Tuesday, December 24, 2019

BEST LEGAL MOVIES

UPDATES FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.

Happy Christmas Eve (We say "happy Christmas, not merry Christmas here in England). 

There is nothing better than a good legal thriller to get the trial blood flowing. Rumor has it that everyone's favourite federal blogger routinely watches "A Few Good Men" before trial. 

Post your nominations in the comments section and we will put them up. In no particular order, here are ours: 

A Few Good Men- for those few of us who still try cases, it often comes down to whether or not you go for it on cross. It rarely works out as well as it did for Tom Cruise. 

The Verdict- our personal favourite. Hollywood loves second chances and comebacks. Rocky as a PI lawyer. Downtrodden, beaten by the world, Frank Galvin (played by Paul Newman)goes up against the evil big law firm and pulls a surprise witness out of his hat. Lots of good lines by Newman ("I know you, You were a bag man for the boys downtown. You couldn't hack it as a lawyer" - to the judge in chambers). Great supporting case- James Mason as opposing counsel (Newman calls him "a good man", Jack Warden responds "A good man? He's the prince of fucking darkness..."); Jack Warden has Newman's law school professor and aging co-counsel who referred him the case; Milo O'Shea, a Judge Sepe-look-a-like. Directed by one of the best film-noir directors in recent times- Sydney Lumet. 
And of course, the all-time greatest rejoinder by a lawyer to a judge at sidebar- "With all due respect your honor, if you're going to try my case for me, try not to lose it.

Judgement At Nurenberg- Spencer Tracey as a former American Judge assigned to preside over the trial of "the judges and prosecutors"- the German judiciary that was corrupted by the Nazis and became complicit in their crimes against humanity. Maximillian Schell as the young lawyer assigned to defend one of the Judges. Directed by Stanley Kramer, the movie was groundbreaking for its time (1961) in using the courtroom to explore the complexity of moral uncertainties and how to view the professional class that remains silent when society falls under the sway of a dictator. Sound familiar? Perhaps some of our judiciary should spend two hours and watch the film.  

To Kill A Mockingbird-A rare example of a movie becoming as classic as the book.  This has fallen just a bit on our list, mostly because every student in law school says they wanted to be a lawyer because of Atticus Finch. That being said, Gregory Peck is sublime as a lawyer defending an innocent man on trial in a small southern town beset by racism and petty jealousies and family secrets-  sort of  how we feel in trial in Broward, except we win those as well. 

We're going to add The Caine Mutiny- a superb film adaptation by Stanley Kramer of Herman Wouk's novel. Besides the wonderful acting of Humphrey Bogart (whose birthday is December 25, 1899 btw) as Captain Queeg, there is the ground breaking role of Jose Ferrer who played Lt. Barney Greenwald, defense attorney for one of the mutineers. Along with a spellbinding cross examination of Queeg, Ferrer's role was groundbreaking- Hollywood had never placed an Hispanic in the role of defending a Caucasian. Hispanic roles were at the time mostly subservient. 

FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION 

My Cousin Vinny (of course- a great one) which has some great lessons for aspiring trial lawyers including number one in our book: "Always go to the crime scene", and never accept that your client has confessed; 
and 
Twelve Angry Men- a classic. Henry Fonda read the book/play and was instrumental in bringing it to the big screen. 

17 comments:

  1. how do you omit "true Believer"? James Woods as a burned out defense lawyer who finally finds that rare innocent client.

    what about anatomy of a murder? twelve angry men?

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  2. Number one has to be 'My Cousin Vinny'.

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  3. Famous long time Attorney Phil Carlton passed away. As a young ASA in the 80's I remember how tough and smart he was. I learned from those guys and became a better trial lawyer as a result thereof.

    Those guys:
    Phil Carlton
    Paul Pollock (Daughter lawyer too Giselle Pollock, former judge now PD in Broward)
    Harry Prebish (Son lawyer too, Gary Prebish... now in Colorado)
    Lee Bailey (Still around, disbarred)
    Carl Masztal (Still around takes few cases)

    Can any of you please add to this list?



    to name a few.

