Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Murder in the First (1995). Starring Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon and Gary
Oldman. Christian Slater plays a young lawyer who takes on the case of a
prisoner of Alcatraz who is wrongfully put into solitary confinement for years
and becomes insane as a result. Strong courtroom (and prison) scenes
Read Roger Ebert's review (2 of out 4 stars).
North Country (2005): For some reason, I was never a huge fan of Charlize
Theron, but she does a good job in this story as a mistreated female
employee in a male-dominated workforce in a mine in Minnesota, based on a
true story, that resulted in the first class action sexual harassment lawsuit in
the United States (the Wikipedia entry here has a nice overview of the reallife lawsuit). Read Roger Ebert's review here.
Philadelphia (1993). Starring Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington. Tom Hanks
plays a successful lawyer fired by his law firm because he has AIDS. The only
lawyer willing to act for him in his wrongful dismissal action against his old
firm is an ambulance-chasing type lawyer played by Denzel Washington.
Well-acted (Hanks got Best Oscar for his performance) and good courtroom
scenes. Read Roger Ebert's review (3.5 out of 4 stars). Available here at
Netflix.
Reversal of Fortune (1990). Starring Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons and Ron
Silver. Based on the true life story where Harvard Law Professor Alan
Dershowitz agrees to handle the appeal of the conviction of socialite Claus
von Bulow for the attempted murder of his wife. Good dramatization of the
work done by Dershowitz and his students in preparing for the appeal.
Read Roger Ebert's review (4 out of 4 stars).
Selma (2015). Directed by Ava DuVernay and starring David Oyelowo and
Carmen Ejogo. This movie tells the story of the human rights activism of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and his campaign for equal voting rights in the
American South. It has a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Available here on
iTunes.
Spotlight (2015). Directed by Tom McCarthy and starring Mark Ruffalo,
Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d'Arcy
James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup. Ostensibly, this is a movie about
investigative journalism and the efforts of Boston Globe journalists who
reported on the cover-up of child abuse by the Catholic church in Boston.
However, lawyers play a role as does the role of public access to court
records versus the private arbitration the church was using to settle claims.
While watching the lawyer played by Stanley Tucci, I couldn't help but notice
that he had a set of the Dominion Law Reports behind him on his office
bookshelf (which would be extremely unlikely for a Boston lawyer),
confirming for me (which I confirmed after seeing the movie) that the movie
was filmed in Toronto (with other scenes shot in the Bay-Adelaide Centre).
The movie has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. A
solid dramatization of Harper Lee's novel telling the story of Atticus Finch and
his daughter Scout and how Atticus defends a black man wrongfully charged
with rape in a racially-biased environment. Peck won the Best Actor Oscar.
Read the original New York Times review here.