Themes
Legal dramas typically portray moral dilemmas that occur with the practice of the law or participating in the justice system, many of which mirrors dilemmas in real life. The American Bar Association Journal has interpreted the public's enjoyment of legal dramas occur because "stories about the legal system are laced with human vulnerability." [2] Indeed, even though "there are no car chases [and]... [g]uns are never drawn", legal dramas retain strong followings because of their presentation of moral intrigue in a setting that actually reflects what occurs in the world.
Legal dramas may present stories of the miscarriages of justice, such as persons wrongly convicted of a crime they did not commit. At times, stories may involve the moral implications of police misconduct, such as placing or tampering with evidence, such as in the 1993 film In the Name of the Father . More often, legal dramas focus on the attorneys' point of view when faced with these difficulties. For instance, in The Practice , a television legal drama series revolving around a firm of criminal defense attorneys, a common theme presented is the difficulty of defending clients known or believed to be guilty. [3]
Finally, many legal dramas present themes that reflect politicized issues. In the 1960 film, Inherit the Wind , the politicized issue portrayed was the legality of a Tennessee statute that made it unlawful to teach the theory of evolution in a public school. As laws and public policy opinions change, so do the themes presented in legal dramas. The 1992 film A Few Good Men explored the psychology of superior orders, e.g. excusing criminal actions because they were only committed from 'following orders'. The film Philadelphia (1993) addressed homophobia, and the discrimination and public fear of HIV/AIDs carriers. In 1996, The People vs. Larry Flynt portrays the early years of Hustler Magazine and issues of obscenity and freedom of speech. You Don't Know Jack (2010) is a fictional biographic film about Dr. Jack Kevorkian and the legal actions he faced as a result of providing euthanasia services to terminal patients. Racial injustice remains a common theme from as far back as To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962 to the 2017 film Marshall .
History
Legal drama in American film has an extensive history stemming from as early as the 1908 film, Falsely Accused! [4] The 1950s and 1960s presented a number of legal drama films including, 12 Angry Men (1957), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), I Want to Live! (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Young Philadelphians (1959), Compulsion (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Arguably, 12 Angry Men and To Kill a Mockingbird stand as the cornerstones of early legal dramas, garnering extensive acclaim, recognition, and awards. Despite underwhelming box office performance, 12 Angry Men was nominated in three different categories at the 30th Academy Awards and appears on half of the AFI 100 Years... series lists of films, which celebrate the greatest films in American cinema. Likewise, To Kill a Mockingbird received even more acclaim, garnering three academy awards out of eight total nominations at the 35th Academy Awards, appears on seven of the AFI's ten lists celebrating the greatest films, including ranking as the best courtroom drama, and selected for preservation United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Other countries also premiered legal dramas or courtrooms dramas in the early 1900s, such as the French silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). [5]
Other legal drama films have not focused on even the practice of law, such as Paper Chase, a film presenting the difficulty and anxiety of entering law school. [6]
Legal thrillers
Legal thriller films provide introspection into the life of a lawyer and legal professionals. Within films, the central character is often engaged in professional work and experiences an obstacle that they have to overcome such as a client's case. [7] The character confronts problems with their personal life and work, as it is under threat by the complex case, creating a series of action and courtroom battles. [8]
The problems that characters faced are evident within reviews of films such as The Judge , where family dynamics are strained after a lawyer returns home for his mother's funeral. [9] Reviews from the New York Times comment on the film's transformation into a crime story, characteristic of the legal thriller. The film itself unfolds the legal thriller's ideal courtroom drama style and the film is taken place in what is deemed as a "nostalgia-tinged town". [10] Further films such as The Lincoln Lawyer have also met similar reviews from Roger Ebert, commenting on the love of three elements in the film: courtroom scene, old cars and tangled criminals. [11] The 2019 film, Dark Waters raises an ethical dilemma of lawyers often choosing sides within films, as the defence lawyer has to switch sides to defend a poisoned community. He risks his own future, community and life through dealing with the case, characteristic of the legal thriller. [12]
By combining the elements of film and law together, the relationship becomes central to the audience. It is through film techniques, images, symbols and social functions that legal thriller films can make an impact on the audience. [13] The film Mangrove shows the inequalities and injustices prevalent through Britain's Caribbean history. Steve McQueen was the first black director of an Academy winning best picture with 12 Years a Slave . [14] The five-part anthology, featuring Mangrove as the first visualises courtroom drama and heroism, characterising the legal thriller genre. [15] McQueen made his film resemble a landmark of the civil rights trial against black activists. [16] The film uses the characteristics of the legal thriller genre through a powerhouse courtroom drama and focusing on racial justice. [17] The power divide between two opposing sides is intended to shape transformative victory, as audiences can learn about diversity. [18]
