10. "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961), the Stanley Kramer production suddenly terribly relevant again for its central, essentially unanswered question: To what extent are ordinary citizens and low-ranking officials responsible for the immoral, if not unlawful, acts of their government?
9. "A Cry in the Dark" (1988), the Australian film directed by Fred Schepisi and featuring Meryl Streep as an accused mother, convicted in the court of public opinion for not emoting sufficiently over the kidnapping of her child, apparently by wild dogs, while the family was on a camping trip.
8. "In Cold Blood" (1967), the chilling Richard Brooks docudrama, based on the Truman Capote best-seller, starring Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, that makes a compelling case both for home burglar alarms and capital punishment.
7. "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), Otto Preminger's greatest film, after the film noir classic, "Laura" (1944), with Jimmy Stewart as a small-town lawyer defending a soldier accused of murder as the result of an "irresistible impulse"—perhaps "the best [pure] courtroom drama ever made," according to one well informed source.
6. "Witness for the Prosecution" (1958), the manipulative Billy Wilder take on the Agatha Christie murder trial story, acted in high style by Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich, among others, with a marvelous double twist of the knife at the end.
5. "A Few Good Men" (1992), the Rob Reiner-directed military cover-up trial story, written by Aaron Sorkin, featuring Navy lawyer Tom Cruise's taking on Jack Nicholson, a highly decorated officer, in a courtroom showdown over a now familiar end-means issue at Gitmo that's a lawyer's and film fan's cross-examination dream.
4. "The Verdict" (1982), Sidney Lumet's film of a David Mamet screenplay about an alcoholic lawyer, played to poignant perfection by Paul Newman, given one last chance at redemption by a medical malpractice case.
3. "Kramer v. Kramer" (1979), director-writer Robert Benton's dramatization of the devastation of divorce on all parties involved, especially here, the parents played to heart-breaking effect by Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman, who go to legal war over the custody of their young son.
2. "12 Angry Men" (1957), another Sidney Lumet masterpiece, this one produced and starring Henry Fonda, and quite simply the greatest feature film ever made about a jury's deliberations in a murder trial. I always use it when I teach group discussion and leadership.
1. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), Robert Mulligan's film of the Oscar-winning Horton Foote screenplay based on Monroeville Pulitzer Prize-winning author Nelle Harper Lee's masterful novel, featuring Gregory Peck in his Oscar-winning role as every lawyer's ideal: Atticus Finch, the small-town father who personifies for his children what justice looks like. Mr. Peck told me a number of times that this was his favorite film and his favorite role.
AFI, the Bar and Courtroom Drama: A, B, C's Worth Knowing
"A motion picture ... is admissible if it is relevant and if properly authenticated and identified." –GAMBLE, McELROY's ALABAMA EVIDENCE, sec. 123.06, 5th ed. 2006).
By Dr. Jim Vickrey
The courtroom drama, films about the law and lawyers and legal thrillers—stories about the law or about how the law affects some aspect of their plots—have long been a staple of Hollywood movie-making. Since sound was turned on in what was once Celluloid City, more than 500 major motion pictures have focused the collective lens of the attention of millions of Americans on our profession. Mostly that's been to our benefit—so much so that thousands of us lawyers have entered the field of law because of the inspiration we received to that end "at the movies."
Atticus Finch, the hands-down winner
For me, that inspiration came as I sat in the dark on a spring night as I viewed a feature film with a friend in 1963 at Montgomery's then-extant Empire Theatre (where my parents met). Prior to that, I had bought but not yet completely read the book on which it was based so that I could quote its title character more accurately and in context in my inaugural address as SGA president at Auburn University. The movie, as the book, was "To Kill a Mockingbird," which the American Film Institute ("AFI") named the greatest courtroom drama of all time. Earlier, the AFI had named Atticus Finch, its lawyer/father figure, the greatest movie hero ever.
Ten greatest courtroom dramas
In a recent CBS-TV special program, the Institute, of which I've been an active member for most of its 40-plus years of existence, named the top 10 greatest feature films in 10 separate genre. One of the genres was the "courtroom drama," despite the fact that many movies about the law don't dramatize courtroom theatrics. The 10 motion pictures, in ascending order of rank, were:
Other films worth mentioning
As Paul Bergman and Michael Asimow demonstrate in their much-to-be admired book Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies (2d. ed., 2006), there are many more, as many as 150 more, good if not great, motion pictures focused on courtroom drama—from "The Accused" (1988), "Breaker Morant" (1980) and "Inherit the Wind" (1960) to "My Cousin Vinny" (1992) and "The Rainmaker" (1997). We lawyers ought to be familiar with them, as well as the top 10 above, for at least four reasons. First, they help shape popular opinion about our profession. Second, they provide us lawyers with examples of legal practice—sometimes warning examples! Third, we may be asked to take part in the next AFI or other poll on lawyerly movies. Fourth, we may be asked questions about one or more of the legal artifacts highlighted in one or more of them (e.g., what prominent Alabama legal resource, written by a former justice of our state's highest court, is featured in "My Cousin Vinny," a film that is set here but which sadly was shot in Georgia?).
—Dr. Jim Vickrey, Ph.D., J.D., former university president, lawyer and mediator, and professor of speech communication, writes from Montgomery. His radio commentary on the law, movies, religion and rhetoric is aired every Saturday afternoon at 3:00 on WTSU-FM, 89.9 on the FM dial. He may be reached at jvickrey@troy.edu.
