February 28, 2008 at 11:33 A.M. This essay has been posted five or six times at my MSN group because hackers like to insert small "errors" overnight. I expect that process to continue. I have discovered many alterations of essays at Critique, also at blogger. I am blocking:
http://view.atdmt.com/VON/iview/msnnkvos02900... (NJ? What a shock?)
Rainy nights in the city give neon and traffic signals a sad and weary look -- like a beautiful woman at 3:00 A.M., after a dance, who removes her shoes, lets her makeup run, takes off an earring and looks up at you, whispering ..."take me home, I'm tired."
I went to see Michael Clayton on a rainy night at one of the great movie theaters in the city, close to Lincoln Center, across the street from what was a Barnes & Noble bookstore.
The movie "palace" was a revival house in the early eighties where I saw lots of classic films on the big screen -- as they were meant to be seen -- which makes a hell of a difference to the experience of a cinematic work of art.
Don't mess with a director's work.
Michael Clayton is in the grand tradition of Hollywood film-making. I don't know writer and director "Tony Gilroy" from the proverbial "hole in the wall." I sense, however, that Gilroy is saturated with film lore and noir culture. This guy lives movies. Me too. ("Gilroy was here?")
This passion for cinema does not prevent us, I am sure, from also "experiencing" what is laughingly called "reality."
Did Mr. Clooney write and direct this movie? Is Mr. Clooney also Tony Gilroy?
George Clooney is "Michael Clayton," a law firm "fixer." The big firms and solos do a lot of cleaning up, tidying their own messes and their clients' troubles. Politicians also usually have fixers. Right, Senator Bob?
I relived some unpleasant memories as I saw the Clooney character arrive at an asshole's home in the middle of the night to forestall a catastrophe for the moron who was giving him shit.
I have done and said many of the things that Mr. Clooney's character did and said in this movie. And so have many other lawyers. Clooney is great as a hardboiled hero and has the verbal patterns of lawyers down pat.
I will never forget late night calls from loyal clients looking to get bail. "Can you get a judge on the phone?"
A free tip for anyone in a criminal jam: Don't try to outsmart your lawyer. Listen to what he or she tells you. Every lawyer has two adversaries -- the opposing attorney and his or her own client. An older lawyer once explained that "you're always walking with a guy who is looking to fuck you over."
If you opt for the joys of criminal defense work, boys and girls, then you should never lose sight of the fact that your clients are (mostly) criminals. Hence, they will look for any chance to beat you -- or their mothers come to think of it -- out of something, anything, since evil is simply what they do and become.
Here's a little gem of an anecdote told to me by a criminal who was in a good mood since I had just gotten him out of something, nothing major, but enough that it might have cost him another ten years in the can. Maybe that is pretty major:
"A tarantula comes upon a turtle at the edge of a river. The tarantula says: 'I want to get to the other side of the river. Will you carry me across?' The turtle says, 'sure.' The turtle (let's call the turtle 'Marilyn') swims across the river with the tarantula on her back. Once across, the tarantula bites the turtle on the neck, allows the poison to paralyze the victim, then takes everything the turtle has and walks away from her. 'Why are you doing this?' The turtle asks, with a final burst of strength, as the tarantula -- let's call the evil spider, 'Diana' -- says over her shoulder 'because it's my nature.' ..." ("Jennifer Velez is a 'Dyke Magnet!'")
My former client -- who has now departed this vale of tears in a hail of gun fire -- was unaware that he was revealing something profound about himself by telling me this charming myth.
Anyway, the Clooney character gets a call to clean up a situation involving a brilliant lead litigator for a big New York defense firm who flips out during a deposition. The bonkers litigator "Arthur Edens" (Eden?) is played with Oscar-worthy brilliance by the great Tom Wilkinson (Falstaff, please, Mr. Wilkinson).
Notice that "Eden" is getting out of the legal profession. "Getting out" is mentioned in the same reverential tones by criminals and lawyers. Getting out is paradise. The permanent digusted look frozen on lawyers' faces comes from dealing with society's vermin and scum, fellow attorneys, especially judges, very much included. There is also a feeling of alienation from the unpleasant aspects of the task, a feeling that "dirty and difficult stuff has to get done."
Sydney Pollack is convincing and powerful as the managing partner in a slimy civil defense firm raking in millions by getting corporate criminals off the hook. At no point do any of these lawyers give a shit about ethics. This is almost a neo-realist documentary.
The slimiest attorneys I knew were civil lawyers, including the ones working for the legal ethics enforcement agency in New Jersey, many of whom are probably on the take. These are the people who run for public office or become judges in the Garden State. They make people sick. And they should. ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "Law is Dead in New Jersey.")
