Rating: 
Summary: As good as ANY courtroom drama I've seen
Review: This movie is clearly as good as or better than any other trial / courtroom drama you'll see. Paul Newman is fantastic as the broken down lawyer chasing what is likely to be his last big case. To win it, he has to fight the famous doctors, the big hosital, the powerful, high-priced law firm, a hostile judge and the Catholic Church. Oh, and throw in some tactical blunders of his own, and a traitor girlfriend. But the case is very compelling, and the peformances by the actors were powerful. Not just Newman, but also James Mason as the opposing counsel, and Jack Warden as his friend / guide. The only downside is that the sound is very muffled at times, which may be due to Newman's amazing voice control, giving his character the raspy, hoarse voice of a man who has drank too much for too long.All these things add up to a great trial drama, with none of the overly "Hollywood" treatment of movies like "A Few Good Men". For my money, this is as good as it gets for lawyer flicks.
Rating:
Summary: Newman Should Have Won His Oscar Here
Review: This role is the absolute pinnacle of Paul Newman's acting career. He did it all here under the direction of Sidney Lumet and writing of David Mamet, the masters of gritty, hard hitting drama. Newman plays a washed up, alcoholic attorney who is so on the skids that he shows up at the wakes of people he never met so as to get the probate work from their estates. This is even worse than being an ambulance chaser (attorney who follows victims to hospitals). He gets a shot at redeeming himself with a medical malpractice case involving a surgical patient who never recovered from her anesthesia. Expiation and redemption are pivotal in this film and if you like that as a theme, and I do, this film is especially for you. Newman's character is up against a huge law firm that specializes in defending these cases with James Mason playing the lead lawyer. Charlotte Rampling, at the peak of her allure, also tries to tempt Newman away from his fledgling attempt to walk the straight and narrow in law and life. In lesser hands, this could have been mawkish. However, with Lumet, Mamet and Newman at the helm, it is absolutely superb. There is a scene with a ringing phone that goes unanswered that I've never forgotten, one of the best scenes on film that exists.
Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Performance
Review: Throughout the movie I keep asking myself why didn't Newman win an academy award for this performance. This is by far one of the best courtroom dramas I have seen. The Verdict possess the very essence which allows a viewer to be one with the film. You understand the actors on a personnal level.
Rating:
Summary: Alcoholic seasoned lawyer redeems himself in civil action
Review: What great acting by Paul Newman. The viewer feels what it's like to be a disillusioned solo lawyer in Boston up against the Catholic diocese and it's corporate insurance defense lawyers in a tragic medical malpractice case . The opening scene in which Newman has "breakfast" at the bar underscores his dispair. However Newman slowly crawls out from the whiskey bottle despite overwhelming odds remembering his reason for becoming a lawyer after a poignant visit with the comatose patient.
Rating:
Summary: The power of honor and the burden of obligation.
Review: Years before I turned in my smelter rake and beer league softball glove for law school, I saw this movie which, even more than "Perry Mason" or "To Kill A Mockingbird", convinced me that lawyering remained an honorable profession. Frank Galvin is a drunk who rages his way through his office and his life. But Newman's character has his heart, if not his feet, in the right place. This movie is what lawyering is all about. Caring for someone who couldn't take care of herself, declining a significant offer that he knew wasn't enough, wiping the beer spray off of his goggles to see that his client is the irrelevant-to-the-world woman in the bed (and not her sister and brother-in-law), Frank Galvin does what he has to do, regardless of the outcome. He is her lawyer; he has no choice. Man, how I wish we all could really feel this way, just once. Pure, raw and real. God's gift of talent made manifest in the drunken remnants of one who was formerly prematurely designated a "success" and then a "failure". The Lord works in mysterious ways. James Mason is so damned perfect in his role as the big city, big firm defense attorney, comprised of equal parts talent and preparation; mentoring his troops even as he protects his client. The Verdict evidences the intangible yet palpable faith of a trial lawyer in the truth (and in a panel of ordinary citizens that he hopes will divine the truth from the facts) in spite of the law; a reminder to all that a talent for spinning the facts is inferior to society's aptitude for seeing through the b.s.; an exemplar of the power of honor and the burden of obligation. It remains one of the very best stories ever brought to film. Smell the snow evaporating off of the radiators. Listen to the pinball machine's soft old bells, now twenty five years old, racking up the score. Taste the raw eggs and beer, a warrior's breakfast, long ago abandoned in this age of legal malpractice lawsuits. Feel the joy of infatuation and the raw pain of a lie. Believe in Frank. Believe in the case. Believe in Justice. Newman and Mason deserved better than Oscars for this film. Buy the DVD and pop a big ol' bowl of pop-corn. Enjoy their performances and accept that this is as good as it gets. Bet you can't play it just once.
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