The verdict - everyone is for sale

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The verdict - everyone is for sale
Original title Runaway jury
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2003
length 122 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Gary Fleder
script John Grisham
Brian Koppelman
David Levien
Rick Cleveland
Matthew Chapman
production Gary Fleder
Christopher Mankiewicz
Arnon Milchan
music David Baerwald
Christopher Young
camera Robert Elswit
cut William Steinkamp
Jeff Williams
occupation

The verdict - everyone is for sale (original title: Runaway Jury ) is an American thriller from 2003 . The film is based on the novel The Judgment by John Grisham .

action

In an office building, eleven people are shot by a gunman ; the shooter uses an illegally purchased, semi-automatic weapon. Two years later, Celeste Wood, the widow of one of those killed, is suing Vicksburg Firearms, the gun manufacturer, with the help of attorney Wendell Rohr. The trial is of paramount importance to the gun lobby , and so gun makers hire the unscrupulous Rankin Fitch as their so-called jury advisor. Fitch is supposed to help put together a jury that can be manipulated for the gun lobby. To this end, he intimidates jurors and monitors them to subtly blackmail them as needed.

Also on the jury is Nick Easter, who, through his girlfriend Marlee, offers both parties to the litigation to “sell” the verdict to them for a price of ten million dollars, ie to bring about a jury decision that is favorable to the respective side. Indeed, along with Marlee, Nick proves to be a very skilled manipulator. A game of cat and mouse develops between the parties.

Fitch and Rohr are under great pressure to win this landmark process. Rohr unexpectedly loses his main witness and suspects Fitch of having had a role in this. He confronts Fitch, but he cynically mocks him for his morals. Rohr doubts whether he can really win and he asks his company for ten million dollars from the emergency reserve. Fitch tells Nick at a meeting that he will agree to the deal. At the same time, on instructions from Fitch, his colleague Janovich tries to kidnap Marlee “as a reinsurance”. However, this can successfully defend itself and then increases the claim on Fitch to 15 million. Rohr reconsiders his stance and decides not to accept this illegal and immoral offer. However, Fitch is under great pressure from his clients and transfers the money at the last moment, when the jury has already withdrawn to deliberate. Nick receives confirmation of payment, but argues in favor of the plaintiff with great skill and commitment during the deliberations of the jury.

At the same time, Doyle, one of Fitch's employees, is screening Nick's past. He finds out his real name - Jeff Kerr - and that he was a talented law student and, like his girlfriend Gabby, was originally from Gardner, Indiana. In Gardner he learns that Gabby's sister was killed by firearms in a rampage at her school many years ago. As a result, the City of Gardner sued the gun manufacturer, but the lawsuit was largely lost due to the activities of Fitch and the city went bankrupt. Doyle concludes that Nick and Marlee want revenge and tries to warn Fitch, but it's already too late.

Ultimately, Plaintiff Celeste Wood was awarded separate damages of $ 1 million and general damages of $ 110 million.

After the trial, Nick and Marlee run into Fitch in a pub. They show him a copy of the receipt for the $ 15 million bribe and explain to Fitch that he is now retired: if he accepts any mandate, be it for illegal parking, they will report him. When Fitch asked what the two of them wanted to do with the money, they replied that they would use the money to support the victims of the shooting in the town of Gardner.

Trivia

  • The film is based on a book by John Grisham, but it is about the lawsuit against a tobacco manufacturer. In order to stand out from the production Insider , which had arisen four years earlier , the plot was changed and the arms industry was staged as the defendant.
  • In this film, John Cusack and Jeremy Piven are together in front of the camera for the tenth time. Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman can be seen together for the first time in this production, although they have been friends and classmates at the Pasadena Playhouse since 1956 - a historic theater in Pasadena , California , where they are both known as "Least Likely to Succeed" ( something like : “Likely to remain unsuccessful”).
  • Alternative occupations of the roles were originally planned. So should Edward Norton as Nick Easter , Sean Connery as Rankin Fitch and Gwyneth Paltrow as Marlee occur for as Bridget Moynahan and Amanda Peet were talking.
  • The juror Lydia Deets ( Corri English ), who appears dressed in Gothic style, is an allusion to Winona Ryder's character Lydia Deitz from Beetlejuice .
  • Although the film is set in New Orleans in the US state of Louisiana , the process is not negotiated according to the continental European civil law customary in this state , but according to the Anglo-American common law , which would actually not be possible due to the legal system of Louisiana.

Reviews

"The film, carried by convincing actors, sometimes condenses into a dense paranoia thriller that uses popular cinema to convey a thoroughly liberal political message."

- Lexicon of international film

“The film industry has discovered a new favorite motif: violence by firearms. As omnipresent as this topic is currently, the individual films also differ greatly. The two extremes are marked with Gus van Sant's uncompromising drama Elephant on the one hand and Michael Moore's satirical pseudo-documentary Bowling For Columbine on the other. Somewhere in between is Gary Fleder's star-studded justice thriller The Judgment . "

- Filmstarts.de

“The star cast with Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and first and foremost (once again) John Cusack do their job more than well, they [turn] the good script into an exciting film that can also come up with some surprises. Once again you learn a little more about the pitfalls and possibilities of the US legal system. "

- zelluloid.de

Awards

The film was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award ( Best Motion Picture Screenplay ), a Golden Trailer Award and a Political Film Society Award ( Democracy ) in 2004, but could not win any of the awards. The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating of particularly valuable .

Web links

Wikiquote: The Judgment  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Certificate of Release for The Judgment - Everyone is for sale . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2003 (PDF; test number: 96 481 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for The Judgment - Everyone is for sale . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ a b c d Background information on the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ The verdict - everyone is for sale. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Jury reasoning for the "predicate particularly valuable"