Original subtitles

Will you turn the damn music down?

Shit.

Bell?

Bell! Knock it off, Kramer. You're making more noise than he is.

Will you just get him to turn the damn music down?

Come on, Marsh. It's 2 o'clock in the morning, man.

I'll handle it, Kramer.

There's one there.

I'm David Weatherly. I'm Marshall's father.

I have an appointment with Professor Kingsfield. Yes, sir.

I'm... I'm so sorry.

Professor Kingsfield is expecting you.

Mr. Weatherly, can I be of help to you?

Yes, I was hoping I'd be able to talk to some of Marshall's friends. Maybe they

can tell me something. We'll have Mrs. Nottingham set that up, of course.

I hope it isn't... presumptuous, but I wonder if you could tell me if you

remember the last time you saw Marshall.

Yes, I do.

I'd set an examination that morning, and after the exam, Marshall asked to

speak with me.

He had no appointment.

Naturally, I had no intention of seeing him. However, my secretary prevailed

upon me.

Seems extremely upset about something.

Make an appointment for him, then.

I can argue his case much more effectively after he's calmed down.

Sir, I think you should make an exception this time.

Well?

Sir, I... Mr. Weatherly, you are one of a very small, privileged minority that

has obtained an interview with me without an appointment.

Why don't you take advantage of that and get to the point quickly?

Sir, I would like to take the exam over.

I beg your pardon? You see, I prepared very well for this exam, and I was doing

just fine until about halfway through, and I just froze.

I mean, my mind completely went blank.

It's happened to me before. I get very tense, and I'm out of it.

It happened during high school when I was taking the college boards.

So I took them over again, and I breezed through. I mean, I know the answers. I

could give them to you right now. Mr.

Weatherly. If you just sat me down here right now, I'm sure that I could just

pass through fine.

Mr. Weatherly, if I give you your examinations over, what is the point of

having an examination?

But, sir, this is just a freak thing that happens to me under pressure.

If you're so worried about pressure, could you possibly be following the

wrong profession?

Mr. Weatherly, what are you going to do in court when an opposing attorney has

riddled your client with a withering cross-examination?

and you're under pressure brilliantly to counter.

If I give you the exam under circumstances most comfortable to you,

what kind of a test of your ability is that?

I suppose if and when you become a lawyer, you would like to plead

only before judges who are favorable to your particular moods.

Part of being a lawyer is being able to think effectively no matter what is

going on.

There are no special privileges for timid lawyers You understand?

Yes, sir, good good day

You

don't

think your rejection could possibly have triggered

I'm sure my rejection didn't make your son feel any better.

However, I'm quite sure that it was not responsible for what happened.

It was the question of why he came here to ask for another chance that's at the

heart of the matter.

Yes, of course, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply.

I'm sorry, too. I wish I could have done more.

I didn't know your son very well, but if you'll talk to his friends, to those who

really knew him, perhaps you'll...

Find out more

Yes? Mr. Weatherly, I'm Willis Spell, the dorm advisor.

Professor Kingsfield's office said you wanted to see me. Oh, yes, I... I was

wondering if you might need some help packing his things. I can get a couple

of the boys on the floor to help. Oh, no, no, no, that's okay.

I wanted to talk to you, though.

Sure.

I... I'm terribly sorry about what happened.

I... Yeah.

I wish there was something I could... Yes, yes, thank you.

Would you take a look at this?

I found that among Marshall's things.

Do you know what that means?

Not Prince Hamlet?

Not really.

I know Marsh wrote songs. I think he even put some Shakespeare sonnets to

music.

But...

Of course, Hamlet did contemplate suicide.

Exactly. And that says not Prince Hamlet.

I don't know. I'm sorry.

When was the last time you spoke to Marshall?

The morning before the exam.

Nice old custom putting perfume on a letter. From your mother?

Hilarious, Marshall.

Matter of fact, it's from an old flame, one of the few women who hasn't told me

to go jump in the lake.

Not many people have relationships in law school, do they?

It's time to develop a decent relationship.

I've managed to get involved.

I know I've seen you guys together a lot, but I never thought it was more

than just friends.

It's more than friends. I'm in love with Vivian.

That's great.

Congratulations. Vivian's terrific.

