Perhaps you have seen the viral video of the nurse from Houston Methodist testifying about the pressure from her supervisors to mistreat patients, falsify records, and worse. A sympathetic, dedicated nurse’s tearful testimony about her purportedly religious hospital administration’s worldly corruption – it’s the stuff of a Hollywood screenplay. Given our creative elite’s current political affinities, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for her story to make it to your nearest silver screen anytime soon, but the good news is that movie-making legends Sidney Lumet, David Mamet, Paul Newman, and James Mason already filmed it!
The Verdict, like the other movies I try to highlight in this space, is both timely and timeless. The setting isn’t a Methodist hospital, but a Catholic one, yet otherwise the plot outline could be ripped from the headlines. Beneath the (riveting) courtroom drama about the arrogance of doctors and administrators wrecking the lives of the powerless is a profound story about human corruption and redemption. Newman plays an alcoholic lost cause of a lawyer, exactly the kind of ambulance chaser everyone would – and does – expect to settle hastily and eagerly for a quick payday, regardless of his case’s merits. Everyone in his orbit – his friends, clients, and even love interest – seems bowed by poverty, loneliness, and the kind of world-weariness that seemed to permeate the filthy air of American cities in the 70s (at least on screen, I wasn’t around to confirm). All the characters surprise you, in ways good and bad, when faced with the question of whether they are willing to sell their soul, and at what price. For a high-powered lawyer like James Mason’s character, the price was high, the sale long ago. For the other characters, you’ll have to watch to find out.
A key message of the film is that, yes, anyone can be corrupted – but, on the flip side, anyone can look the evil offer in the eye and say no. No matter how poor, how desperate, and how alone you are – or think you are – you can always change the world, all you have to do is fight back. So what’s keeping you?
The other reality the movie depicts is that, while anyone can make a stand, the truth is that the more you allow despair and hopelessness into your life, the more likely you will be to betray yourself and those you ought to love. So get yourself to church!
A final word, on great writing and directing. A famous scene in my favorite movie*, The Quiet Man, shows Maureen O’Hara whispering something surprising – we never find out what – to John Wayne. The idea of an important speech unheard by the audience is at least as old as Jane Austen, and there might be no better example than in this film. One of the most important conversations of Paul Newman’s character’s life is filmed from a block away, with no audible dialogue, only the sounds of a busy city street. Yet there is no doubt in the audience’s mind what is being said and what Newman’s reaction to it is. David Mamet knows how to write dialogue, Sidney Lumet knows how to film it, yet it is this dialogue-free conversation that always sticks with me long after the film ends.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the movie.
*in a statistical tie with Bringing Up Baby, of course.
Love this, Adrian. I spoke from the mountaintops against the way the opiate crisis was being handled locally and within my state. I fought until my health gave out, and I fight no more / now I do it differently, the way it was always meant to be (and sometimes I think it’s best for all chronic health conditions where one’s behavior and spiritual fitness about them make a difference). Attraction to the behavioral solution versus promotion to pharma dependence. It’s been a beautiful outcome to a difficult situation for many of us, and I have more hope now more than ever.
Two real oldies: Rain with Joan Crawford and Spitfire with Katherine Hepburn.
Both movies are very captivating have very simple storylines and sort of good versus evil which always makes a good movie with good and God perhaps winning the hard way.