By Sidney Lumet Page #10

act as if you had faith, faith will be given to you. If-- if we are to

have faith in justice, we need only to believe in

ourselves and act with justice. I believe there is

justice in our hearts. JUROR: Well what about it? You're the only one. I have a proposition

to make to all of you. I'm going to call

for another vote. I want you 11 men to vote

by secret, written ballot. I'll abstain. If there are 11 votes for

guilty, I won't stand alone. We'll take in a guilty verdict

to the judge right now. But if anyone votes not guilty,

we stay here and talk it out. That's it. If you want to

try it, I'm ready. All right, let's

do it the hard way. Yeah, that's it. That sounds fair. Everyone agree? Anyone doesn't agree? Fine, let's go. Here, pass these along. Is that the right [inaudible]? [music playing] I don't think I have ever

dealt with a situation of that brutality

that that incident with the little

girl on the train. I knew that people

could behave badly, but I didn't know that people

could behave that badly. It was the kind of thing that

I could have only envisioned in a book, but never could

have envisioned actually happening because

it was a descent into a kind of bestiality. And I'll bet you, 10 to

one-- these weren't beasts, that when they

went home on leave, there was the sweet girl next

door and every other cliche. I said, no, and then

the whole wrestle with do I do anything about this? And of course I didn't. It's a kind of self-loathing

that comes when you've done terrible things in your life. I guess that's probably as bad

as anything I've ever done. And I went back into my

compartment and sat down. And then when we

got to the camp, the same compartment opened

and this hand came out and he put her down onto the

station platform, very gently. He didn't throw her or

anything, but that was it. And you know it's

clearly a situation that has stayed with me all my life. I think that kind of heroic

belongs in "High Noon." I think that's a romantic

movie version of life. When you are standing there

and there are eight men around, or nine men, all of whom

are in one stage or another of sexual anticipation

or sexual depletion, and if you think you're

going to make a dent in that without getting thrown

off the train moving, you have to be ready to give up

your life at a moment like that and I wasn't going to do that. [music playing] Through my

appearance here today, I hope that police

officers in the future will not experience the same

frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to for

the past five years at the hands of my superiors

because of my attempt to report corruption. I was made to feel

that I had burdened them with an unwanted task. The problem is that the

atmosphere does not yet exist in which an honest police

officer can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal. SIDNEY LUMET: I was constantly

being attacked for not having a thematic line in

the work and doing many different kinds of movies. It's nonsense. There is always a bedrock

concern about is it fair? In order to ensure this,

an independent, permanent investigative body

dealing with police corruption like this

commission is essential. [applause] [music playing] So these complications,

when enough of them exist over a long

enough period of time, you look up one day, like

I do, and my god, I'm 83. Look how I spent my time. I spent my time on a pendulum. And because nature is

kind, the painful moments are not that painful,

and the joyful moments are not that joyful. For me, it all

flattens out a little. And you know what? That's perfectly all right. I did the other. I did the peaks and the

valleys and you know what? You get used to that too. It's a bore. What I have found out for

myself, I'm not unique at all. I'm lucky to have

work that I care about and the opportunity to do it. [music playing] [train whistle] [music playing] [music playing]

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