A Nice Vintage

It's been twenty years since the release of My Cousin Vinny.  The low-budget film got good reviews and did surprisingly well.  I think it still holds up as a smart (certainly smarter than expected) courtroom comedy.

It's interestingly structured, since it starts out as a film about two young guys (one played by Ralph Macchio, enough of a name to carry a film) traveling through the South who get arrested for a crime they didn't commit.  But then their laywer Vinny, played by Joe Pesci, comes on and takes over the film.

There's great supporting work from Fred Gwynne playing a stickler judge and Marisa Tomei as Vinny's long-suffering girlfriend.  In fact, she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.  She wasn't that well respected an actress at the time, and was playing a lower-class Italian (perhaps some thought she wasn't acting) in a small comedy, so many were surprised she took it--there's an urban legend that a drunk Jack Palance read the wrong name at the ceremony and there's been a cover-up ever since.  Actually, I expected her to win.  First, and most important, she was great, and deserved it.  Second, she was up against a bunch of highly-respected British and Australian actresses, and I believe they split the Merchant-Ivory vote between them.

The film is especially popular among lawyers because it shows courtroom procedure in some detail.  In fact, since they don't really teach you courtroom procedure in law school, this is a useful supplement.  Here's a great website created by lawyers devoted to the film, with lots of interviews of those involved.  I was most intrigued by the stories of writer/producer Dale Launer.  He likes the film, but doesn't always have fond memories of changes director Jonathan Lynn made, and also had to fight with the money people to get the film done his way.

He wanted Robert De Niro as Vinny but they didn't believe De Niro could play comedy.  They brought up Danny DeVito, whom Launer didn't believe could pull off Vinny because he wanted a tough guy.  Didn't matter.  So Launer goes through something all writers have to deal with:

They went after Danny anyway. They basically completely ignored me. Danny reads the script. He’s now interested. I’m not told how Danny is interested. Do you want to direct? Do you want to star in it? Or both? And he’s like, “I don’t know.” Danny wasn’t sure what he wanted. I had a meeting with Danny. It was a creative meeting. I sat down with Danny. Here’s how it goes. Danny says, “You know, the script, it just doesn’t, it just doesn’t go. It doesn’t go.” ”So you want more go?” And he laughed. That’s kind of an absurd statement. I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? It’s one of those things that when you’re a screenwriter and somebody comes up to you, you’re in a meeting, and they have a problem with the script, it’s very important they be precise and convince you there’s actually something wrong and they convince you something’s wrong by telling you what’s wrong. Then you can fix it. If you’re a writer, and someone says, “The script just doesn’t go,” you can’t do anything with that. All you can do is leave the meeting feeling bad about the script. Or, hopefully, finding somebody somewhere who says, “The script’s got a lot of go to it.” 

It's a good thing DeVito didn't go for it.  The film is a comedy, but you've got to take Vinny seriously.  It's doubtful he could have pulled it off--at least not as well as Pesci, who was just coming off Goodfellas. (Jim Belushi was offered the role first but turned it down.)

Another thing the film takes seriously is courtroom decorum, which is another reason I like it.  You not only have to follow the proper procedure in court, you've got to show the proper respect.  I've been in courtrooms both as a lawyer and a juror and seen some judges who wouldn't put up with any nonsense.  I once saw a lawyer make a side-comment like "okay, the jury can decide that" when he got a non-responsive answer from a hostile witness, and the judge stopped the proceedings to dress him down.  I've also saw a judge send a bailiff out to the gallery to remove someone who was reading a book.  That's why I like it when Vinny gets in trouble for wearing the wrong clothes and speaking out or turn.  I can't tell you how many movies I've seen where a defense lawyer loosens his tie and sits on his table and I'm thinking "why doesn't the judge tell him to put his tie back on and stand up straight?"