Yeah, I'd like to tell my family about her. Bring her home, introduce them.

Well, you think the sky would fall on if you did? Are you kidding? My father

would have a stroke if I walked into a black girl.

I haven't had a steady girlfriend in four years.

I'm beginning to think my father thinks I'm a little bit funny, you know?

He wouldn't care who I'd bring home as long as she was Catholic.

Well, your father sounds reasonable to me.

Yeah, to you.

Ah, my lucky pants.

I took a rabbit's foot to Kingsfield's class.

Didn't help. You know, she's the first woman, the first person, actually, who's

ever understood me.

I'm just afraid my father's going to screw it all up. Hold it, hold it. Wait

a minute.

First of all, as unbelievable as this may sound, things may not work out with

Vivian.

I want to tell him I'm in love, Belle.

It's important.

I see a future.

Well, you got to tell them the right things at the right time.

If I'm not married by the time I'm 30, I could bring home a playboy bunny.

I could bring home a black playboy bunny.

As long as she was Catholic.

I got my pants. I got my pad.

I got my pants.

I'm off to fight the wars.

For a guy going into a Kingsfield exam, he seemed in great shape.

Hey, Marsh.

Good luck on the test, buddy.

Maybe it's because he was in love.

Oh, my God, I just realized this is the first you've heard of Vivian.

That's all right.

I'm glad he found someone that he felt understood him.

You don't think that she might have had something to do with this, do you?

Like what?

Oh, I don't know. Some quarrel, some breakup, some misunderstanding.

I said I don't know. That's why I'm asking.

Why don't you speak to her?

Yes, I plan to do that.

Right.

Well, if there's anything else you'd like to talk about, my room is right

across the hall, sir.

Just a minute.

Did you see Marshall after the exam?

Uh, not right after, but I... I saw him that night.

And how was he then?

Fine. Fine?

He'd gone to see Kingsfield to take the exam over. How could he have been fine?

Sir, I don't know what happened with Professor Kingsfield, but that night at

the tavern, he was fine.

Hey, Marshal, good to see you here. He was real popular. Every time he walked

into the tavern, people wanted him to sing.

Hi, Marshal. He said hi to a few friends and made his way through the bar till he

got to the table.

He's so happy to see Vivian, you could see that he was crazy about her.

And it looked as though she felt the same way about him.

Look at us.

Kingsfield gave us an exam this afternoon and we all survived.

You feel okay about it, Marsh?

Yeah, it's just terrific.

Wonderful.

Couldn't take his eyes off Vivian.

I got the sense he wanted to be alone with her.

Well, we won't make it very easy for you.

They're insisting. That doesn't mean you... I think it does. They want a

command performance.

Who am I to turn them down?

I didn't really hear much, but whatever Laura said, it got him on his feet.

Well, unaccustomed as I am.

I got a new one tonight.

I wrote it this afternoon during Kingsfield's exam.

Seriously, folks.

This is a poem written by Thomas Carew.

Written somewhere in the early 1600s. And the only thing that I have changed

is the woman's name in the poem. And added some music. And I hope you like

it.

He

was

really into the song.

He knew we liked it. He was high on it. He loved it.

He loved it.

And any troubles he had with anything, I felt he put behind him.

He had a room full of people, but he was singing just to Vivian.

Vivian, let us reap our joys. Ere time such goodly

fruit destroy...

Excuse me, are you Vivian?

Yes.

I'm David Weatherly. I'm Marshall's father.

Oh, God.

We were friends.

You could call it a deeper friendship.

You could call it a relationship.

I don't know. Vivian, my son killed himself.

Everything I don't know about him is important, so please.

I'm sorry.

I think... I think Marshall felt that I was the only person

who really understood him.

Oh, God.

Good to see Kingsfield's exam hasn't depressed you permanently.

Who said I'm depressed? I'm exhilarated.

Run away with me, Vivian.

We'll find an island all of our own and we'll raise a tribe of...

Half white, half black singer lawyers.

What do you say?

Well, we've got to graduate from law school.

And then only if there's a good clientele on the island.

Always the pragmatist.

Where are your dreams?

I want the woman that I love to have dreams.

I don't have dreams, Marshall.

