embedded question: An embedded question works as the object of the verb.
when they convict you or how they convict you...The Thin Blue Line · 1988 — 第 16 / 20 章 · 3'49" · B2
Randall Adams on Death Row, Explained：hard-nosed
A man on death row describes a system that only talks about killing him. "All they want to do is talk about how they're going to kill you," he says, and the days blur into a bad dream. Later, a defense push for a new trial stalls, and the witness who testified walks away.
あらすじ
Randall Adams describes life under a death sentence: a numbing wait, endless talk of the electric chair, and a district attorney who discusses only how he will be executed. His lawyers file a motion for a new trial. The Millers' claim to reward money is ruled impeaching testimony and kept out. At the hearing, Adams says, the prosecutor cut him off and mocked his 'big fat nose.'
注目の表現
give a damnpop outmotion for a new trialimpeaching testimony
00:00 / 03:49Space 再生 · ← → セリフ移動 · R リピート
いま
このシーンの表現
hard-nosed
tough and uncompromising
A witness recalls how the district attorney cut her off and bullied her on the stand.
Our new manager is hard-nosed about being on time.
このシーンの他の表現
- give a damn
not care at all
- pop out
bulge or burst out suddenly
- motion for a new trial
a formal request for a retrial
- impeaching testimony
evidence attacking a witness's credibility
- big fat nose
a jab about sticking your nose in
このシーンのメモ一覧
58 行のセリフに 22 件のメモ
Going to usually contracts to gonna here.
he's talking about how he's going to kill you.care at all — Blunt and casual; keep it out of polite settings.
He don't give a damn if you're innocent.become numb
You get numb. You get....come awake
It's like a bad dream. You want to wake up, but you can't do it.Link man is into one sound, like ma-niz.
about what happens when a man is electrocuted.lose blood from
He bleeds out of every orifice he's got.discuss something
All they want to do is talk about how they're going to kill you.Want to often reduces to wanna in fast speech.
All they want to do is talk about how they're going to kill you.had already left
After I testified, I was gone.learn the truth about
otherwise I might have tried to find out.get something stated openly
But we could not bring out the fact...appositive clause: The fact is spelled out later by a that-clause.
But we could not bring out the fact...fogged with condensation
but their car was too steamed up.passive with that-clause: A passive frame meaning the court ruled that something was so.
because it was held that it was impeaching testimony...hit a barrier
We kept running into blank walls.give evidence
She offered her testimony...stop at nothing
The Millers are the kind of people that would do anything...tough and unyielding — Used for tough negotiators or bosses; praise or complaint.
When we went to court that day, the District Attorney was hard-nosed.interrupt someone
He'd ask me questions, but then he'd cut me off real short.very abruptly — Spoken intensifier; rare in writing.
He'd ask me questions, but then he'd cut me off real short.begin to laugh
he started laughing, like: "Didn't do you any good to get up here."「Randall Adams on Death Row」を読み解く
What's really going on
The chapter is about how a death sentence grinds a person down and how the machinery around it stays indifferent. The prisoner describes the numbness — "It's like a bad dream. You want to wake up, but you can't do it" — and the horror stories about electrocution that he hears 'fifteen times, 20 times a day.' What the prosecution wants is simple: "All they want to do is talk about how they're going to kill you." The film then follows the appeals. A motion for a new trial is filed, but the Millers' motive — that they expected reward money and 'didn't care whether they saw anything or not' — is ruled impeaching testimony, too late. At the hearing, the D.A. is 'hard-nosed,' cuts the witness off, and jokes about his nose. "It really didn't," someone concludes. "Didn't help the guy at all."
Theme
JusticeA death-row prisoner hears only talk of execution, and the appeals that might correct the case keep hitting blank walls.
CorruptionThe reward-seeking Millers and a hard-nosed D.A. show how the courtroom's incentives, not the truth, shaped the case.
このチャプターで学べること
- Indifference can be summed up in one blunt phrase.
- Death-row talk turns execution into routine detail.
- A retrial can be blocked by timing, not facts.
- The lawyers' defeat is told in flat, tired sentences.
発音のポイント
- going to — Going to usually contracts to gonna here.
- man is — Link man is into one sound, like ma-niz.
- want to — Want to often reduces to wanna in fast speech.
It's like a bad dream. You want to wake up, but you can't do it.The prisoner's image for death row: a nightmare you can't escape, no matter how much you want it to end.
He don't give a damn if you're innocent.In the prisoner's telling, the prosecutor doesn't care about guilt or innocence — the outcome he's fixed on is the execution.
All they want to do is talk about how they're going to kill you.The only subject, as he describes it, is his death; the people around the case discuss the method, not the question of whether he did it.
I didn't have any idea what happened to him.The witness who testified against Adams says he simply walked away and never learned what happened to him — or didn't want to.
When we went to court that day, the District Attorney was hard-nosed.At the hearing on the new-trial motion, the prosecutor is described as unbending, cutting the speaker off and refusing to let him answer.
That's the only thing that they cared about and talked about.The prisoner repeats that death is the single subject anyone around his case is interested in; nothing else matters to them.
このシーンについての質問
Why does the witness say he never found out what happened?
After testifying he says he 'was gone' and never concerned himself with it, then admits maybe he didn't want to know. It reads as guilt or deliberate avoidance about the man he helped convict.
Why was the Millers' testimony kept out?
The defense wanted to show they expected reward money and couldn't see through a steamed-up car, but the court ruled it impeaching testimony offered too late, so the jury never heard it.
What does 'impeaching testimony' mean?
It's evidence meant to attack a witness's credibility rather than prove the facts. The court called the Millers' statements impeaching testimony and said it came too late to be used.
Why does the prosecutor mock his nose?
The speaker says the D.A. told him that if he had 'kept my big fat nose out of their business,' the Millers would be better off — a taunt that the case was none of his concern.
Did the new-trial motion succeed?
No. The hearing goes nowhere: the key evidence is excluded, the D.A. is hard-nosed, and the speaker ends by agreeing it did no good — 'Didn't help the guy at all.'
The Thin Blue Line · 全 20 章
すべて見る →
次のチャプター · 第 17 章set the wheels of justice in motionThe Case the Supreme Court Reversed
第 1 章meant to beRandall Meets David at the Gas Station
第 2 章give a damnDetective Forces Adams to Sign
第 3 章graveyard shiftOfficer Wood Shot at Traffic Stop
第 4 章swear up and downDavid Harris Brags About the Killing
第 5 章come to find outRecounting the Night of the Shooting
第 6 章acting strangeRandall Recounts the Motel Night
第 7 章went blankAdams's Statement Labeled a Confession
第 8 章under the impressionThe Car With No Bullet Marks
第 9 章scot-freeDavid Harris Gets Off Scot-Free
第 10 章cover forWhy the Story Was Two Hours Late
第 11 章refreshed her memoryMrs. Miller Changes Her Story
第 12 章hinge onA Couple Witnesses the Shooting
第 13 章wheels start rollingWitnesses Testify for Money
第 14 章without remorseDr. Grigson's Prison Test
第 15 章put food on the tableDr. Death Takes the Stand
再生中 · 第 16 章hard-nosedRandall Adams on Death Row
第 17 章set the wheels of justice in motionThe Case the Supreme Court Reversed
第 18 章came over meDavid Harris's Same M.O.
第 19 章tore my head offThe Scales Are Not Balanced
第 20 章point-blank rangeDavid Harris Confesses in the Bayou第 16 / 20 章 · 残り約 16 分