The Two Perspectives

In keeping with my favourite movie trilogy theme (hint: rings & dwarves & elves), I’m going to be referring to The Two Towers, a movie I believe doesn’t get much credit. As a full disclosure I rewrote this blog approximately 3 times before deciding on which scene I wanted to use. By the end of today, I realized that the best scene was when Sam and Frodo are at one of the lowest points of their journey. Frodo, disheartened and fretful, begins to doubt himself and whether he’ll be able to complete his journey to Mordor. The fear that takes hold of Frodo in this moment is a feeling that all of us know too well. Can I do this? What if I can’t? All of these thoughts were embodied in his one line:

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.

While we as the viewer are fully aware that he is able to complete his journey, Frodo is not. Sometimes, we’re not able to see our own capabilities and instead are blinded by our shortcomings. Criminal law is tough in a lot of ways, it’s a balancing act with multiple moving parts. It’s especially tough when you hope for a different outcome for your client than the one that you receive. However, if the scene ended there, then it would be a very poor movie and wouldn’t have the fanbase following that it does. No, the best part of the movie comes from the dialogue that follows afterwards:

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

The line, though simple, provides an immense amount of hope to everyone. In application to criminal law, we’re fighting for good, which in this context is for the good of our client, and we will keep fighting despite what happens. So long as we keep sight of this, we will be able to continue with the journey ahead (and who knows what we’ll learn). But there is one thing for sure, we will see that we are capable of a lot more than we think.