They may not be about islands, but they're about being a successful lawyer.

Law, lawyer, everything is critiqued against being a lawyer.

The world knows me as the second son of a prominent New York attorney. My

brother is an attorney, and I am going to be an attorney.

Is that so bad, Marshall?

When I was young, my mother used to say, Marshall, Marshall

has an artistic streak.

As if it were some sort of disease or something.

Oh, Marshall.

Somewhere there's an island.

Somewhere.

An undiscovered island waiting for us.

Where we can go and we can live as we like.

We can play my music and you can do your

art and we can raise our kid.

And we can eat off the land and grow old and happy together.

Without ever hearing the words brief or codicil or tort again.

Marshal, there are other things you can be.

You don't have to be a lawyer.

Maybe I can be whatever I want.

But it won't change the way I feel.

I'll always feel this way.

You don't have to be here if you don't want to.

Think I should quit?

What does Marshall want?

Pseudo-perceptive, but very evasive answer, Vivian.

All right.

I think you should quit. You're not happy this isn't what you want.

I feel obligated to go through with it.

It's my destiny. I was born to be a lawyer.

When the obstetrician smacked my ass and handed me over to my mother, he said,

congratulations,

a baby lawyer.

Well, you're a big boy now, Marshall. And if you want to settle for the rest

of your life doing something you don't want to do, then it's your own goddamn

fault.

Come on in.

What are you doing?

Testing.

I thought that if I could walk on the water, all my problems would disappear.

Your pants are getting wet. Ah, my exam pants.

Ah, yes.

They always did bring me good marks until today.

Ah, I grow old.

I grow old.

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

You know what we could do?

What? That would be magnificent.

It would take us away from everyone who doesn't understand us and bring us to a

place of absolute peace.

What?

We'd go out to the beach.

And we could walk into the surf together and keep walking until it overwhelms us,

until we disappear together in the sea. Marshall, this is nothing to joke about.

I wasn't joking.

You didn't see, uh, Starsborne, did you? Second version, James Mason. It was

magnificent. It was a movie. It was an example.

It told us you don't have to succumb to the kind of pressures of this life when

there's another.

Marshal, one exam can't be that important. It's not the exam. You don't

understand. You don't understand.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that.

You're the one person who does understand.

Marshall, you scare me.

Please promise me that you'll never talk that way again.

I promise.

No.

Please.

Don't be upset.

Everything's going to be fine.

I'm going to be fine, I promise you.

I promise.

You were with him that night at the cafe, and he was feeling better, wasn't

he? Well, I could tell he was still trouble. He looked morose.

Hey, Marshall.

Good to see you.

How'd you do? Oh, I did just fine, Hart, just fine.

I could hear the sarcasm in Marshall's voice.

You're on, Marshall.

He kissed me, but it was cold.

He was furious at me, at Kingsfield, the exam, at himself. He couldn't shake it.

Kingsfield gave us an exam this afternoon, and we all survived.

Do you feel okay about it, Marshall? Oh, just wonderful, terrific.

He kept staring at me.

I felt that I had let him down in some way that afternoon.

He was in a lot of pain, and I didn't know how to take care of him.

They're insisting. It doesn't mean you have to. I think it does.

They want to command performance.

Who am I to deny them?

They're just protesting. He didn't want to. He just wanted to be left alone.

You were right.

I am a clown. This is my lot in life, to entertain.

Well, unaccustomed as I am, I got a new one tonight.

I wrote it this afternoon during Kingsfield's exam.

Seriously, folks, I've taken a poem written by Thomas Carew somewhere in the

early 1600s, and the only thing I've changed is the woman's name in the poem

and added some music, and I hope you like it.

If the quick spirit's in your eye, now

languish and none must die. He was singing the song for me, but it wasn't

with love.

It was with hate.

Hate for having to be up there when he didn't feel like it. Hate for himself

for not being able to refuse to sing just this once.

And so he sang.

And he poured all his anger into the song.

This is a note

he left.

I wonder if you know what it means.

Does not Prince Hamlet mean something to you?

No.

You never used that expression before?

No. I mean... Maybe he would have

liked to have died like Hamlet.

A hero.

And...

He knew that he never would.

I just don't know.

Mr.

