What was the position that Sir Robert Morton gave up?
Does anybody know what It was, i would like to know and it bugs me in the film that it does not say.
Gertrude was the best Duckie a friend could ask for!
I'm not sure either, but does it really matter? The point is that he gave up this huge promotion to help out on this small case. It shows what kind of person he is.
shareHe would have been made Chancellor, or perhaps Chief Justice. Not sure which, but probably the latter......both have notable 'robes of office'. The point is that the offer to elevate him to the position would have come from the Government, whereas Sir Robert is in the Opposition, so it was a rare and exceptional testament to the high regard in which he was held.
shareAnaR, thank you. I too was curious about the position he would have given up. Would someone please elaborate on what those positions are? I am guessing that Chief Justice might equate to something like being made a Federal Supreme Court Judge in the US. Is that correct?
I still need to go back and watch this film with the director/actor commentary. However, it struck me in my previous viewing (I had seen this once on TV) and only acquired the DVD a couple days ago) that a pivotal point for Sir Robert Morton may be when he learns that Miss Winslow may, and then does, put aside her engagement, in order to seek "right". I think he is really moved by her action and it not only spurs him on to want to win the case for the "right" but also for her. I think her action also reminds him of a desire to pursue true fairness, something he has lost sight of over time in his simple pursuit of winning "at all costs". In addition to the fact that he is physically attracted to her, I think he is beguiled by her sense of fairness, even when supporting "lost causes".
THe position would not be equal to that of a Supreme Court judge since there are a number of them and only one Lord Chief Justice. The position would also promote him from being a knight - a "Sir" - to a lord.
I want something's flesh!
What I would like to know is WHEN he was offered this position. Before he knew that Catherine would sacrifice her fiancé for the case or afterwards?
I wonder if Catherine was so wrong about his character in the beginning. There are hints that she wasn't. This highly intelligent young woman seems to look through him better than anyone else, she knows about his tricks.
When she reproaches him with the suicide of the man she considered innocent, he says: "As it happened, however, he was guilty." This is legal positivism and it sounds quite cynical. It means that the man was guilty because he was found guilty by a judge, no matter if actually he was innocent or not. Sir Robert sounds completely different in the last scene of the film:
"SIR ROBERT: I wept today because right had been done.
CATHERINE: Not justice?
SIR ROBERT:No, not justice. Right. Easy to do justice, very hard to do right."
I agree with you, WIPhD, and I wonder if his attitude changes for her. I think the pivotal point could be the scene when they meet on the corridor in the House of Commons. A wonderful scene. He, the great triumphator of this moment who has changed everything with his brilliant speech, humbly asks her like a schoolboy: "Well, Miss Winslow, what are my instructions?" She answers: "Do you need my instructions, Sir Robert? Aren't they already on the Petition? Doesn't it say: Let Right Be Done?"
He knows what this means: She sacrifices her engagement and she wouldn't do that if she didn't trust him that he can (and will) win the case.
He is smitten when he first sees her in his office but I think it's probably in this moment when he falls in love with her. Not only for the personal sacrifice she is prepared to make to "let right be done", also for her trust in him that he will see that it is. He may have been calculating in the beginning, but from this moment on the only thing that matters is not to disappoint her.
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I was very surprised, pleasantly surprised, really, to see Gemma Jones in this film. She plays Grace Winslow, mother to the boy accused of thievery. I haven't seen her in anything since she did "The Dutchess of Duke Street" and it's sequel, "The Dutchess of Duke Street, Part Two."
She is a wonderful actress and I wish her films were shown in the US more often. Perhaps they are, I just haven't run across them.
"I cook with wine...sometimes I even add it to the food!"
Gemma Jones plays the mother in Sense and Sensibility and the mother in the Bridget Jones's Diary films. She's great in all three of those, if you haven't seen them yet. Plus, I think she's in a Harry Potter film.
shareI didn't even know there was a "Duchess, Part II", but she was great in that series. What a difference in her accent between that and Winslow, eh? I haven't seen her in anything since either. Those old Masterpiece Theatre shows were just brimming with great actors.
shareIt depends on WHEN he was made the offer. If they offered him the position of "Lord Chief Justice" before he accepted the "Winslow case", the fact that he refuses such an offer in order to prove the innocence of a child would indeed show that he is a heroic idealist and that Catherine entirely misjudges him. [Or that he completely loses his senses when he first sees her. ;-) ]
But if the government offers him this position in order to silence him and to make him give up the case, this could explain why he showed an interest in the "Winslow Case" at all. He knew that this case would cause a lot of media interest. So in the beginning he could have planned to abuse the Winslow case to pressure the government with the intention to advance his own interests.
I suppose that later his attitude changes because he has fallen in love with Catherine and because she makes a great personal sacrifice to "let right be done" which means that in spite of all her doubts and objections against him she finally trusts him that he will see that it is. When he asks for her "instructions" and she answers "Let right be done", he says: "Then we must endeavour to see that it is." From this moment on he seems to share her ideal.
This is just my interpretation of what might have happened. It's such a fascinating film because there are so many things left open to the imagination of the audience. The film leaves us with more questions than answers. After having seen it, everyone has to "write" his own story of what has or what might have happened.
Excellent points pmvk!!!
I think you are right that he may have been interested in the case originally with the intent of media interest and to bluff the government into giving him his lordship. I don't feel that we are supposed to believe he is stinting though - when he says, 'I accept the brief', Catherine may doubt him, but there is no suggestion he will abandon them halfway through. He leaves it to the family to decide when to stop - although he might not have expected them to stick with the case for the years it takes them to get the right verdict, leaving him free to take up the robes of the office. Although he pretends not to have heard Catherine's jibes about 'we've bought him, like a wh..', they do seem to hurt him, in that he does become more defensive about his own sense of morality and probably does reassess his own values in some way. I agree, given that he realises C has given up her husband, he may feel a greater sense of pressure to get it right - it makes him appear, and probably feel, rather valiant.
True.
But that big smile on his face when she gave her decision was also because he knew she gave up her engagement leaving her free for a new suitor which he has most likely hoped would be himself.
But that big smile on his face when she gave her decision was also because he knew she gave up her engagement leaving her free for a new suitor which he has most likely hoped would be himself.
Exactly! :-)