A Fall from Grace also features the challenge often taken by lawyers in legal thriller films. [19] For example, a young public defender has to handle the challenging case of a woman charged with murdering her husband. The film features elements of a conventional courtroom drama such as the heroic lawyer, shady characters and a law firm setting. Within the film, there are plot twists, characteristic of the legal thriller genre. [20] Furthermore, the film Law has ample court scenes and features a character taking on the fight for justice. [21] The film defies the stereotypical expectations of women through featuring the main character as a woman who wants to speak openly about gang rape victimisation. [22]
The recognition of injustice is another emerging aspect of legal thriller films. [23] Marshall is another example of a legal thriller film, where the lawyer is feature as the main character, travelling the country on behalf of the NAACP to defend black men who are accused of crimes. [24] The film features a courtroom scene where violence occurs in retrieving the confession of a client and the difficulty to obtain the truth. Flashbacks are used as a key film technique to craft outrage as revealed by a film review. [25] The courtroom scenes are considered suspenseful and the setting of the 1940s shows a stage where people threw a facade with fake costumes and bright lights. Racism is exposed as a key social justice issue explored where the truth demands a voice. [26]
The following table summarises films that are categorised in the legal thriller genre:
Inaccurate portrayal of legal practice
It is widely believed by most practicing lawyers that legal dramas result in the general public having misconceptions about the legal process. Many of these misconceptions result from the desire to create an interesting story. For example, because conflict between parties make for an interesting story, legal dramas emphasize the trial and ignore the fact that the vast majority of civil and criminal cases in the United States are settled out of court. [32] Trials in legal dramas are often shown to be more emphatic by disregarding actual rules in trials that prevent prejudicing defendants from juries.
Besides the actual practice of law, legal dramas may also misrepresent the character of lawyers in general. The lawyers in question fall under different variations, the character representations include the zealous heroic lawyers fighting to save their client's case, or putting criminals in jail, another is the sleazy distrustful attorney performing morally questionable acts to win the case, another may be the conflicted lawyer who is forced into a moral dilemma of having to defend a guilty client. These representations are not reflective of how lawyers act in real life as their job is to remain neutral to the law and ensure every person gets a fair and equal trial, regardless of their guilt.
Speaking at a screening of 12 Angry Men during the 2010 Fordham University Law School Film festival, US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated that seeing 12 Angry Men while she was in college influenced her decision to pursue a career in law. She was particularly inspired by immigrant Juror 11's monologue on his reverence for the American justice system. She also told the audience of law students that, as a lower-court judge, she would sometimes instruct juries to not follow the film's example, because most of the jurors' conclusions are based on speculation, not fact. [33] Sotomayor noted that events from the film such as entering a similar knife into the proceeding; performing outside research into the case matter in the first place; and ultimately the jury as a whole making broad, wide-ranging assumptions far beyond the scope of reasonable doubt would not be allowed in a real-life jury situation, and would in fact have yielded a mistrial [34] (assuming, of course, that applicable law permitted the content of jury deliberations to be revealed).
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has several subgenres, including detective fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.
12 Angry Men is a 1957 American legal drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, adapted from a 1954 teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose. The film tells the story of a jury of 12 men as they deliberate the conviction or acquittal of a teenager charged with murder on the basis of reasonable doubt; disagreement and conflict among them force the jurors to question their morals and values. It stars Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E. G. Marshall, and Jack Warden.
Witness for the Prosecution is a 1957 American legal mystery thriller film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. The film, which has elements of bleak black comedy and film noir, is a courtroom drama set in the Old Bailey in London and is based on the 1953 play of the same name by Agatha Christie. The first film adaptation of Christie's story, Witness for the Prosecution was adapted for the screen by Larry Marcus, Harry Kurnitz and Wilder. The film was acclaimed by critics and received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It also received five Golden Globes nominations including a win for Elsa Lanchester as Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Additionally, the film was selected as the sixth-best courtroom drama ever by the American Film Institute for their AFI's 10 Top 10 list.
Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 American courtroom drama film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes was based on the 1958 novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name of Robert Traver. Voelker based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney.
Judgment at Nuremberg is a 1961 American epic courtroom film directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, and written by Abby Mann. It features Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift. Set in Nuremberg, West Germany, the film depicts a fictionalized version of the Judges' Trial of 1947, one of the twelve Nuremberg Military Tribunals conducted under the auspices of the U.S. military in the aftermath of World War II.
