The Movie: The Verdict stars Paul Newman as a washed up old ambulance chasing lawyer with a drinking problem who gets a chance at getting back on his feet when an old mentor of him gives him what should be an open and shut medical malpractice case that should be easy to settle out of court. But instead of taking the settlement he decides he wants to take the hospital to court to expose what they've been doing, and get some real justice for his client.

This is an extremely performance oriented film, with lots of lengthy shots without cuts, giving the actors (especially Paul Newman, who was nominated for an Oscar for this role) a chance to really shine on their own. Overall, a worthwhile movie to check out.

The DVD: This is kind of a disappointing DVD release, about on par with what I'd expect from a catalog DVD made in 1997... but my research indicates that this DVD was released in 2003. The video transfer was murky, with crushed blacks, not very bright whites, generally low resolution and excessive edge enhancement effects that probably exacerbated the problem with compression artifacts.

Audio was similarly lackluster, but not terrible or anything. Special features include a commentary track with Paul Newman and director Sidney Lumet, trailers for this and some other films, a still photo gallery, and a hokey behind the scenes featurette.