than a coincidence about a movie, if you think about it. it also reflects the truth. the real trump prepolitics was notoriously eager to cameo in just about any movie he could get into. even with bit parts that made fun of him or even touting a building he owned when he couldn t get himself on camera. nighederman explored that theme as the downfall for some in his work, it is the theme of vanity, which some may call a sin and can lead people who have it all to take risks and make seemingly inexplicable mistakes, which is how the devil s advocate ends its story, with the devil seizing on his favorite sin. i m terribly sorry, but i can no longer represent my client. this is a story that needs to be told. it s you. you re a star.
advocates. which brings us back to the devil s advocate . law faces these questions every day. how do you defend a guilty client? how do you draw a line between past conduct and future misconduct? how do you differentiate with ethics if you can keep them, between zealous advocacy, which peach are legally entitled to, and committing new crimes for a client, which neither they are entitled to, nor is any lawyer allowed to do. that can get you indicted and then you need a lawyer of your own. komanduri notes this is important in the film and in today s democracy clashes. he says moupting a strong defense for criminals is part of a fair civilization. we see this in the defenses of trump s behavior, both legal and political. he never seems to run out of
i m honored by the fact that people recognize that and it was so well done in the movie. i remember when i first sat with pacino, he and i talked about the creation of the devil and how some people how some organizations deliberately wanted to devil to exist so it has something for them to be against and make you do what they wanted to do. ironically not ironically, so much, the history of the devil s advocate goes all the way back to 1587 when pope census v appointed somebody to argue for the devil. i don t know if anyone remembers that. if somebody was nominate to be a saint, there had to be a devil s representative there to tell all about the bad things. right, right, which goes to i m going to in to say, that goes to some of what people
pacino plays a scheming lawyer in the rules to break them. then there are the other lawyers who have stepped up as the people who tried to hold the line against that coup. some of the most vital, damning testimony about trump s attempts to overthrow the election and support the insurrection came from lawyers. government lawyers at the white house, lawyers for the vice president who tried to, they say, act as shepherds of the law in those roles. which brings us to this classic archetype. in the devil s advocate you have keanu reeves playing the everyman trial lawyer who believes it s possible to play by the rules without losing your soul. i don t like alexander cohen. i don t think he s a nice person. but this isn t a popularity contest. it s a murder trial. in the film, that lawyer s approach is tested when he goes and joins a fancy manhattan law firm headed by al pacino s john
i am a born catholic. i would not like to be excluded from heaven on a technicality. my name is giovanni di stefano. i am a lawyer. best known as the devil s