A priest? Well, a priest is the ideal witness: it's like getting the word of God
I checked. God is unavailable.
Alan Dershowitz
Ron Silver · 17 quotes
Raj
Mano Singh · 17 quotes
Claus von Bülow
Jeremy Irons · 10 quotes
Sunny von Bülow
Glenn Close · 2 quotes
Most scenes together: Alan Dershowitz & Raj (14), Raj & Claus von Bülow (10), Alan Dershowitz & Claus von Bülow (8)
Reversal of Fortune quotes
Page 1 of 2All right, my friend...
"Friend"? I like that.
Nothing personal.
I'm not a hired gun. I've got to feel there's some moral or constitutional issue at stake.
But I'm absolutely innocent, and my civil liberties have been egregiously violated!
I've got two black kids facing the electric chair for a crime they did not commit. THEY are innocent.
Well, before you assume I'm guilty, won't you hear my story?
No. Never let defendants explain; puts most of them in an awkward position.
How do you mean?
Lying.
Our new evidence will clearly indicate...
Judge
Professor, you know there isn't a single case which allows you to introduce new evidence on appeal.
Well, there is one, your honor, and you wrote it. Derrick. In Derrick, in Derrick, you yourself said that a case based on circumstantial theory rather than fact only stands up if no other theory makes sense. The only way to show a better theory is to present it!
Reminds me of my Hitler dream. You know, Hitler calls up, he's alive... needs a laywer. I say, "Sure, come on over." Then I have to decide: do I take the case, or do I kill him?
Elon Dershowitz
You? No question.
I would take the case.
Elon Dershowitz
THEN kill him.
This is the most dangerous case I have ever worked on.
You find that exhilarating?
No, I do not. I am breaking every rule. 'Cause the best way to win is to proclaim your innocence, and I have never done that for anybody. And the problem I got is, I see who you are. You'd do anything to win.
So would you.
Yeah, but you don't trust the legal system.
You're saying I'd manufacture... witnesses? Affidavits?
No. But you would sacrifice me.
Oh, please.
See, the more I believe that you are innocent, the more nervous I am. I go out on a limb for you, you're proven guilty, I look like an asshole. My reputation, my credibility, my career, destroyed.
That's the risk you're taking, isn't it?
Well, **** you, **** you, man... I'm glad we understand one another.
Why -- why do you think this case fascinates people? 'Cause, one time or other, every man is driven crazy by his wife, and in his secret heart, he wants to do exactly what Claus is accused of: kill her in some sly, silent way that can't be detected. Claus is a scapegoat: someone has to suffer for the sin that we all want to commit.
Team member
Alan... that's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous, you're right.
You are a very strange man.
You have no idea.
You do have one thing in your favor: everybody hates you.
Well, that's a start.
I'm not afraid, Alan. Let the chips fall where they may.
That's what an innocent man would say.
I know.
Well, so much for the first coma. The second, of course, was much more theatrical.
Theatrical? What is this, a **** game? This is life and death; your wife is lying in a coma. You, you don't even make a pretense of caring, do you?
'Course I care, Alan. It's just, I don't wear my heart on my sleeve.
What do you call a fear of insulin?
Minnie He says he doesn't have anything that'd help us.
You with me?
Sarah Paydirt.
What's paydirt?
He's a lawyer. If he really didn't have anything, he'd give it to us. But there's something there, and he's going to fight like hell to hold onto it.
Minnie Yeah, okay, so, someone's got to defend Claus. But why you, why us?
Look, you're my student, you, you have a choice. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do; that is your choice. The reason I take cases -- and here I'm unlike most other lawyers, who are not professors and therefore have to make a living -- I take cases because I get pissed off. And I am pissed off here. The family hired a private prosecutor: unacceptable! They conducted a private search! Now if we let them get away with that, rich people won't go to the cops any more. You know what they're going to do? They're going to get their own lawyers to collect evidence -- and then they are going to choose which evidence they feel like passing on to the DA. And the next victim isn't going to be rich, like von Bülow -- but it's going to be some poor schnook in Detroit who can't afford, or who can't find, a decent lawyer.