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.
UPDATE: In comments, Tom mentioned this article at the WGA’s website.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBD6FxrtJN0]
At the WGA, West web site, there’s an interview with Prof. Laurie Levenson of Loyalo Law School, who serves as a technical advisor for productions with courtroom scenes. It’s titled “Trial And Error”, and she mentions how some writers go a little over the top on these things. One movie she says that surprisingly got it right (and I agree, especially with the Southerness of it all) is MY COUSIN VINNIE, written by Dale Launer.
That’s a really good movie. Here’s a choice side of dialogue from Joe Pesci’s character:
“It’s a procedure. Like rebuilding a carburetor has a procedure. You know, when you rebuild a carburetor, the first thing you do is you take the carburetor off the manifold? Supposing you skip the first step, and while you’re replacing one of the jets, you accidentally drop the jet, it goes down the carburetor, rolls along the manifold, and goes into the head. You’re fucked. You just learned the hard way that you gotta remove the carburetor first, right? So that’s all that happened to me today. I learned the hard way. Actually, it was a good learning experience for me.”
Launer can write straight comedy as well — if not better — than anyone else today, I believe. Hopefully he has another VINNY or DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS or RUTHLESS PEOPLE in him.
For whatever reason, Launer has not been very active in the last decade with only one movie since Love Potion No. 9 in 1992. Here’s his IMDB page.