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.