Fallen Angel

Jane Rizzo: [last lines of film, in voice-over, giving her closing argument during Howard's trial] And so, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we ask all adults to look at those below our eye level. To take seriously America's current adult-child relations. There are one million runaways today. Child suicide has tripled in the last ten years; thirty each day. More than half the patients in our mental institutions are under twenty-one. Many children rarely relate to their parents, to the adults in their community, or the adults on television. And into this void walks the pedophile, the child lover. Now, we don't want to suggest that every coach, every teacher, every adult our children come in contact with is a pedophile. It is possible that he or she might be, but it is not possible for our children to be psychologically seduced by these sick people, if we know and love and discipline and talk to and discover what is in the very bright minds of the youngsters in our lives. We do want to suggest to you, the jury, that we can take one step closer in spanning America's adult-child chasm by finding Howard Nichols guilty.