Deborah Lipstadt says to her barrister, Richard Rampton that all she has is her voice and her conscience. The two things that she cannot give up, and Rampton is asking her remain silent during the trial and to not take the stand as emotions will not provide adequate proof for them to win the case. And winning is all that matters, not berating a slanderous liar like Irving publicly. The film centers on Lipstadt denying herself of rightfully condemning Irving publicly while Irving denies the Holocaust and sues Penguin Books and Lipstadt.
One message the film is saying to the audience is that while millions of lives were tortured and murdered by the Nazi during the Holocaust, that the law is a very thin line that must be walked with precision and strategy in order to provide the necessary proof for victory. It is the evidence that Irving disputes. He states that the gas chambers were not for gassing people, but cadavers. And while Irving is disputing this in court, Lipstadt is internally disputing the strategy to remain silent in the courtroom. There is a great trust that she must put in another person, Rampton. A kind of trust that puts ones life in another's hands. It is a delicacy that must be handled with great care as the trauma of the case is volatile. But Lipstadt is convinced by her barrister to completely trust his strategy to overcome the vulgar Irving. She decides to put her full faith in Rampton and it leads to victory, and in the end we see the opportunity for a new way of connecting with the world for Lipstadt as she praises her legal team for their strategy that led to the monumental victory.