Weatherly. Yes.

I got your note.

Oh, you must be Laura.

I'm very sorry about what happened.

Yes, thank you. Sit down, sit down.

I've been talking to some of Marshall's friends, and, uh... Fine, um, I've got

class in half an hour, so if you need more time, I'd be willing to meet with

you. Oh, no, no, no, this is all right. It's all right. I understand that you

studied with Marshall the night before the Kingsfield exam.

Yes.

Sort of.

Sort of?

Well... Studying with Marshall wasn't exactly studying. I mean...

Studying did get done, but there was always a little singing, a few jokes,

some weird stories.

Look, if you don't want to hear all this... No, no, I want to hear it all.

Well, the fact is that the night before the exam, Marshall was ready to bag it.

Bag it?

Blow the exam, not take it.

How could he do that?

How? He would just do it.

Not show up.

Kingsfield gets to some people that way.

I mean, finally you just say, screw it, I'd rather flunk out and face the wrath

of my parents than the wrath of Kingsfield.

So what happened?

Well, I sent him to Hart. He's a second-year student that aced Kingsfield

last year.

I figured if anybody could give him some pointers, Hart could.

Well... He must have said something to encourage him because at least he was

willing to study after that.

So I just grabbed him, sat him down, and we drilled over the material.

Okay, Simpson versus Davis.

We just did that. No, we did Simpson versus drivers.

How do they expect to smell the difference when the names are the same?

Their names are not the same. Simpson and Samson are not the same.

They're close enough for me.

Shit. Are we going to study or are you going to continue on with this asinine

argument? Is that a choice? I'd rather continue with the argument.

Give up.

Don't give up. Be tough with me. I need it. Great. What does it do for me?

Oh, you're very attractive when you're tough. Very sexy. Now, that turns me on.

What turns you on to contract law?

That's what I want to know, huh?

If I knew that, would I be here asking you for help?

All right, all right. Let's just get on with it, okay? Isn't it time for a

break? We just took a break a half hour ago.

That long ago?

Come on, I got some good jokes.

Marsha, we don't have time for jokes!

What is this?

I don't...

Come on, what is this?

I give up.

A test tube baby in the fetal position.

That's sick.

Come on, I got a million of them. Knock, knock. Knock it off.

Very good.

And not very funny.

Look, I'm going to pass this goddamn test, and you're not if you don't quit

telling those idiotic jokes.

Simpson versus Davis.

Slave driver.

Simpson hired Davis to paint his house, but unhappy with the color, after it was

finished, Simpson asked Davis to repaint the house.

Did Davis paint the house the color agreed upon? Yes.

So was Davis financially responsible for the repainting job? No.

Simpson agreed to pay in full for another coat of paint, but Davis removed

the first coat and charged Simpson labor costs.

And Simpson argued?

Simpson argued that he did not ask Davis to remove the new paint, therefore the

removal cost was Davis' responsibility.

And Davis argued?

God, there's more? Of course there's more! Davis argued! Uh... Davis argued,

uh... As per the original contract... As per the original contract... The paint

was... The paint was... How many syllables?

Two, uh... Uh... Removed. Therefore, it was assumed that it should be removed in

the repainting.

Despite... Despite what?

Despite the absence of a written contract for the painting job.

Right. Of course it's right!

Despite the absence of a written contract and the repainting job.

Therefore. There's a therefore?

Who won the case, Marshall?

Davis. Why?

Because it was held that he had not acted irresponsibly for removing the

second paint because there was a precedent established in the original

contract. Very good!

Yeah!

Let's take a break.

Oh, shit.

Well, we did decide to take another break. I know I needed one.

I don't want grape.

Coke doesn't work. I won't drink anything grape.

The orange doesn't work.

The machine is on the blitz again. I must have...

50 bucks into this monster already.

Shirley, you exaggerate. All right, 450, but I am tired of this bullshit.

Hey, look, don't take out your Kingsfield frustrations on the vending

machine. Why not?

I am 010 of these things, and I want them now.

What you're going to get is a broken foot, and I don't think you can sue for

that. I don't care.

Marshall, stop it.

Marshall.

Marshall!

This is vandalism. Cut it out.

God damn it!

You think everything's a big joke.

