A riveting courtroom drama from early-career Aaron Sorkin, one that's absolutely stuffed with taut suspense, gripping dialog and A-list actors delivering lifetime performances. Not bad for a first-time screenwriter. It's an intelligent film that smoothly toes the line between spelling things out and relying on legalese to skim the details. The audience gets a thorough understanding of the issue, the limits of the law and the goal of both teams, but that information is slowly rationed and rarely over-explained.

We see vivid flaws in our heroes and earnest values in our villains. Each important player gets their chance to shine, and boy, do they all smack the ball out of the park. None moreso than Jack Nicholson, whose "You can't handle the truth" outburst has become synonymous with the picture. That speech still holds incredible power today, not just for the substance of the words (which remain pertinent, nearly thirty years later) but for the raw, unguarded emotion of Nicholson's delivery. It's easy to overlook the fact that he's scarcely on-screen for fifteen minutes, that climactic delivery resonates for so long. Tom Cruise and Demi Moore also bring their very best - I don't think Jack's moment burns quite so bright without Cruise there to egg him on - and a whole mess of supporting players are equally motivated, but that's just water under the bridge. It's all about getting to that speech, about earning that speech, and then basking in the afterglow of what it meant.

Daring, unflinching, passionate moviemaking that keeps us guessing to the very last breath. It's still every bit as good as I remembered.