Daily Dialogue — April 22, 2019

Frank Galvin: How did you settle on the amount?
Bishop Brophy: We thought it was just.
Frank Galvin: You thought it was just?
Bishop Brophy: Yes.
Frank Galvin: Because it struck me, um, how neatly ‘three’ went into this figure: 210,000. That means I would keep seventy.
Bishop Brophy: That was our insurance company’s recommendation.
Frank Galvin: Yes, that would be.
Bishop Brophy: Nothing we can do can make that woman well.
Frank Galvin: And no one will know the truth.
Bishop Brophy: What is the truth?
Frank Galvin: That that poor girl put her trust into the… into the hands of two men who took her life. She’s in a coma. Her life is gone. She has no home, no family. She’s tied to a machine. She has no friends. And the people who should care for her — her doctors… and you and me — have been bought off to look the other way. We’ve been paid to look the other way. I came here to take your money. I brought snapshots to show you so I could get your money. I can’t do it, I can’t take it. Because if I take the money I’m lost. I’ll just be a… rich ambulance chaser. I can’t do it. I can’t take it.

— The Verdict (1982), screenplay by David Mamet, novel by Barry Reed

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Lawyer. Today’s suggestion by Kevin Goulet.

Trivia: Robert Redford was originally involved with this film. After writer David Mamet delivered his draft, Redford was uncomfortable with the main character and hired another writer to do another draft, and so on until Redford decided he didn’t want to do the film. He was uncomfortable because he did not want to play an alcoholic. Sidney Lumet was offered the project. He read all the drafts and identified the original Mamet version as the one to make. At that point, Paul Newman agreed to star.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This dialogue marks a pivotal moment in the movie wherein Galvin’s authentic self reaches up from his subconscious and pierces into the light consciousness. In the preceding scene, he sat with the victim in silence. It was there this need began to emerge. Here it does when he rejects the offer to settle the case.