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Best movie ever!

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I've loved this movie since I saw it when it came out, for all the reasons and more that people have written here. Newman at his best. James Mason even better. Great plot. Both the best law movie AND the best medicine movie.But I write here now because of a dinner conversation held earlier today in which I noted that every great movie has dozens of really negative reviews. So we went to GODFATHER, ET, GONE WITH THE WIND, SHAWSHANK, even SINGING IN THE RAIN, and sure enough there are dozens of negative reviews. Sometime later I remembered this movie and went to the reviews to see how it fared: only 2 negative reviews. Maybe the best reviewed movie on IMDb, and well deserved.

The Verdict is what The Color of Money should have been. In The Color of Money, Paul Newman plays an old hustler who used to be young and famous. He trains and teaches a young upstart, but it was hardly an interesting storyline. Wouldn't it have been a more captivating plot if he used to be young and famous, and now, he's washed up, playing the small time again and struggling with an alcohol problem? I think so.In The Verdict, Paul Newman plays a lawyer who once had a future in a prestigious law firm. Now, he's a washed up alcoholic, chasing ambulances for clients. He's given one last chance to bring a big case to court, but can he get and keep his act together and win? With a running time of over two hours, it feels a little slow. But courtroom dramas can be notoriously slow, especially in the 80s, so it's not the end of the world. It's also a little predictable, but if you like Paul Newman or stories about underdogs, definitely give it a chance.

I first watched this movie in a government class, either in high school or college. While it wasn't a truly exciting or action-packed film from what I remember, but it was an educational one. It stars Paul Newman as an attorney who (according to IMDb plot online) sees the opportunity to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.This film carefully delves upon the aftermath of Newman's attorney character and the drama that ensues, from him taking on the legal system and how he will try to come out victorious in his case.The acting was pretty good and all the courtroom drama was pretty intense. Not a bad movie.Grade B-

When The Verdict, a courtroom drama directed by Sidney Lumet, came out in 1982, I had just graduated nursing school. The Verdict features Paul Newman and was written by David Mamet. This film has a medical context and a nursing role.A word about Sidney Lumet. Lumet directs quality movies about medico-legal, substance abuse and cultural issues. For instance, in Equus the plot is about a psychiatrist treating a boy who blinds a stable full of horses. Lumet also directed Long Day's Journey into the Night which is Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical account of his explosive home life, fueled by a substance abusing mother, an alcoholic father and a mentally ill brother. Dog Day Afternoon is about a gay man who robs a bank to pay for his lover's sex change operation. The simple robbery turns in to a hostage situation and a media circus. Critical Care, a medical "comedy", is about a young hospital resident embroiled in a legal battle with siblings over the care of their rich, comatose father. The resident has a supervisor who insists that he only care for patients with full insurance. Finally, 12 Angry Men, another courtroom drama is about a young Hispanic male who is accused of murdering his father but the story really is about jurors' prejudices about the trial, their biases about the accused and each other.The Verdict depicts a once successful, now down-and-out lawyer who sees his career turning around when he accepts a medical malpractice case and refuses to settle rather than going to trial.Kaitlin Costello Price, Mamet's wife in real life by Lindsay Crouse, is a nurse who was involved in the pre-surgical care of the comatose patient. The long and short of her story is that she had to leave nursing because the surgeons told her to change a patient's record who had eaten an hour before the operation so they could use general anesthesia. If she did not falsify the record, she would never work as a nurse again. She doesn't.Her words echo in my mind to this day "Who were these men? Who were these men? I wanted to be a nurse"!Some racial profiling and sexual bias goes on here. A black doctor is brought in to testify and Newman treats him shabbily.Jack Warden called him a "witch doctor". Additionally, there was a seen where Newman punched his girlfriend for lying to him and she thinks she deserves it.