A legal drama, or a courtroom drama, is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film's narrative. Legal dramas have also followed the lives of the fictional attorneys, defendants, plaintiffs, or other persons related to the practice of law present in television show or film. Legal drama is distinct from police crime drama or detective fiction, which typically focus on police officers or detectives investigating and solving crimes. The focal point of legal dramas, more often, are events occurring within a courtroom, but may include any phases of legal procedure, such as jury deliberations or work done at law firms. Some legal dramas fictionalize real cases that have been litigated, such as the play-turned-movie, Inherit the Wind, which fictionalized the Scopes Monkey Trial. As a genre, the term "legal drama" is typically applied to television shows and films, whereas legal thrillers typically refer to novels and plays.
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor and filmmaker. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the biopic Milk (2008).
The Rainmaker is a 1997 American legal drama film based on John Grisham's 1995 novel of the same name, and written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Roy Scheider, Mickey Rourke, Virginia Madsen, Mary Kay Place and Teresa Wright in her final film role.
Matthew Ryan Phillippe is an American actor. After appearing as Billy Douglas on the soap opera One Life to Live, he came to fame in the late 1990s with starring roles in a string of films, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, and 54. In the 2000s, he appeared in several films, including Gosford Park (2001), Crash (2004), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Breach (2007), Stop-Loss (2008), MacGruber (2010), and The Lincoln Lawyer (2011). In 2010, Phillippe starred as Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich in The Bang-Bang Club. He starred in the lead role of Bob Lee Swagger in the USA Network thriller drama Shooter.
Julianna Luisa Margulies is an American actress and producer. After several small television roles, Margulies achieved wide recognition for her role as Carol Hathaway on NBC's long-running medical drama ER, for which she won an Emmy Award. She also voiced Neera in Dinosaur (2000) and appeared in the miniseries The Mists of Avalon (2001).
Crime films, in the broadest sense, are a cinematic genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but also include comedy, and, in turn, is divided into many sub-genres, such as mystery, suspense or noir.
Susan Blakely is an American actress and model. She is best known for her leading role in the 1976 ABC miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man, for which she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. Blakely also has appeared in films including The Towering Inferno (1974), Report to the Commissioner (1975), Capone (1975), The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979), and Over the Top (1987).
Frances Louise Fisher is an English-born American actress.
Connie Sellecca is an American actress, producer, and former model, best known for her roles on the television series Flying High, The Greatest American Hero and Hotel, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 1987.
Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He made his debut in the comedy film Women Talking Dirty (1999). He is known for his starring roles in the films Finding Neverland (2004), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), August Rush (2008), and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008). He won two consecutive Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Young Performer.
Judge is an official who presides over a court.
Jeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor, producer, and writer. Sisto had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith in HBO's Six Feet Under and as NYPD Detective Cyrus Lupo in NBC's Law & Order. He also starred in the comedy Clueless (1995), the biblical television film Jesus (1999), the drama Thirteen (2003), and the horror film Wrong Turn (2003). In 2004, he portrayed bigoted baseball player Shane Mungitt in Take Me Out, for which he was nominated for a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Featured Performance in a Play. In 2006, Sisto starred in Festen on Broadway.
Park Shin-yang is a South Korean actor.
Trial films is a film genre, also commonly referred to as courtroom drama.
A Few Good Men is a 1992 American legal drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore, with Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, Wolfgang Bodison, James Marshall, J. T. Walsh, and Kiefer Sutherland in supporting roles. It was adapted for the screen by Aaron Sorkin from his play of the same name but includes contributions by William Goldman. The film revolves around the court-martial of two U.S. Marines charged with the murder of a fellow Marine and the tribulations of their lawyers as they prepare a case to defend their clients.
In film and television, drama is a genre of narrative fiction intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular subgenre, such as "police crime drama", "political drama", "legal drama", "historical period drama", "domestic drama", or "comedy-drama". These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject-matter, or else they qualify the otherwise serious tone of a drama with elements that encourage a broader range of moods.
Lilies of the Field is a 1930 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Alexander Korda, and starring Corinne Griffith, Ralph Forbes, and John Loder. It was a remake of the silent 1924 film Lilies of the Field, in which Griffith had played the same role. Both films were based on a 1921 play of the same name by William J. Hurlbut. Lilies of the Field was Griffith's first all-dialogue film. The film is not related in any way to the 1963 film of the same name, which starred Sidney Poitier.
A Tale of Two Cities is a 1917 American silent historical drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring William Farnum, Jewel Carmen, and Charles Clary. The film is based on Charles Dickens' novel of the same name, which has been filmed a number of times.
Aftermath is a 2017 American drama thriller film directed by Elliott Lester and written by Javier Gullón. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scoot McNairy, Maggie Grace, and Martin Donovan. The film was released on April 7, 2017 by Lionsgate Premiere. The film is based on events and persons surrounding the 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision of a passenger airliner with a cargo jet, although the names, places, nationalities and incidents were changed. It was released on video on demand.
