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"A to Z"
List of Law-Related Movies
Movies Organized by
Substantive Law Subject
Comedies
Court Martial Movies
Courtroom Dramas
Documentaries
Inspirational Lawyer
Movies
Prison-Related Movies
Top 10
Amistad (1997): A
historical drama, directed by Stephen
Spielberg, that tells the true story of
African slaves who mutiny against their
capture and transport aboard La Amistad,
a slave ship. Focusing largely on the
courtroom scenes in which the slaves are
charged with mutiny, the story ends in
a decision from the US Supreme Court
ruling that the slaves were wrongfully
kidnapped and in their rights to mutiny and
ordered them freed (realize this summary does
not do justice to the movie or the story).
Reader Roger Ebert's review
here.
The
Attorney (2013). Directed
and co-written by Yang Woo-suk This Korean
movie tells the tale of an underdog "street
lawyer" who, with only a high school diploma,
takes on unpopular cases, including the
defence of several students charged with being
communist sympathizers. As of January 2016,
the movie has a
72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Available
here
on iTunes.
Breaker
Morant (1980). Starring
Edward Woodward, Jack Thompson. An excellent
Australian court-martial movie set in the time
of the Boer War. Three Australian lieutenants
are treated as scapegoats when prosecuted for
executing prisoners of war. Strong performance
by their defence lawyer. Read the original New
York Times review
here.
Bridge
of Spies (2015). Directed by
Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks as
lawyer James B Donovan. This drama is a
fictional re-telling of the arrest and legal
defence of Rudolf Abel, an accused and
subsequently convicted Soviet spy. There are
good courtroom scenes as well as scenes
showing the ethical dilemmas facing the lawyer
played by Tom Hanks. The movie currently has a
91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The
Castle (1997). Starring
Michael Caton. An extremely hilarious
Australian comedy dealing with, of all things,
expropriation (hence the title, which stems
from the saying "A man's home is his castle").
Some hilarious courtroom scenes.
Laugh-out-loud funny. See Roger
Ebert's review (3 out of 4 stars).
The
Conspirator (2010). Directed
by Robert Redford and starring James McAvoy,
Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood
and Tom Wilkinson. James McAvoy plays the
young lawyer assigned to defend Mary Surratt
(played by Robin Wright), the mother of the
alleged co-conspirator of John Wilkes Booth in
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, arrested
for failing to provide the location of her
son.
Conviction (2010). Directed
by Tony Goldwyn and starring Hilary Swank and
Sam Rockwell. Tells the true story of Bette
Ann Waters, a single mother whose brother was
(as it turns out) wrongfully convicted of
murder. Her "conviction" in her brother's
innocence leads to her returning to school -
and eventually law school - to help overturn
her brother's wrongful conviction through DNA
evidence (with the help of Barry Scheck of the
Innocence
Project. Read
Roger Ebert's review (3 out of 4 stars).
Gandhi
(1982). Starring Ben Kingsley and a cast of
thousands. Directed by Richard Attenborough.
An epic story of the life of Mahatma Gandhi
who started as a lawyer in South Africa and
who end up liberating India from British
domination through his policies of
non-violence. Read the New York Times
original review
here.
The
Hurricane (1999). Starring
Denzel Washington. Directed by Norman Jewison.
Tells the true story of Rubin "Hurricane"
Carter's wrongful imprisonment on murder
charges and the efforts made by his lawyers to
free him from prison. Read Roger
Ebert's review (3.5 out of 4 stars).
Carter was an Executive Director of the Association in
Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, an
organization based, in part, out of Toronto.
I
Am Sam (2001). Starring Sean
Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer. A nicely told story
of a child custody case involving Sean Penn,
as the father, who has the mental capacity of
a 7-year old. When is 7-year old daughter is
taken by child welfare authorities, he hires a
lawyer (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) to act on
his behalf. Some good courtroom scenes. Read Roger
Ebert's review (2 out of 4 stars).
In
the Name of the Father
(1993): Based (loosely,
according to Roger Ebert) on the true
story of the
Guildford Four wrongfully accused of an
IRA bombing of a British pub in 1974, this
drama has Emma Thompson playing the
hard-working defence lawyer and focuses on the
trials and tribulations of Gerry Conlon
(Daniel Day-Lewis) and his father (Pete
Postlethwaite) wrongfully convicted for the
crimes. Read Roger Ebert's review
here.
Murder
in the First (1995).
Starring Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon and
Gary Oldman. Christian Slater plays a young
lawyer who takes on the case of a prisoner of
Alcatraz who is wrongfully put into solitary
confinement for years and becomes insane as a
result. Strong courtroom (and prison) scenes
Read Roger
Ebert's review (2 of out 4 stars).
North
Country (2005): For
some reason, I was never a huge fan of
Charlize Theron, but she does a good job in
this story as a mistreated female employee in
a male-dominated workforce in a mine in
Minnesota, based on a true story, that
resulted in the first class action sexual
harassment lawsuit in the United States (the
Wikipedia entry
here has a nice overview of the
real-life lawsuit). Read Roger Ebert's review
here.
Philadelphia
(1993). Starring Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington.
Tom Hanks plays a successful lawyer fired by
his law firm because he has AIDS. The only
lawyer willing to act for him in his wrongful
dismissal action against his old firm is an
ambulance-chasing type lawyer played by Denzel
Washington. Well-acted (Hanks got Best Oscar
for his performance) and good courtroom
scenes. Read Roger
Ebert's review (3.5 out of 4 stars).
Available
here at Netflix.
Reversal
of Fortune (1990). Starring
Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons and Ron Silver.
Based on the true life story where Harvard Law
Professor Alan Dershowitz agrees to handle the
appeal of the conviction of socialite Claus
von Bulow for the attempted murder of his
wife. Good dramatization of the work done by
Dershowitz and his students in preparing for
the appeal. Read Roger
Ebert's review (4 out of 4 stars).
Selma
(2015). Directed by Ava DuVernay and
starring David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo. This
movie tells the story of the human rights
activism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and
his campaign for equal voting rights in the
American South. It has a
99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Available
here
on iTunes.
Spotlight
(2015). Directed by Tom McCarthy and
starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel
McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian
d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy
Crudup. Ostensibly, this is a movie about
investigative journalism and the efforts of
Boston Globe journalists who reported on the
cover-up of child abuse by the Catholic church
in Boston. However, lawyers play a role as
does the role of public access to court
records versus the private arbitration the
church was using to settle claims. While
watching the lawyer played by Stanley Tucci, I
couldn't help but notice that he had a set of
the Dominion Law Reports behind him on
his office bookshelf (which would be extremely
unlikely for a Boston lawyer), confirming for
me (which I confirmed after seeing the movie)
that the movie was filmed in Toronto (with
other scenes shot in the Bay-Adelaide Centre).
The movie has
a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
To
Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
Starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. A
solid dramatization of Harper Lee's novel
telling the story of Atticus Finch and his
daughter Scout and how Atticus defends a black
man wrongfully charged with rape in a
racially-biased environment. Peck won the Best
Actor Oscar. Read the original New York
Times review
here.
Last updated:
January 2016 |
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