I just rewatched the movie a couple of times over the weekend. Our hero walks in the audiences shoes, saying what we all would like to say. The dialogue in this movie continually places us in her shoes... no softballs. Thanks Scott

Some important changes in the movie from the script. The addition in the movie, when Erin mentions that the water Sanchez is about to drink has been shipped in from the effected area, really adds a button to the scene. The fact Ed is the one that says "Damn right it is" to finish the scene, instead of Erin, is also a pretty clever change as it becomes his way of showing his suppor for Erin.

George, good point and speaks to the power of what is sometimes called "audience identification," how we, as a viewer, experience the story through the Protagonist. A major part of the success of a script with a reader is to create that sense of 'identification' with the Protagonist, and one way to do that is to have the P give voice to opinions / thoughts that the reader / we might well have.

Glad you caught the bit of business about the water, Anthony. It's a great reminder of the most basic fact of movies: They are a visual medium. Erin's monologue is great. But that frozen moment with the lawyer holding that glass of water -- a physical object -- really drives home the point. The silence that surrounds the lawyer deciding - drink or not - speaks volumes. Good note, too, re the "Damn right it is" line. I wonder if that was something they switched around on the set. First Roberts try it, then Finney, give the director the option of how to end the scene in post.

Scott, do you think that that line about the water WAS in the script but is somehow missing from what you pasted? Because it says: By the end of Erin's speech, Sanchez has picked up a glass of water in front of her and is about to drink, when Erin says: SANCHEZ I think this meeting is over. It has that dangling "Erin says:" but goes strait to Sanchez' dialogue. Yes, Anthony, thanks for pointing out the difference between Erin and Ed having that final line - makes a complete (and significant) difference to the ending dynamic.

jwindh, it could be. But then not only Erin's line, but also Sanchez's reaction is missing from the script. I just compared to a draft by Susannah Grant [event though she received soled credit, Richard Lagravenese was involved rewriting the script] and that does NOT have any reference to the water bit. You can go here to see the draft from which I pulled the excerpt, dated 3/22/99. That's the thing about production drafts, unless the studio has someone do a final revised shooting script that reflects what ends up on the screen, production scripts can be a total mess of omitted pages, dialogue completely different than what ends up being [sometimes] improvised on the set. So for now, it's a bit of a mystery what happened with the glass of water bit. If anyone has a later script, please check the scene to see if the description is changed.

What a great scene, thank you, Scott! I read scene first, as soon as I got to "glass of water" I got excited, remembering that moment, then got confused, where was that line. Water is such a potent symbol in story, no way on earth the writers didn't plumb every instance of water for every drop of meaning. I'm placing my bet on unintentional oversight during edit process. Besides bringing in roughly five times the production budget, the sharp and savvy producers left us a funny line (via wikipedia) to drop on pitched-to folks yawning, "I'm sorry. Are we keeping you awake?" Finding ways to tell stories about things that are real and matter in ways that are entertaining and accessible is such a huge challenge. Very cool that EB did so well, and won so many awards. Might we all do what we can to make true-life stories like EB obsolete. And I suspect a movie with huge audience is more educational and persuasive than any one of us yelling from our pulpit. Though that can be great when the pulpit is public, like David Letterman talking about fracking on his show: www.ecorazzi.com/2012/07/23/watch-david-letterman-were-screwed-due-to-fracking/ And David Letterman has acted as producer on TV movies and series, so he might well have interest in an awesome script on the topic, just in case anyone is working on one :-)