Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T18:53:19.725Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter Four - Law and Film

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2024

Daniel Newman
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
Russell Sandberg
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
Get access

Summary

Sam Bowden:

A lawyer should represent his client.

Max Cady:

Should ZEALOUSLY represent his client within the bounds of the law. I find you guilty, counselor! Guilty of betrayin’ your fellow man! Guilty of betrayin’ your country and abrogatin’ your oath! Guilty of judgin’ me and sellin’ me out! With the power vested in me by the kingdom of God, I sentence you to the Ninth Circle of Hell! Now you will learn about loss! Loss of freedom! Loss of humanity! Now you and I will truly be the same.

(Cape Fear 1991)

Introduction

There has always been a mild obsession with lists of ‘best law/lawyer films’ as a starter for any work using film in the study of law which can be found from the turn of the century up until the time of writing. There are also Guides that exist to provide law teachers with material, as well as accounts of how the justice system operates in practice. In addition the role of ideology in film continues to be a theme. Interest comes, too, from slightly unexpected quarters. The impact of film generally as well as certain specific areas like race is also encountered as is writing on strongly related areas. Originally interest in the cinematic portrayal of law and lawyers tended to focus on the traditional American courtroom drama with specific attention on two classic films. First Sidney Lumet’s 1957 film Twelve Angry Men and second Robert Mulligans 1962 offering To Kill a Mockingbird. It also started with American legal academics who had an interest in film as a cultural phenomenon. The two films, noted above, were selected by the American Film Institute as the two finest courtroom dramas, which was defined as ‘a genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film’s narrative’; two iconic actors, Henry Fonda and Gregory Peck, standing up against all odds to support the idea of ‘justice’. Both took up an unpopular stance demonstrating the importance of a fair trial against a backdrop of prejudice. The two films are powerful pieces of social drama with life-and-death decisions. However, Henry Fonda, as Davis Juror 8, in Twelve Angry Men, was not a lawyer but a member of the jury charged with determining the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of murder.

Type
Chapter
Information
Law and Humanities , pp. 51 - 68
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×