Besides, in real life (well...), how often or even does it at all happen when during a court case, someone, a member of the Jury etc, may have an important piece of information to say but let's say they develop either a headache, or a coma, or a cough like in this case that is so bad it prevents them from communicating (and who knows if maybe that person's drink in advance was spiked or something?) or something else, and the Judge and people around probably realize the person is unwell and maybe someone did do it deliberately to prevent them from speaking the truth, or maybe something else happens but it prevents the person from giving out necessary information...
Does something get done in the process to either help that person or help the court case? And couldn't someone in the jury present a pen and paper to that person and state - "OK, maybe you can't talk for now, would you like to write it down instead" or maybe even that man with a cough could do a sign gesture and show by hands that he wants to write it down.
Or was that man, besides his horrific cough (though it wasn't spelled out to be as such) under possibly Pacino's supernatural spell and was probably prevented that way from using body language period?
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Dedteenagegrl (16)
2 years ago
Not an answer to your query exactly (I don’t think?) but a slight honing in of the detail in this case…It was the defendants voodoo curse with the severed tongue and nails that disabled the prosecutor from speaking freely in the court room. Surrealism’s sake. As in- we would allow this behavior in a courtroom in this context b/c even the judge in the scene isn’t acting realistically. The voodoo spell is on that man’s “tongue” metaphorically and no one will “hear” him no matter what he does.
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TheMan18 (13178)
2 years ago
Just this, a little off topic but, on some occasions, even myself once or twice, in real life, I saw people collapse and faint for similarly non-important reasons in life, and the people around didn't just shrug the situation off with a "For God's sake" remark and just let the matter roll and leave everyone to their own devices but took often strong effort to provide help to the affected party.
And I wondered why in this film during that coughing scene no similar effort was made.
Heck, we even had some people try and provide help to others when they were COUGHING as well one way or another.
And if there was a trial, we would either get them to write down what they needed to say or give a glass of water or a medical assistance if we feel they are so bad that they either can't communicate important information or look like they're gonna develop at the very least a serious illness if no help gets provided.
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TheMan18 (13178)
2 years ago
And I bet that even if it WAS the voodoo spell, given who he was, Pacino's character at least helped to propel it, just as at one point, he was able to be in both places at once and project his own image in that court room.
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Dedteenagegrl (16)
2 years ago
Yes, I definitely agree. I totally think the voodoo practitioner AND Al Pacino’s devil were BOTH helping to propel that spell over the court room. Yup, I felt like all evil was being buoyed by Pacino’s character in some way.
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