Primal Fear Page #4

Synopsis: Courtroom thriller about a slick, hotshot lawyer who takes the seemingly unwinnable case of a young altar boy accused of murdering an eminent catholic priest.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director(s): Gregory Hoblit
Production: Paramount Pictures
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 10 wins & 11 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.7
Metacritic:
47
Rotten Tomatoes:
74%
R
Year:
1996
129 min
4,051 Views


- Talk.

Excuse us. I'll bring her right back.

How dare you?

Am I a chess piece you can

move around? I was having lunch.

When are we getting all the discovery?

- What do you want?

- I want to know when.

- I've got motions to file.

- No, you don't.

You're looking to make a deal.

I have no authority to deal from

my client. What's your excuse?

If we needed to make a deal,

I have all the authority I want.

Bullshit! Shaughnessy wants the

whole shot. He's using you to get it.

Deal this down

to murder with no death penalty.

Deal down?

We have a f***ing great case.

Great case? Lack of prior record, no

eye witness, no confession, no motive.

Hard evidence. I assume you're not

going with insanity, which is a shame.

My shrinks would have torn him apart.

Your pleading the Fifth

on the charges was brilliant.

It was good, wasn't it? I liked it.

You lose this case, you take the fall,

not Shaughnessy.

- Talk to me.

- We're going to trial, Marty.

All right. All it takes is one.

One juror who doesn't believe he did it.

One juror with a kid

who looks into that face...

That face is great. You prepping him

to take the stand?

That stutter is p-p-priceless.

Oh, Marty.

Don't tell me you think he didn't do it.

Has little Aaron Stampler

gotten to you?

We're not just talking about jail here,

but ending someone's life.

If you're wrong and Shaughnessy's

made you do this, can you live with it?

I'll live.

See you in court.

We stipulate

that murder was done here.

So these photos

have no probative value.

This is not just murder,

it's mutilation and torture.

The Prosecution wants to show them

to the jury for shock appeal.

Not true. They clearly identify

the heinous nature of the crime,

and they connect the defendant, found

covered in blood, to the crime scene.

- Prejudicial.

- I beg to differ.

Counsel, please!

The photos are in, Mr Vail.

Would you like a recess

to carry on with this in private?

I'm sorry, Your Honour,

but this is too much.

Next thing, he'll be objecting

if we bring in the murder weapon.

Now that she brings it up...

This is a public building.

Excuse me, Mr Vail.

Would you sign this for me?

Tell me about Linda.

Mr Vail said she was your girlfriend.

Yes, she was.

How did you meet?

Well, we were both

at the Savior House.

I was an altar boy. She was doing

work for Bishop Rushman.

- What was the relationship like?

- Me and Linda?

She is real cultural,

real cultural and very smart.

We had a nice time together.

We might get married.

Were you sleeping together?

- Well, that's private.

- I know. I have to ask the question.

Were you having

a sexual relationship, Aaron?

Yes, we were.

Were you sleeping with anyone else

at the time?

No.

Was she?

Has she been to see you, Aaron?

- Well, no, but...

- And that upsets you.

No. No, the thing is she went away.

She went away for a while.

She left before this happened.

I don't even think...

I don't even think she knows about it.

- Yo, boss.

- Hey. Got something for me?

Yeah.

There's nothing catalogued downtown

under the numbers B 321 56.

But I don't think the B is a B. It's an 8.

I think the knife slipped. 8321 56.

Thomas Jefferson.

I don't think he did it.

This won't help. Rushman's charities

and his foundation's investments.

Nothing startling,

except how many there are.

Wait a minute here.

What was he doing

with the South River deal? Pull that up.

LOADING FILE:

Yeah. The investors.

Shaughnessy?

That's Joey Pinero's neighbourhood.

See this lot here?

This all used to be houses.

In fact, there was a house in the corner

where I kissed my first girlfriend.

Got her pregnant, too.

- Hell of a kiss, Joey.

- Oh, yeah.

The neighbourhood will end up

high-rent condos if they get their way.

That's why I'll buy back the lot

with the settlement you got me.

You heard about the money, right?

- Who hasn't?

- Marty's the best, man.

Just doing my job.

1 ,500,000. He's just doing his job.

Alderman, Joey tells me a cop came

around, wanting him to set you up.

It's typical.

Can't buy me,

so they try to buy a brother.

Most people assume this land we're

walking on belongs to the railroad.

But it doesn't. It belongs to the Church.

The Church?

- So that's the Rushman Foundation.

- That's right.

- With a bunch of rich developers.

- Including John Shaughnessy.

They bought up land and buildings

around the Church property

and tore them down.

Our neighbourhood would disappear.

I went to the Archbishop and said,

"What are you doing to these people?"

"They're poor. They're getting

kicked out of their homes."

- "And they're Catholic."

