
justice, we must only believe in
ourselves.
(beat)
And act with justice.
(beat)
And I believe that there is justice
in our hearts.
(beat)
Thank you.
He stands still a moment, then surveys the still courtroom.
Paul Newman takes these words and with his voice barely above a whisper, leaving plenty of room for silence, he drives home his point, one human to twelve other humans on the jury — making it a truly great scene.