Tilda Swinton is corporate lawyer "Karen Crowther" without a conscience or any concern other than "success." Anne Milgram, Esq.? Kim Guardagno, Esq.? Nydia Hernandez, Esq.? Mary Anne Kriko, Esq.? Estela De La Cruz? Does this sound familiar "ladies"? ("Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest.")
Hypocrisy and ruthlessness are instilled in most law students. Karen's life has become a performance. Her careful rehearsal of "spontaneous" remarks for an interview makes this clear. The legal profession and politics is a gathering place for bad actors who are usually unaware that their performances -- i.e., their lives -- are unconvincing, even to themselves. They usually do their evil behind the backs of victims.
Clooney's "Michael Clayton" makes exactly this discovery that he died and failed to notice the fact during the course of the film realizing what he has become only as he sees the explosion of his vehicle -- a shiny Mercedes that is his real home -- and realizes that it is a symbol for his life. I've been there.
I remember one long session of cross-examination where I destroyed a witness, a young woman, who collapsed into incoherence. My client that day was acquitted, something truly awful which the bastard probably deserved, was avoided. I walked out of court a much richer man. I also felt that something was in danger of dying in me. My German car, silver and gold Rolex, ample girth, expensive suit and tie, were a coffin. I had to escape that fate. And I have.
Little did I realize then that I was a crime victim. My vehicle exploded, except that I was in it at the time. I am now looking for the people who placed a "bomb" in that vehicle -- metaphorically speaking -- and are disappointed that I survived the blast.
At age forty-five, Michael Clayton has come to a fork in the road. The film leaves us with a mystery: Where will Michael go after this? We do not know? He does not know.
For an example of what I call great acting on screen examine the final sequences in this film with Clooney sitting, silently, in the back of a cab. Look at his eyes and you will see everything that has happened in this movie replayed, slowly and haltingly, demonstrating what is meant by psychological trauma and its effects on victims.
Someone suggested that a similar wisdom and sadness is what they see in my eyes along with hatred and disgust for the evil persons thriving in our world. I will neither deny nor confirm the aforementioned assessment of me on the advice of my attorney. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "Abuse and Exploitation of Women in New Jersey.")
An earlier Michael Clayton has died; a new self is born. After you've seen this movie, ask yourself whether any of the lawyers in this story (with the possible exception of the Clooney character) is a person you'd like to know and spend time with, or maybe get involved with in a relationship.
If you're honest, then you'll probably decide that these are the sort of people you do not wish to know. I concur.
With all exceptions granted, many N.J. lawyers at least are ignorant and despicable people -- especially the political animals who become judges and ethics officials. I hope I am not being unfair or overgeneralizing. ("Mafia Influence in New Jersey Law and Politics" and "Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics.")
The horses glimpsed by Michael Clayton that are responsible for saving his life and for his epiphany are a trinity. The Christian symbolism is hard to miss. Also, the horses are reminders of authenticity and a connection to the rural landscape in the scene. This image represents the "homecoming" described in Romanticism. The horses call Michael Clayton "home" to naturalness and peace. Michael is finally "getting out" of the legal profession.
A lawyer looks at a conversational partner and says: "... It's all bullshit." This is tragedy when spoken by a person responsible for law and justice over a lifetime. I have known distinguished attorneys and judges in New Jersey who have felt and said exactly this about law, which is really a judgment about their own lives in law.
I have known some lawyers who piss in their pants with delight when they get to destroy the lives of others. Many of New Jersey's legal flunkies enjoy removing a letter from this review after I make corrections. Think about a person who gets her kicks in such ways.
You sure you want to go to law school, kids? How you doing, Anne Milgram? How's Stuart? Is Stuart your "mentor," Anne? Hey, how's Jaynee flipping the burgers these days? If you people are counting on wearing me out with the daily computer wars and harassments, I am sure that you'll be disappointed. That also goes for the "Cubanoids." ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "More Mafia Influence in New Jersey's Courts and Politics.")
As for the reality of corporate or public crime and dishonesty in the legal profession, I suggest that you glance at the hundreds of essays in my blogs detailing evils committed by prominent members of the New Jersey bar and judiciary, usually publicly, that are supported by thousands of articles in public media and other sources.
I take today's New York Times in my hand and what do I find? An interesting news story not fully appreciated by the well-meaning journalist writing it who is probably from Wyoming, or North Bergen, New Jersey:
"Nearly a quarter of New Jersey's 615 school districts may have received tainted beef from a California slaughterhouse through a federal school lunch assistance program, [administered by state officials,] state agricultural officials said on Monday."
