Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch The Devil's Advocate
1997 · Taylor Hackford · The Devil's Advocate on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch how differently Florida and Manhattan are lit. (light)
Andrzej Bartkowiak shoots the Florida courtrooms flat, hot, and overexposed with sweating faces. New York arrives in mahogany, brass, and firelight, as though the offices of power were lit by hearth.
Payoff: The move from one world to the other is stated in light well before anyone describes what the job is.
Count how often Reeves shares the frame with his reflection. (camera)
Glass partitions, elevator interiors, bathroom mirrors, penthouse windows. Bartkowiak keeps a second Kevin in the shot even in scenes where the character is entirely alone.
Payoff: The film makes its argument about a divided man optically, long before anybody says it out loud.
Look at the shape of the law firm's lobby. (setting)
Bruno Rubeo builds Milton, Chadwick and Waters as a cathedral, with a vaulted entry and long vertical circulation. Milton's penthouse inverts it into black glass and one enormous carved relief.
Payoff: The office is dressed as a church, which tells you what this institution expects people to worship.
Listen for whispering inside the traffic noise. (sound)
James Newton Howard writes Latin chant, low brass, and reversed vocal textures. The sound design blends city noise, ventilation, and crowds so that voices surface out of them with no clean edge.
Payoff: You cannot tell whether Kevin is hearing something or just hearing New York, which is exactly the intended position.
Watch how quietly Pacino plays Milton at first. (performance)
He listens, jokes, moves loosely, and rations the volume. The performance is built on restraint, so any raised voice carries weight.
Payoff: The performance is built by withholding, so volume works as release rather than as a style.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch the reflections around Reeves. The film keeps a second version of him in the frame from the start.