Lawyers on Film*

Over at Concurring Opinions, Dan Solove asks what movies are part of the "law movie cannon." Dan's criteria for inclusion are rigorous:

I'm basing this list on the following totally objective standard: Do I really like the movie? I actually happen to be an expert in things I like, and I therefore believe I am uniquely situated to create this list.

No doubt! Dan's list, for the record:

1. Anatomy of a Murder
2. Breaker Morant
3. My Cousin Vinny
4. To Kill a Mockinbird
5. 12 Angry Men

Aside from Anatomy of a Murder, I've seen the others on Dan's list and recommend them all. Mad props for putting Breaker Morant on that list, one of my favorite films of all time and a great examination of law and war at the crossroads of history. Laugh at the inclusion of My Cousin Vinny, but my trial advocacy professor in law school used one scene as an example of where to find an expert witness outside of academia. As for To Kill a Mockingbird, I still love it (the novel, too), even after a recent PD training where we ripped poor Atticus apart, concluding that he was at best inept and at worst a patsy for the prosecution.

As for what I'd add to Dan's list, the first thing that pops to mind is A Few Good Men, not just because I love about everything Sorkin does, but because even after the big "Perry Mason moment" (Jack's "you can't handle the truth!" speech), the defendants still get convicted. As in real life, many factors leading to the commission of an act don't really go into the guilt/innocence calculus (for better or worse).

Another is The Sweet Hereafter, a brilliant Atom Egoyan flim that deals with the aftermath of a school bus crash that devastates a small Canadian town. The main actor in the film is a PI lawyer who shows up to try and recruit plaintiffs for a class action suit. The reaction of people to him, both in the way they get indignant at his presence and the way they open up to a complete stranger about a tragedy, show how a lawyer doing his job affects other people.

For a documentary, I highly recommend Murder on a Sunday Afternoon. It's about a murder case in Florida (thought it is a French film) in which a 15-year old boy is falsely accused. The heroic work his public defender attorneys put in to save the kid's life is a great motivator for all of us who toil in the system on a daily basis.

Anybody else?

* sung to the tune of Duran Duran's "Girls on Film," perhaps?