Winnie Hu, "New Jersey Schools Told to Discard Suspect Beef," in The New York Times, February 26, 2008, at p. B3. ("Winnie Hu" is probably Jay Romano.)
Would it shock us to discover that corporate entities receiving lucrative federal contracts to supply food for children's lunches are "tight" with politicians and judges getting them those contracts? Would it be surprising that these corporate entities increase their profits -- profits that are often in the millions -- by "flushing" their bad stuff into state school systems where it will be distributed to poor kids?
Poor children, usually, don't eat well and need whatever food they can get at school.
It doesn't shock me at all that this food was tainted. Milk for school kids -- was it in California? -- was rumored to have gone bad and to have been sweetened, allegedly, so kids wouldn't notice and drink it anyway.
"In total, New Jersey schools received at least 168,000 pounds of coarse ground beef from the slaughterhouse, the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company in Chicago, Calif., at various times between February 2006 and February 2008, according to state officials [you mean, the same state officials who might have been paid off?] Last week, the company issued the [largest] recall in United States history: 143 million pounds nationwide."
Do you think that 143 MILLION POUNDS of tainted beef is just "a little boo-boo"?
Nobody knows from nothing. It looked like a good deal in New Jersey.
When your kid is poisoned and rushed to the hospital will you know what made that child sick and will you have the resources, say, to sue the state of New Jersey and prove your case? Are you entitled to the truth from government officials even if you don't have millions of dollars to litigate against the state? I think so.
By the way, there is an excellent chance that the closest hospital to your home is one of the facilities being closed because N.J. can't pay the bills as a result of billions in waste and theft of public funds in Trenton.
N.J. is more bankrupt than the people getting discharges at bankruptcy court and with less excuse for it. I wonder whether New Jersey's legal crooks pay their student loans? Whatta-ya say, Anne? Are you and Neil M. Cohen my "superiors"? Stuart Rabner? Deadbeats? Couchpotatos? You gotta be kidding me.
New Jersey may be the only state found to have defrauded investors (lies?) in the state's pension programs and funds, then covered-up the crime by "smoke-machine accounting," more lying, or stonewalling about it, while the people's money continued to disappear from the treasury. These are the people who judge my ethics. I am judging their ethics. Mary Williams Walsh, "Pension Fraud By New Jersey Cited by S.E.C.," in The New York Times, August 19, 2010, at p. A1. (The entire N.J. legal machinery is tainted by the word "fraud.")
Who is "unethical" in New Jersey, Debbie? Stuart? A better question may be: Who is not unethical in New Jersey's legal profession? (See again: "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court.")
To get a good feel for the real-world version of "Karen Crowther," notice this quotation:
"Lynne Richmond, [Jennifer Velez?] a spokesperson for the State Department of Agriculture [an ethical N.J. attorney?] said that much of the meat had been cooked and frozen before reaching the schools and that there had been no reported problems."
What the hell then? Let's see if we can sell that meat on the agricultural markets for export, say, to Mexico. Better yet, resale and redistribution to the supermarket chains that operate in poor neighborhoods will allow us to, as it were, "make a killing."
N.J. politicians and lawyers -- through a private entity -- can buy the meat at a low price then turn it over at 300% profit. We'll create a corporation called "Bayonne Nutrition for Kids Everywhere." This way we can distance ourselves from the unpleasantness that usually accompanies the murder of poor children in the Third World. ("How to be a Politician or a Lawyer in New Jersey.")
Sure, some "marginal fatalities" will result. In other words, brown people will die. So what? "Collateral damage." There is no way for the "blow-back" from these unfortunate events to get to us since: 1) no scientific evidence can establish the proximate causal connection between our tainted meat and illness, especially where there are intervening factors and other agents involved once it leaves our hands; and 2) "exclusion clauses" limit liability to subsidiary corporate entities and shell companies, preferably with foreign registrations, doing the trading outside the U.S. anyway. 3) The difficulties surrounding legal efforts to "pierce the corporate veil" will come in handy. Realistically, it is highly unlikely (legally speaking) for any trouble to get back to us here in New Jersey if we flip this one over. Besides, we'll get a lot richer -- quickly. It's a "win-win" situation, as they say in game theory. ("Senator Bob Says -- 'Xanadu and You Are Perfect Together!'" and "Is Senator Menendez a Suspect in Mafia-Political Murder in New Jersey?" then "New Jersey Lawyers' Ethics Farce.")
Whatta ya say, fellas? Shall we have our "ethical" N.J. attorneys work out the details? Ethics? Have a fruit basket. ("Stuart Rabner and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "No More Cover-Ups and Lies, Chief Justice Rabner!")
