Top 10 Law - themed/influenced movies
As lawyers we're naturally interested in how our profession is portrayed on the big screen. Here's our list of law movies some classics, some thrillers and some pure entertainment. Doubtless you have your own list - so feel free to make a deposition.
- To Kill a Mockingbird - perhaps the definitive movie summing up speech, and one that launched a thousand law careers. Atticus Finch, played by Gregory Peck set the standard for the lawyer as the embodiment of a moral conscience in the movies.
- Changing Lanes - slipped under the radar for many and it doesn't put law firms in a very good light but this 2002 drama does offer a salutary lesson as to what can happen when you lose track of your documents. Ben Affleck and Samuel L Jackson star as men whose personal obsessions put them on a collision course.
- 12 Angry Men - there's not much more to be said about this film: it's a master-class in understanding how what people say and what they say they believe, are guided by their personal perspectives rather than objectivity, however much they may protest otherwise.
- Legally Blonde - simply a great example of why not to 'judge a book by its cover', and it's funny too.
- Witness for the Prosecution - capturing the back and forth of cross-examination, this Agatha Christie-inspired courtroom drama picked up a slew of Oscars, though not one for Marlene Dietrich whose loyal wife delivers one of the most amazing plot twists of cinema history in the last few moments of the film.
- Inherit the Wind - recalling the 1925 trial of John T Scopes in the US for teaching evolution in a high school science class. Spencer Tracy gives one of the greatest courtroom performances of all time, ably supported by Gene Kelly, who doesn't even have to dance.
- Erin Brockovich - this campaigning drama, based on a true story, offers a surprisingly deep insight, not into the lifestyle or fashion of the legal world, but into the importance of the paperwork and the attention to detail.
- The Insider - like Erin Brockovich this is based on a true story and again it's the story of big business, vested interests and a tortuous legal battle to bring the truth out into the daylight. Al Pacino and Russell Crowe make a powerful combination in this taught drama about 'Big Tobacco's' attempts to withhold evidence about the dangers of smoking.
- A Few Good Men - most famous for the line 'You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!' delivered by Jack Nicholson as the navy Colonel in command at Guantanamo Bay naval base - before it became infamous. A Few Good Men is everything a good legal drama should be, tense, twisting and peopled by unfeasibly good-looking lawyers. It was also an early glimpse of the writing talents of one Aaron Sorkin.
- The Firm - we always hope that people won't want to leave Allen & Overy, but John Grisham's thriller presents a firm that you can't leave, whether you want to or not.