The FACDL is having a movie night on March 24 when local Miami auteurs Billy Corbin and Alfred Spellman will screen and discuss an early documentary - Raw Deal- A Question of Consent- about the unfounded claims of sexual assault by an exotic dancer against UF fraternity members in the late 1990's.
Here is all the info for the event at FACDL's website.
What is the legal movie you watch before heading into trial?
Mr. Markus watches A Few Good Men, which is a great one. The cross of Jack Nicholson is epic.
Personally, we go for Paul Newman and The Verdict. Spectacular cast and a great story. Miles O'Shea as the dirty judge- a topic near and dear to our heart. The scene in chambers when Newman dresses down the Judge "I know about you. You were a bagman for the boys downtown. You couldn't hack it then and you can't hack it now" is Alex Michaelsesque.
Jack Warden plays the law school mentor to down and out Paul Newman who has one last case to turn his career around. James Mason is the smart and smooth defense attorney in a medical malpractice case. Early in the movie Newman and Mason discuss opposing counsel. Newman comments that he's a good man. Warden responds "He's the prince of fucking darkness. He'll have witnesses testifying they saw our client [who was in a coma] waterskiing in Wapole a week after going to the hospital." Classic stuff.
Then there is My Cousin Vinny, perfectly cast and played out.
One underrated movie is Judgement at Nuremberg, about a small-town US Judge (played by Spencer Tracey) leading a panel of three judges hearing the trial of German Judges who became Nazis and participated in the corruption of the German legal system under Nazi rule. Tracey identifies with one of the German judges on trial. A very young Maxamilian Schell is an aggressive and young defender of the Judge.
What's your go-to trial prep movie?
UPDATE- Ones we forgot
12 Angry Men. How did we forget this one? Henry Fonda was so enamored
Anatomy of a Murder.
UPDATE 2
How did we ever forget To Kill A Mockingbird and the neat courtroom trick where Atticus Finch tosses his client- Tom Robinson- something when he is on the stand. One of his arms doesn't work and the "victim" testified he beat her with both hands.
And how did we ever forget The Caine Mutiny? Humphrey Bogart as the captain who is slowly losing it. And A very young Jose Ferrer as an already bitter defense attorney who wins the case. There is a whole Hollywood back story to Jose Ferrer getting the part. He was superb. But there was a vociferous debate about whether the American Public would accept a Hispanic man defending a white man in court, based on where the country was at the time circa 1954. Let's put it this way- Ferrer was a stretch to get the studio heads to accept at the time, Syndey Poitier would have been out of the question.