- F***ing A.

He listened. I couldn't believe it.

He told them to stop developing

around the Church property.

The partners hold buildings they can't

demolish and land they can't build on.

Shaughnessy loses millions.

- If I need you to, will you testify?

- Who? Me?

Oh, yeah. Easy.

Just change out of this suit, put on

a Brooks Brothers with loafers and...

No, Joey. Not you.

Sure.

I'll testify.

You know what people think?

That this great city runs itself.

They think it gets up, goes to work and

climbs into bed at night, like we do.

Unaware of what it takes to make sure

it doesn't break down.

Crime, fires, riots.

The water pipes bursting under

the city. What a mess that was.

And the Water Commissioner

calls the contractor who built it?

No, he calls me. They all call me.

Goddamn, this is terrific.

They call me because I keep

the peace. That's my job.

This city doesn't burn

because I won't permit it.

I'm the great negotiator.

You think people get that?

The truth is I don't care.

The dumb bastards don't even vote.

They just eat, sleep, watch TV

and occasionally f*** their wives.

Guess we should all thank you.

You're welcome.

John, you need some new material.

I've heard this great-city speech

ten times already.

Your boy Pinero is not honouring

his side of the deal.

- Is that what this dinner is about?

- In part.

I told him what the deal is.

He's a grown up. What else?

Your assistant's been digging around

in the Archbishop's finances.

Yeah, well.

How much did you lose when he

pulled the plug from South River?

Let me tell you something.

It's a mistake to stick your thumb in

the eyes of the city's most powerful.

It's not their eyes I'm aiming for.

Do not f*** with me, Marty.

The pipes are bursting again, John.

In the most anticipated murder trial

in recent Chicago history,

former State Attorney Prosecutor

Martin Vail will lead...

Richard Rushman was a man of God.

He spent his life giving

to the people of Chicago.

He was a beacon ofinspiration,

not only as a spiritual leader...

...deliver his opening statement

tomorrow...

My name is Martin Vail. The reason

I'm here, and the reason you're here,

is to make sure

the whole truth is known.

We can learn the truth

by talking about what the Prosecution

does not want you to hear.

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Steve Shagan

Stephen H. "Steve" Shagan (October 25, 1927 – November 30, 2015) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and television and film producer. Shagan was born in Brooklyn, New York to Rachel (née Rosenzweig) and Barnard H. "Barney" Shagan. Barney ran a pharmacy, Shagan's Pharmacy, at 49 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, with his brother, Samuel. After Barney's death the pharmacy went bankrupt and Samuel liquidated the assets at public auction in 1949. Steve dropped out of high school and joined the United States Coast Guard when World War II broke out. While in the Coast Guard he started writing to pass the time.Shagan came to Hollywood in 1958 with his wife, Elizabeth Florance "Betty" Ricker, whom he married on November 18, 1956 in New York City. At first he did odd jobs, like as a stagehand at a little theater and pulling cables at MGM Studios in the middle of the night. Eventually he started working on scripts and then produced the Tarzan television show on location in Mexico. Betty talked him into quitting and just concentrate on writing. Betty, a former fashion model, was the daughter of Philomena (née Pisano) and Al Ricker. Her mother, a dancer, later remarried, to Mayo J. Duca, a Boston jazz trumpet player. Philomena Pisano was the daughter of Katherine "Kitty" Bingham and Fred Anthony Pisano, of the musical-comedy vaudeville team of Pisano and Bingham.Shagan wrote the screenplay for and co-produced the 1973 film Save the Tiger, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won a Writers Guild of America Award. His novelization of Save the Tiger, which was his first novel, was actually published a year prior to the film's release. He had written the script first, and while he was shopping it around Hollywood, he wrote the novel to help him deal with the stress of trying to sell the script, which took two years to get produced. As he was finishing the book his typewriter broke and author Harold Robbins loaned him his.Shagan went on to write the novel City of Angels and its film adaptation, Hustle, both released in 1975. He then wrote the screenplay for and co-produced Voyage of the Damned, for which he received another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Adapted Screenplay. This was followed by Nightwing, which he adapted from the novel of same name by Martin Cruz Smith. He then adapted his 1979 novel The Formula into a 1980 film of the same name, which he also co-produced and which reunited him with Save the Tiger director John G. Avildsen. Of the performances by Brando and Scott in The Formula, Steve Shagan reportedly stated: "I sensed a loss of purpose, a feeling that they didn't want to work any more and had come to think of acting as playing with choo-choo trains."Subsequent films written by Shagan include The Sicilian, which he adapted from the novel by Mario Puzo, and Primal Fear, based on the novel by William Diehl. Shagan also wrote the teleplay for the made-for-television movie Gotti, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Special. Shagan died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on November 30, 2015. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Primal Fear" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/primal_fear_16220>.

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