The Verdict (1982)

I can only agree wholeheartedly with the first submission about this film, it is one of the most grown up works of American cinema that i have ever seen. Everything about the film is just great - Newmans Frank Galvin is a truly great character, and it just shows how great an actor Newman is when he can portray someone washed up so well, when as a person he has lived a very fulfilling and successful life. As a character study it is superlative, and there are no wasted moments - just like Training Day there is not one wasted moment in the film. The way he is chastised by the sister and her husband for being 'Just like all the others' when in fact he isn't, he actually knows that it is an occasion to really address the issue properly, yet risks all by doing so - shows the kind of contradiction that rarely is shown in films. Cutting, biting wit. A film for grown ups. Fabulous.

Fmovies: An aging, alcoholic attorney, prone to panic attacks,(please don't pressure me) finds himself at a cross-road. If he does what he and everyone else wants, he will be lost.The people around him decided their course and show their true character.(Excellent acting by the supporting cast). With the exception of humor, this movie has it all. Powerful attorneys, the Church, romance, a hurting family, deceitful doctors who harm rather than heal, betrayal. Paul Newman, as Frank Galvin, is so convincing in his desire to do the right thing but feels more at home in the bar than at the bar. Life has not been kind to him but his summation shows us what kind of a man he is. I love this movie because of it's underdog element and for the opportunity we all have to decide what kind of a human being we are at our core. I hurt for Frank Galvin and Paul Neman's acting gave me that response. I believe this is his finest performance.

If Newman hadn't been up against Ghandi, he probably would have. I think the Academy realized their error and Newman's win for The Color of Money was really for his portrayal of Frank Galvin, in this well-done tale of moral decrepitude and ultimate redemption. Writer Mamet and Director Lumet are into heavy symbolism throughout, with the scene of the developing Poloroids of the victim (the case becomes clear in Galvin's mind), to Galvin's pilfering of a woman's mail to run down a lead on a potential witness. The closing statement of Newman's character to the jury is powerful.

The Verdict fmovies. I like that this film shows how the criminal justice system, solid though it is, has cracks that can prevent justice being done, and that the people participating in it have to have the courage to recognize them. This film has turned out to be a seminal one: legal drama has turned overwhelmingly to rumination of the moral interstices of the law like the one portrayed here. Without "The Verdict," we wouldn't have "The Practice." Gone are the days when all of Perry Mason's clients were innocent.

Paul Newman's performance has been justifiably enshrined in the pantheon of Circumstances When The Academy Dropped The Ball. But what made the film a truly emotional performance for me was Lindsay Crouse as the pivotal witness. The entire ensemble was flawless, as was the incredible atmosphere. "The Verdict" is probably too serious for some movie fans, and that's OK--no film can please everyone. But if you like to be given something to think about by your entertainments, this is the film for you.

I've always believed that actors are drawn to courtroom material because of the inherent conflict within them makes for good drama and good parts. They're quite a few of them in The Verdict.

This has always been my favorite Paul Newman film, it's the one he should have won the Oscar for. His Frank Galvin is not the noblest of creatures, he's a once promising attorney now an alcoholic ambulance chaser. But the skills are still there and he shows them battling tremendous odds. Thirty years earlier Frank Capra could easily have made this the subject of one of his populist dramas.

Newman gets great support from an outstanding cast. James Mason, Jack Warden, Charlotte Rampling, Joe Seneca deliver some outstanding performances. The one I particularly liked here was Milo O'Shea as the corrupt and biased judge.

Most of the great courtroom dramas have been about criminal cases. The Verdict was a landmark film that set the stage for the success of other great films about civil cases, including A Civil Action and Erin Brockovich. Those I don't think would have been made but for the critical and popular success of The Verdict.

Paul Newman was never better on screen.

"The Verdict" is simply one of the best legal dramas ever done. Of course much of what happens in the movie is unrealistic and wouldn't happen in a real case but the movie isn't a study in courtroom procedure (watch the fantastic "Anatomy of a Murder" for that) it is a study about redemption and in that respect it excels.

This movie captures Paul Newman's finest screen performance and that alone makes it an important movie. The scenes where Newman hardly says anything show how great an actor he is---his look of self-loathing when he's thrown out of the funeral home, his palsied hand and lost look when he's trying to drink his whiskey, his panic when Charlotte Rampling lambastes him for being a failure. Then throw into that his terrific courtroom scenes, his arguments with the judge in chambers, it is just a sensational performance all around.

The level of acting is high all around in this movie. James Mason was Oscar nominated for playing the silky smooth, totally corrupt defense attorney. Jack Warden shines as Frank Galvin's world-weary former law partner. Lindsey Crouse has a small role as a nurse but is given the most powerful and dramatic moment in the entire movie. Her cross-examination by James Mason is where the movie really shines and shows that Paul Newman can keep his ego in check. How many movies give the most powerful and dramatic moment of the film to one of the secondary players? How many lead actors would be willing to just sit there quiet in a chair while a bit player and the second male lead share the big moment? It was a bold decision by both Newman, director Sidney Lumet and writer David Mamet and it is unforgettable.

The movie shows the two extremes of the practice of law. James Mason's win-at-all-costs cheating and Paul Newman getting so emotionally wrapped up in the case that he is no longer protecting his client's interests and instead is out to settle his own personal scores. A great, great movie.