The Verdict is a 1982 American legal drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet, adapted from Barry Reed's 1980 novel of the same name. It stars Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason, Milo O'Shea, and Lindsay Crouse. A down-on-his-luck alcoholic lawyer accepts a medical malpractice case to improve his own situation, but discovers along the way that he is doing the right thing.
My Cousin Vinny is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Jonathan Lynn, written by Dale Launer, and produced by Launer and Paul Schiff. It stars Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Marisa Tomei, Mitchell Whitfield, Lane Smith, Bruce McGill, and the final film appearance of Fred Gwynne. The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox and released on March 13, 1992.
Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr. was an American attorney best known for his leading role in the defense and criminal acquittal of O. J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. He often defended his client with rhymes such as "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!" during the Simpson trial.
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film 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.
Evil Angels is a 1988 Australian drama film directed by Fred Schepisi. The screenplay by Schepisi and Robert Caswell is based on John Bryson's 1985 book of the same name. It chronicles the case of Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week-old baby girl who disappeared from a campground near Uluru in August 1980, and the struggle of her parents, Michael Chamberlain and Lindy Chamberlain, to prove their innocence to a public convinced that they were complicit in her death. Meryl Streep and Sam Neill star as the Chamberlains.
The legal thriller genre is a type of crime fiction genre that focuses on the proceedings of the investigation, with particular reference to the impacts on courtroom proceedings and the lives of characters.
The CSI effect describes the various ways in which the exaggerated portrayal of forensic science on crime television shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation influences public perception. The term was first reported in a 2004 USA Today article describing the effect being made on trial jurors by television programs featuring forensic science.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American coming-of-age legal drama crime film directed by Robert Mulligan. The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name. The film stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout. It marked the film debut of Robert Duvall, William Windom and Alice Ghostley.
Justice is an American legal drama produced by Jerry Bruckheimer that aired on Fox in the US and CTV in Canada. The series also aired on Warner Channel in Latin America, in Brazil also was aired on Rede Globo, Nine Network in Australia, and on TV2 in New Zealand.
Atticus Finch is a fictional character and the protagonist of Harper Lee's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel of 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird. A preliminary version of the character also appears in the novel Go Set a Watchman, written in the mid-1950s but not published until 2015. Atticus is a lawyer and resident of the fictional Maycomb County, Alabama, and the father of Jeremy "Jem" Finch and Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. He represents the African-American man Tom Robinson in his trial where he is charged with rape of Mayella Ewell. Lee based the character on her own father, Amasa Coleman Lee, an Alabama lawyer, who, like Atticus, represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial. Book magazine's list of The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 names Finch as the seventh best fictional character of 20th-century literature. In 2003, the American Film Institute voted Atticus Finch, as portrayed in an Academy Award-winning performance by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation, as the greatest hero of all American cinema. In the 2018 Broadway stage play adapted by Aaron Sorkin, Finch has been portrayed by various actors including Jeff Daniels, Ed Harris, Greg Kinnear, Rhys Ifans, and Richard Thomas.
Scientific jury selection, often abbreviated SJS, is the use of social science techniques and expertise to choose favorable juries during a criminal or civil trial. Scientific jury selection is used during the jury selection phase of the trial, during which lawyers have the opportunity to question jurors. It almost always entails an expert's assistance in the attorney's use of peremptory challenges—the right to reject a certain number of potential jurors without stating a reason—during jury selection. The practice is currently unique to the American legal system.
Trial films is a subgenre of the legal/courtroom drama that encompasses films that are centered on a civil or criminal trial, typically a trial by jury.
A court show is a broadcast programming subgenre comprising legal dramas and reality legal programming. Court shows present content mainly in the form of legal hearings between plaintiffs and defendants presided over in one of two formats: scripted/improvised with an actor portraying a judge; or an arbitration-based reality format with the case handled by an adjudicator who was formerly a judge or attorney.
Marshall is a 2017 American biographical legal drama film directed by Reginald Hudlin and written by Michael and Jacob Koskoff. It stars Chadwick Boseman as Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, and focuses on one of the first cases of his career, the State of Connecticut v. Joseph Spell. It also stars Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, Sterling K. Brown, and James Cromwell.
Imran Mahmood is a British novelist and barrister. His first novel You Don't Know Me (2017), which was shortlisted for the Glass Bell Award in 2018, was dramatised by the BBC in 2021.
