I saw this movie when it came out in 1981. It is a great movie, but this part of the movie is excellent and is why it is a great movie. Brimley's character is based loosely on Senator Sam Ervin, who was chairman of the Senate investigation of Watergate. Ervin was from North Carolina, dressed in white suits, had a thick Southern accent and chewed tobacco. Over the years many movies and tv programs have used the same basic character. The wise and honest country lawyer I think the character is called.
As soon as Paul Newman says "because they do good work" Wilford Brimley's character knows that he set the two government guys up. The guy questioning Newman is too dense to realize it but Brimley does. This is by far one of the greatest scenes in any movie ever. Wilford Brimley is amazing in it. It's a great movie overall though it's kind of sad to compare it to today; today a DA wouldn't give a crap about a "PR problem" and would never resign no matter what they did. Government officials these days have no honor, no scruples and only leave their jobs kicking and screaming after being censured or indicted, and sometimes not even then. And the news media isn't all that interested in the truth anymore either, just their own agendas. This movie represents what things used to be like in the country before we lost our way.
I loved Wilfred Brimley's character in this, but IMHO, he gave Elliott 29 days too many to clear out. Edit- I see that I made an almost identical comment a year ago. I think my year old reference to Bobcat Goldthwaite's character in "Scrooged" being tossed out of the building was the better one.
It was heartbreaking when her character , Theresa Perone. saw the story in the paper and ran through the neighborhood stealing her neighbors newspapers
I appreciate this video. At full volume, with my hearing aid in, I can barely hear it. Judging by the clicks, I'm guessing you recorded the sound with a tape recorder.
This highlights what is wrong in todays world. There is no adult in charge who can clean house with gravitas. The buck stopped with him. Nowadays the buck stops no where and no one is accountable.
This was a fictional film. It was made in 1981. Ronald Reagan was president at the time, and one reason why he became president in the first place was because his political campaign urged the hostage-takers in Iran that he would give them a better deal if he was elected president, undermining Carter's attempts to resolve the matter. That's just one of many examples of corruption during his presidency. Before Reagan, the US fought a corrupt and unjustifiable war in Vietnam after years of propping up the French military actions in the same region. It was done on the orders of five US presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, and they all knew full well that it was an unwinnable war. Yet they pressed for it anyway, resulting in untold numbers of dead and wounded. None of them ever answered for their roles in that. I can keep going on and on, back to the fraudulent reasons why the Founding Fathers declared independence, and it would prove my point that today's world is no more problematic than yesterday's. In fact, I'd say it's a lot less problematic because at least now we all acknowledge the issues rather than brush them under the rug of blind faith in the establishment.
Baloney. Wilford Brimley's FBI character is where the buck stops. He's why all these people have to account for their actions. Bob Balaban's character leaked info that put Newman's character in severe legal jeopardy. Sally Fields character aids and abetts Balaban's character by smearing Newman in the press. The DA went along with it and tanked his career.
@@JimmyStellerKennedy had set the wheels in motion to get us out of Vietnam with an executive order pulling our "advisors" out by 1965. During his 2nd term. Killed after Kennedy was assassinated, with LBJ doing the bidding of the military industrial complex to escalate the war in 1965, which he did. Had Kennedy lived, our history would have been entirely different. Nixon was lying when he said he'd end the war, to the contrary he escalated by bombing Cambodia and increasing the anti-communist insurgency in Laos. Where Kennedy initially short-circuited CIA, MI-C intervention in Laos. Kennedy saw what was happening in Southeast Asia and knew it was a military quagmire. As advised by Gen. William Westmoreland. Henry Kissinger was Nixon's evil intermediary, using our POW's as shameless bargaining chips to drag out the Paris peace talks. How ironic that Vietnam is now one of our most solid trade partners. Reagan also aided and abetted the slow but sure destruction of the American middle class, massive tax cuts for the mega rich and large corporations. And borrowing trillons of $$$ from social security and ridiculously bloating the defense budget, racking up massive budget deficits. 12 years of Reagan/Bush deficits tanked our economy and ruined middle class prosperity. And taxed senior's social security pensions for the 1st time.
I think the fact that it was only 10-15 minutes of screen time hurt him. But it was his best work. When he reprised the role (albeit as postmaster general) in Seinfeld, I was over the moon.
A crime? Really? That's got to be one of the dumbest comments in RU-vid history. I mean a 10 minute segment....and only a 10 minute segment....of any film usually doesn't qualify for an Oscar.
@@viking956 Beatrice Straight in 1976 won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Network". Her time on screen was about five minutes. Perhaps the foregoing will qualify as"one of the dumbest comments in RU-vid history." Have a pleasant week.
One of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies. Thanks for posting it. The other great scene if where Sally Fields says they print the truth and Paul Newman corrects her, "You don't print the truth, you print what people say. The truth is not that easy."
Also toward the end of the film, Sally's character, a reporter, is interviewed by a colleague because she has unwittingly become part of the story. The other reporter zeroes in on how to describe her relationship with Newman's character. The colleague throws out a test phrase, something like they were dating or they were involved, and then says, "that's the truth, isn't it?" To which Sally pauses and replies, "No, but it's accurate." I worked in journalism for 20 years and sometimes played that clip for interns to point out the distinction between accuracy and truth. It's a cautionary tale to guard against arrogance and to encourage care in how something is written. Journalists can aim for the truth, but the best they can guarantee is accuracy -- and that's only if they've done due diligence and have integrity. As Newman says, "The truth is not that easy."
Yeah one of those movies that no matter how many times you see it, if your channel surfing and you run by this movie you have to watch it just to see this scene.
Agreed one of the best movie scenes ever, and every actor did their job to perfection. Brimley nailed his role, and the writing provided for him was masterful. "Don't get too smart. Pretty smart meself". Just great.
Brimley is brilliant, so is the desperate Balaban and the stoic, understated Paul Newman.The only weak part in this scene is Sally Field, especially with that pathetic and clichéd " just me " line.