It's not funny, Marshall.

What the hell makes you think you can rip off the vending machine?

Who the hell do you think you are?

You don't think I'm amusing? How sad.

It is sad.

You take nothing seriously.

You're just a big clown and you're screwing yourself over, Marshall.

The joke's on you.

I... I sure wish I would have handled it differently.

He never came back to study with me.

And I didn't care.

Does this mean something to you?

Marshall wrote this.

Not Prince Hamlet?

I don't know.

Maybe it has something to do with revenge.

Hamlet was a revenge play.

Maybe he was angry at someone.

At everyone.

They say that killing yourself is a weird form of revenge.

Revenge?

Revenge for what?

All right.

All right.

You were here.

That last night. Now, when he sang, how was he then?

He looked terrific.

I mean, I was amazed.

Why? Well, after what happened on the exam, he was really depressed.

I went by his room around dinner time to see if he wanted to come to Ernie's and,

you know, patch things up.

He just said he wanted to be alone.

So I was really surprised when he showed up later.

Well, unaccustomed as I am...

I've got a new one tonight.

I wrote this afternoon during Kingsfield's exam.

Seriously, folks.

This is a poem written by Thomas Carew, written somewhere in the early 1600s.

And the only thing that I have changed is the woman's name in the poem.

And added some music.

And I hope you like it.

If the quick...

You know, there's the expression, in your element.

Well, Marshall was in his element.

I'd worked for hours the night before to pull answers out of him for Kingsfield's

exam. And I'd seen him struggle all year to keep up.

Not that he wasn't smart.

He had all the equipment.

He just didn't want it bad enough.

I saw what he wanted.

He just wanted to be up in front of a few people singing his heart out.

He wanted to be somewhere where he was in control.

Hell, we all want that.

This place makes you feel so damn helpless.

I'm late for class.

Go.

And thank you.

My son didn't come to see you to get the answers to the exam, did he?

No.

As a matter of fact, I got the feeling that, um,

the exam, uh, was not the most important thing on his mind.

Oh, what do you think was?

Well, I'm not sure. It's just that... Well...

First-year stress affects people in strange ways and well the strangest

thing about Marshall was How open he was to me see we

we hadn't really spoken much

What did he say to you

Please don't worry about my feelings

just tell me

I really hope I'm not imposing.

No problem.

I mean, I'm gonna talk to somebody about Kingsfield's exam. You're it.

Oh, Marshall, there's no deep, dark mystery.

I know you're probably just gonna tell me to study my ass off, but I thought

that maybe you could help. Tell me something.

Study your ass off.

Right, well...

I deserve that. No, no. Look, most law, believe it or not, most justice is based

on common sense. If you'll remember that going in, then the results of these

cases are no mystery, okay?

So really, all you're asked to do is remember the details.

I mean, when I was a kid, I used to be able to tell the difference between all

the new makes of cars. You know, the Pontiac had the little Indian on the

hood with the very narrow grille, long grille, and the Buick had the grille

that looked like buck teeth.

They all had headlights, they all had grills, they all had bumpers, but I saw

the details because I love cars.

And I love to be able to tell the difference between them.

Great.

I don't know the difference between a Toyota and a tow truck.

I'm not a very observant person.

Oh, now, if you care about something, you are.

I mean, don't you feel that way about your music?

No.

Music is personal.

The law is cold.

To you.

To me.

Listen, Banks, I don't know what the hell I'm doing here.

Even if I do great on the exam, it's not gonna be good enough.

Hey, what the hell is that supposed to mean?

You see, Kingsfield isn't just Kingsfield to me.

He's so like my father, it's scary.

Demanding, never completely satisfied, never openly pleased.

You feel like you could always do more, so you're trying, you're trying.

It's exhausting.

My father came to this school.

Law review.

My brother law review. I just can't get by in this place. I've got to march

through triumphantly.

And nobody ever asked me if I wanted to be a lawyer. It was always assumed.

You know, some kids, most kids, they read comics at breakfast time or the

backs of cereal boxes.

We listen to my father's...

recapitulation of his previous day in court.

I remember once he took us to the Macy Day Parade.

And Snoopy came by.

And the kid next to me said, Hey, look, it's Snoopy. And I said, Who's Snoopy?

