James R. Elkins

"The Verdict"


(1982)

[adopted from a novel by Barry C. Reed]

[Running Time: 2 hrs. 9 mins.]

YouTube: Preview

 Legal Film Critics

The Law According to Lumet
'Lectric Law Library

Reversals of Fortune: How Hollywood Makes Heroes Out of Lawyers
Yale Law School student, Legal Affairs

 "The Verdict": Analytical Structure

Without this Story Tool a Screenplay Doesn't Work
[6:00 mins.] [Jen Grisanti]

When Our Darkest Moments Happen, It is the Greatest Time to Express Ourselves
[4:55 mins.] [Jen Grisanti]

When Does a Screenwriter Reveal a Character's Core Wound in a Screenplay?
[5:49 mins.] [Michael Hauge]

Primary Goal of Storytelling is to Elicit Emotion: Overview of Michael Hauge's 6 Stage Structure
[6:08 mins.]

Helping a Screenwriter Understand the Inner & Outer Journey of a Character
[9:33 mins.] [Michael Hauge]

How to Make the Audience Care About Your Characters
[2:52 mins.] [John Truby] [we care about characters because of 1) their deep weakness, and 2) their goal]

 Screenplay by David Mamet

The Verdict: Shooting Script
David Mamet

David Mamet
Wikipedia

David Mamet: Bambi vs. Godzilla
Interview, On the Leonard Lopate Show; audio

David Mamet Bibliography

 Adapted from a Book by Barry Reed

Barry Reed
Wikipedia

 Director: Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet Interview on "The Verdict" & the Craft of Directing
[10:40 mins.]

Sidney Lumet on Making "The Verdict"
[8:46 mins.]

Sidney Lumet
Wikipedia

 Paul Newman

Interview on "The Verdict" &tThe Craft of Acting
[8:25 mins.]

 Reviews

  DVD Collector's Edition Review Spirituality & Practice JumpCut (Phyliss Deutsch) The New York Sun Writ Large (blog) Literature & Cinema Roger Ebert DVD Movie Guide DVD Review DVD Journal DVD Savant Review Reviews New York Times

 Movie Clips

What Is the Truth?
[2:40 mins.]

Frank Galvin Confronted for His Failure to Communicate a Settlement Offer
[2:39 mins.]

Frank Galvin Confronts the Judge
[2:29 mins.]

Frank Galvin's Closing Argument
[2:41 mins.] [audio of the closing argument]

 Preview Trailer: American Film Institute James Woods on "The Verdict"
American Film InstituteLeonard Maltin on "The Verdict"
American Film Institute; Maltin is a film critic and film historian--Wikipedia

 Acclaim

ABA Journal 25 Greatest Fictional Lawyers

American Film Institute: 4th in the Top 10 Ranking of Courtroom Dramas

 Bibliography

Paul Bergman, The Movie Lawyers' Guide to Redemptive Legal Practice, 48 UCLA L. Rev. 1394 (2001)

Richard D. Parker, "The Good Lawyer: The Verdict (1982)," in Rennard Strickland, Teree E. Foster & Taunya Lovell Banks (eds.), Screening Justice—The Cinema of Law: Significant Films of Law, Order and Social Justice 455-463 (Buffalo, New York: William S. Hein & Co., 2006)

"Lawyers as Villains" (The Verdict), in Michael Asimow & Shannon Mader, Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book 47-63 (New York: Peter Lang, 2004)(I do not, for reasons presented in my essay, "Reading/Teaching Lawyer Films" subscribe to the Asimow & Mader analysis of "The Verdict." Asimow & Mador do, however, provide interesting background on the film.)"Civil-Law Films: The Cinema of Tort Liability," in Anthony Chase, Movies on Trial: The Legal System on the Silver Screen 104-119 (New York: The New Press, 2002). "The Verdict," in Paul Bergman & Michael Asimow, Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies 301-306 (Kansas City: Andrews & McMeel, 1996) Cynthia Lucia, Framing Female Lawyers: Women on Trial in Film 34-45 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005)