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  4. I'm going to put up a post about Phil Carlton after Xmas. He was a great lawyer.
    And I am very sorry to tell you that tragically Greg Prebish died a few years ago from complications post knee surgery. Greg was a great guy and a wonderful lawyer in his own right and he died way too soon but at least it occurred after he lived his dream and moved to a Colorado ski town.

    Lee is in Maine.

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  5. How quickly they forget. The funniest legal movie ever made was The Fortune Cookie, starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Made in 1965 and directed by Billy Wilder. Centers around Matthau (a sleazy PI lawyer), who tries to convince his milquetoast brother in law Lemmon to fake an injury to rip off an insurance company. Heart breaking at the end but your stomach will be sore from laughing so much.

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  6. Inherent the Wind about the Scopes trial.
    Also. The Ox Box Incident, not a trial.movie, but it's about Mob "Justice" and why we need trials and defense attorneys

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  7. Henry Carr, Marvin Emory( North River Drive that goes around the courthouse should be renamed in Marvin's honor as he died in a fiery car crash there),"Stormin Norman Haft,Clinton Pitts,Al Sepe,Jerry Mosca, Phil Hubart are a few that come to mind quickly. I recall being in Carlton's office in the Biscayne Building downtown on a case and he had an entire wall made out of coral rock. I have never seen anything like that. I recall him telling the jury in the Notage case " You can't do it. you just cant do it" in discussing the State's closing urging a conviction in a child sex abuse case. He was always very gracious with his time in mentoring young attorneys. He was certainly one of a kind.

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  8. The Accused
    Philadelphia
    Adam's Rib

    Carmen M. Vizcaino
    (see what I did there)

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  9. Legally Blonde. Not joking, great fun. Love "and your boyfriend's name is?". Rhythm of a cross baby.

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  10. Every Christmas I watch my Sony Betamax version of the classic “Behind The Green Door”.

    Just wonderful.

    PS. I saw Uncut Gems yesterday. It was a profanity filled, violent and predictable non story. Totally not Oscar worthy.

    You want to see GREAT acting? See “Honey Boy” with Shia LaBeouf. He wrote it. He was abused as a child. Brilliant.

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  11. Fake Officer Jerry Davenport from 1991Wednesday, December 25, 2019 11:20:00 AM

    My favorite is TRAINING DAY.

    Heartwarming. Just love a decent and hardworking street cop. The DUI Task Force scene and the DUI defendant’s unfortunate fall getting into the police car was realistic and believable.

    The scene where the slimy defense lawyer asked the young judge to throw out the intoxilizer results due to blood in the defendant’s mouth was not credible. How could a drunk guy gotten an alleged beating from a good cop like that.

    I like sensitive movies like this on the holidays. Especially when one of those famous Miami DUI lawyers gives me a bottle of Johnny Walker Black for Xmas. Very thoughtful.

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  12. Greg Prebish moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to live out his dream with his wife. He did a lot of pro bono work out there, helping those less fortunate with their legal problems. A wonderful person gone way too soon.

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  13. Back a few years ago Jews in Miami had an option for Christmas meal- Cantons or The Ren (a venue).
    Barbequed Pork Belly; fried oysters drizzled in Italian truffle oil, heaping mounds of tagliatelle with fried eggplant and hot and sweet pepper, crust loafs of fresh baked French baguettes, Paco's famous Chicken Tortilla soup-just spicy enough, fresh coconut ice cream, baked peach pie, and the frozen blueberry/chocolate sorbet.

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  14. Anatomy of a Murder. Written by a judge. Great cross by Jimmy Stewart who crafted flies during trial. George C. Scott was sleazingly sharp as brought in prosecutor. Amazing soundtrack by the duke.

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  15. Witness for the prosecution

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  16. Can't forget "And Justice For All" in which Al Pacino gives the greatest opening statement ever (shot in one continuous take).

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  17. "A Civil Action" No lawyer movie (or TV show) has ever been truer to the experience of being a lawyer in civil litigation.

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