You see, we never saw cartoons.

It wasn't good for our mind.

If Louie Neisser had flown in, I would have known who that was.

Shit.

When I started playing the guitar...

My father thought that I was turning into some sort of freak or something.

That's what he said.

I remember screaming at him, John Lennon could buy your firm out a hundred times

over.

But it didn't answer his charge.

Isn't it every artist's story?

Misunderstood by his conventional and conservative parents, he...

They're what?

Have you ever talked to your father about all this? I tried.

You don't talk to him.

You listen.

He takes everything that you say to him as if it were an argument in court.

He doesn't give real answers.

He gives answers that will win him the argument.

I remember.

after one of the New York blackouts, telling him about a story that I heard

on the news.

It reported looters were stealing name-brand items first from the stores.

And he turned to me and he said, that doesn't make it right, does it?

That is a three-step logical jump.

He was prosecuting me. He wasn't listening. He was prosecuting.

part of me would just love to flunk out this test just flunk out and send my old

man a message and a part of me wants to be the top of my class

to show the the bastard that i got what it takes

They say you can't make anybody seek help.

Still, I wish I'd tried harder.

I, uh... I never meant to put any pressure

on Marshall.

I didn't know I had.

I treated my other son, Kevin, exactly the same way, and...

He turned out fine. He's fine.

I'm not an insensitive dolt, you know.

I know how fathers can drive their sons too far.

I've seen these crazed fathers at their little league baseball games

pushing and pushing their sons until they break.

i'm not that kind of man i i never pushed marshall i

never pushed him i uh i

wanted i wanted what was best for him and i i

know that the only way he could have the best

was to be the best now i believe in that and i wanted him to want it and i tried

to motivate him motivate yes but not push there's a world of difference

between those two things and if marsh had

if he had just uh

he had just come up to me once

and said

Dad, I feel like you're pushing me.

Or, Dad,

I don't want to do that.

I would have talked with him and I would have understood.

Damn it.

I make my living listening to other people's

problems.

I would have listened to my son, but he never...

Talk to me.

He never talked to me.

It's all right. I'll be all right.

I'll be all right.

It's okay. Would you like to sit down here?

Yes.

I'll be okay.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to burden you with all of that. No, it's all right.

It's okay.

You'll be okay.

Uh... Oh, let's see. Where were we?

Uh... Oh, you were with him that last night at the cafe.

Yeah, I saw him enter the bar. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to see how he

was. I did just fine. Yeah, I did just fine. He did just like you did.

Thanks for everything.

Good, good to hear.

See you around, Marshal.

He spotted his friends and went over to their table. It wasn't long before the

crowd wanted to hear him sing.

We want Marshal! We want Marshal!

If

the

quick spirit's in your eyes

As he got into his music, there was a change.

It was like he'd found some kind of peace within himself.

I was relieved.

I could see that Marshall had something he could hold on to and love.

His music. It didn't matter about the law.

He'd found a way to be complete.

At least I thought so.

Such goodly fruit Destroys

Vivian I wanted to thank you for your help.

Talking with his friends was... Well, let's just say I may have

learned more about Marshall in these last two days than I did in 22 years.

There is one thing that you might still help me with.

He left this note. He wrote it.

I thought it might tell me something that no one else has been able to.

Why he did what he did when others here, under the same pressures, even family

pressures, don't.

Not Prince Hamlet.

I'm not a Shakespearean scholar, so I can't figure out what it might mean.

Well, it's not Shakespeare.

T.S. Eliot, the love song of J.

Alfred Prufrock.

No, I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be.

I'm an attendant lord, one that will do to swell a progress, start a scene or

two, advise the prince.

No doubt an easy tool, deferential, glad to be of use, politic.

cautious and meticulous, full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse. At times,

indeed, almost ridiculous.

Almost, at times, the fool.

Of all the ways to describe my son, never would I have

thought the fool.

How painful that must have been for him to see himself as a fool.

To me, he was a fine young man.

free from aged snow if those bright suns must know no

shade nor your fresh beauties ever fade

then fear not vivian to

bestow fear not vivian to

bestow what's still being gathered still

Thus either time his sickle brings,

either time his sickle brings in vain,

or else in vain.