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The Verdict
Directed by
Sidney Lumet
R
1982
2h 9m
Drama
7.7
88%
88%
Add to Watchlist
An alcoholic Boston lawyer fights a law firm dean.
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Where to Watch The Verdict
Amazon Video
Rent $3.79
Buy $9.99
Apple TV
Rent $3.99
Buy $9.99
Fandango At Home
Rent $3.99
Buy $9.99
+2 more
Cast of The Verdict
Paul Newman
Frank Galvin
Charlotte Rampling
Laura Fischer
Jack Warden
Mickey Morrissey
James Mason
Ed Concannon
Milo O’Shea
Judge Hoyle
Lindsay Crouse
Kaitlin Costello
Edward Binns
Bishop Brophy
Julie Bovasso
Maureen Rooney
Roxanne Hart
Sally Doneghy
James Handy
Kevin Doneghy
Wesley Addy
Dr. Towler
Joe Seneca
Dr. Thompson
Lewis J. Stadlen
Dr. Gruber
Kent Broadhurst
Joseph Alito
Colin Stinton
Billy
Burtt Harris
Jimmy
Scott Rhyne
Young Priest
Susan Benenson
Deborah Ann Kaye
Evelyn Moore
Dr. Gruber's Nurse
Juanita Fleming
Dr. Gruber's Maid
Jack Collard
Bailiff
Ralph Douglas
Clerk
Gregor Roy
Jury Foreman
John Blood
Funeral Director
Dick McGoldrick
Manager of 2nd Funeral Parlor
Edward Mason
Widow's Son
Patty O'Brien
Irish Nurse #1
Maggie Task
Irish Nurse #2
Joseph Bergmann
Friedman
Herbert Rubens
Abrams
J.P. Foley
John
Leib Lensky
Wheelchair Patient
H. Clay Dear
Courthouse Lawyer
J.J. Clark
Courthouse Guard
Gregory Doucette
Sheraton Bar Waiter
Tony LaFortezza
Sheraton Bartender
Marvin Beck
Sheraton Bar Patron
Herb Peterson
Sheraton Bar Patron
Tobin Bell
Courtroom Observer (uncredited)
Bruce Willis
Courtroom Observer (uncredited)
Murphy Cross
District Attorney (uncredited)
Margie Anderson
Nun in Funeral Home (uncredited)
Kevin Fennessy
Funeral Mourner (uncredited)
Willow Hale
Minor Role (uncredited)
Cullen O. Johnson
Bailiff (uncredited)
Joan Tolentino
Nurse Entering Courthouse (uncredited)
Sidney Lumet
Director
Jay Presson Allen
Writer
David Brown
Producer
Richard D. Zanuck
Producer
The Verdict Ratings & Reviews
Tanalien
January 9, 2025
The Verdict feels like a sports movie. How could I compare a courtroom drama to a movie where the characters play football? On first impression, The Verdict bears no resemblance to a typical Hollywood movie about sports, but the similarities practically write themselves: a broken, main character, who was once brimming with potential, needs a comeback. Everyone who knows anything about him underestimates him. In fact, he is 0-4 in his last 4 court cases! Yet, he has the courage to take on the odds and the powers that be. He suffers betrayal, a rigged system, and just when all hope feels lost, a big, 4th quarter speech motivates justice to win out. Structurally speaking, The Verdict plays like 1976's Rocky, 2000's Remember The Titans, or 2006's Invincible, but with sharper dialogue, a tighter story, and Paul Newman as the lead. Though this time, the game being played is nothing less than balancing the scale of the American justice system. A weighty story, indeed.
Washington Post
Gary Arnold
The portentousness is often a disservice to the actors, embedded in dead air with roles too feebly written to get the ventilation going.
Common Sense Media
Alistair Lawrence
Dated by the slew of movies and TV series that have followed, this 1982 courtroom drama, while solid enough, suffers from not delving enough into its main character.
Every Movie Has a Lesson
Don Shanahan
Not only is it the top-shelf courtroom drama it is renowned to be thirty years later, the film is an outstanding character piece and a little bit of a lawyer's equivalent to a "one last score" job.
Gone With The Twins
Mike Massie
Reform and redemption in an anti-hero are always rewarding transformations to watch.
Vogue
Molly Haskell
The Verdict, starring Paul Newman, is stronger on local atmosphere than plot plausibility.
Sojourner
Susan Shapiro
The acting is good, and it maintains your interest. But when it comes to the same old negative portrayal of women, The Verdict is guilty.
Associated Press
Bob Thomas
Paul Newman has the role of his later career. He uses none of his blue-eyed charm, and scarcely ever smiles except while telling bar jokes. He IS the bruised Frank Galvin, and you feel for him with every shot of Irish whiskey and every legal defeat.
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
This is realistic American film acting at its veristic/imaginative best.
Movie Metropolis
James Plath
Count me among those who think the Best Actor Oscar that Paul Newman won for "The Color of Money" was a make-up call. The groundwork was laid right here in "The Verdict," and with the equally accomplished "Absence of Malice" a year earlier.
New York Times
Janet Maslin
This is as good a role as Mr. Newman has ever had, and as shrewd and substantial a performance as he has ever given, although it may not be his most entirely credible.
TV Guide
Sidney Lumet directs effectively, keeping the tension strong, and unfolding David Mamet's intelligent screenplay slowly but with maximum impact.
Variety
Variety Staff
There are many fine performances and sensitive moral issues contained in The Verdict but somehow that isn't enough to make it the compelling film it should be.
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Sidney Lumet's direction, like David Mamet's patchy script, may not be quite good enough to justify the Rembrandt-like cinematography of Edward Pisoni and the brooding mood of self-importance, but it's good direction nonetheless.
7M Pictures
Kevin Carr
Not an action flick by any means, The Verdict is a slow burn from frame one to the end.
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Dennis Schwartz
A cynical and gripping courtroom drama.
EmanuelLevy.Com
Emanuel Levy
David Mamet's script is a bit theatrical for courtroom drama, but it's Paul Newman's nuanced performance, and the direction of Lumet, who uses silences and pauses as eloquently as dialogue, that distinguish the picture.
FulvueDrive-in.com
Chuck O'Leary
Newman gives a brilliant performance in this powerful David and Goliath tale of a sad man's quest for redemption in the face of despair. Newman, director Lumet and the film itself all should have won an Academy Award, but sadly didn't.
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The performances, the dialogue and the plot all work together like a rare machine.
Movie Mom
Nell Minow
Overrated potboiler with preposterously innacurate courtroom scenes. But Newman is great.
Watch The Verdict Videos
The Verdict
The Verdict
Trailer
it's a very good case
it's a very good case
Scene
I Came Here to take your money
I Came Here to take your money
Scene
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