The 25 Greatest Lawyer Movies of All Time

A list compiled by the American Bar Association.

It's a pretty good list. The top three are almost indisputable (yes, including My Cousin Vinny, which is a textbook explanation of how to impeach witnesses and is probably the only movie ever to make civil procedure entertaining.) I have not seen Anatomy of a Murder or Witness for the Prosecution, but I was also glad to see Philadelphia and The Verdict in the top ten. I will say, however, that the exclusion of The Accused and especially Michael Clayton from the top 25 in favor of A Civil Action is almost unforgivable. Travolta can't hold a candle to Clooney when it comes to playing a lawyer at the end of his rope.

What do you guys think? I'd be curious to hear other reactions to it, from both lawyers and laypeople alike.

Michael Clayton is a fantastic film (only recently did I discover how amazing Tilda Swinton's performance is). And if you could, Subrosa, please explain, within the realm of law, what exactly a 'fixer' does.

Flash of Genius. I recently saw this and thought it was amazing (if slow-moving). In short, it's the true story of the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper and tried to sell it to Ford Motor Company, who stole it from him. For the next decade and a half, he fights them in court (with & without a lawyer) and they stonewall the hell out of him, at one point causing him a nervous breakdown. The end scene in the courtroom is great, because he is acting as his own lawyer and even calls himself to the witness stand. Greg Kinnear acts his ass off.

JFK. The final scene in the courtroom where Kevin Costner is giving his closing statement is one of the most powerful scenes I have ever seen put on film.

Well, it's not really a realm of law, which is part of the reason why it's such a great role. In the film, Clayton is described as a "seventeenth-year associate" at a Manhattan white shoe firm. This is important because at those firms, if you're there for more than 7-8 years and you're not a partner, there's something wrong. Instead, he's an associate, which puts him on the level of someone who's been hired right out of law school.

However, he's clearly an important player within the firm. The reason why he's so important is because he knows how to go outside the law to "fix" problems. He talks about having the ability to make a shoplifting charge go away or get a heads up on an insider trading indictment. Most likely, he gets most of his insider information from his connections with the police department. The bottom line is that his job is pretty shady, especially for an attorney.

The film doesn't go into detail as to why he hasn't been made partner, but there are hints. First off, because he's a fixer and not a traditional attorney, he's not going to be in a position to bring business into the firm. Secondly, Clayton's forays into gambling and the bar business certainly did not endear him to the brass. Thirdly, if your credit isn't good, you're just flat not going to make partner at one of those firms.

Anyway, that's the short of it. Also, I 100% agree about Swinton's performance. It was mesmerizing, and absolutely perfect for her character.

Interesting. I will check this out for sure.

I thought this was a well-made film, but I couldn't get past the overwhelming Costner-Oliver Stone-ness of the movie. It was a little over the top all around.

Thanks for the explanation.

FoG has an emphasis on patent law, which seems insanely complicated to me. And I can understand yr complaint w/JFK. But I don't think Oliver Stone is himself if he isn't going all the way.

The Excorcism of Emily Rose and Primal Fear were also pretty decent lawyer movies, but I wouldn't have listed them in the top 25.

I agree that neither of those are top 25 movies, but just to slip off topic for a second...you gotta hand it to Edward Norton for his performance in that. He was astounding.

I agree that neither of those are top 25 movies, but just to slip off topic for a second...you gotta hand it to Edward Norton for his performance in that. He was astounding.

The idea that the Caine Mutiny isn't on this list is an outrage.

PointBlank objects, your honor. Sidebar?

Good flick then? I haven't heard of it.

My Cousin Vinny should be on the list, but NOT number 3. To put it before The Verdict, Inherit the Wind, Breaker Morant ("Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!"), And Justice for All ("Being honest doesn't have much to do with being a lawyer."), hell, MOST of the movies on the list is fucking scandalous.

In general the list is ok. But only because I assume their criteria included the quality of the movie as a whole and not just whether the movie was a quality or accurate portrayal of lawyers, or jurisprudence, or legal procedure, etc. Kramer v. Kramer is a prime example: I wouldn't have thought to put that on the list, and I just recently saw it again.

Oh, and god bless The Paper Chase.

I agree JFK should be on the list.
all these are great movies. I love My Cousin Vinny. So clever and funny.

Inherit the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird are probably my two favs from the list.

Two interesting legal films that are kind of guilty pleasures for me are Music Box and William Friedkin's Rampage.

I haven't even seen most of those, so I can't judge how it would fit in, but I thought Michael Clayton was a great film. I like the look of And Justice For All. And I want to go and watch Presumed Innocent again now.

I half-caught something about this on tv the other day, and I didn't think it looked particularly interesting at the time. Sounds like it's worth a closer look.

I didn't even think about My Cousin Vinny when i saw the title of the thread. It should be on the list but i don't know about it being in the top 5.

I don't know what it was about Travolta but i just can't finish A Civil Action. For that reason i can't comment on the placement of that movie, I am sticking to the book on that one.

I'm not going to say Anatomy of a Murder should be number one because it's been too long since I've seen it to make that assessment, but it really was amazing to me and it was the one I thought of instantly when I saw the thread title. Partially just the language that they use: it was made in 1959, and I remember frank discussions (including words like "semen"), a higher level of detail about what happens in the court, and a general moral ambiguity. I'd say you could at the very least put it ahead of My Cousin Vinny. 12 Angry Men can stay where it is or just go ahead to the number one spot. I've seen that movie a bunch of times, and I could still watch it any time it came on. It didn't spring to mind as a "lawyer movie" for me since no lawyer is in it, but it makes sense.

More controversially, I think I'd push To Kill a Mockingbird way, way back. That's partly because I don't think of it as a lawyer movie per se, and I think people tend to forget that the story is more a coming of age story than about a trial, but mostly because I just don't think it's that great, even without comparing it to the book. It's similar to Philadelphia for me; I think its perceived social importance (and great songs by Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen) tends to overshadow its content.

The one that is criminally absent, especially given the presence of A Few Good Men, is Paths of Glory. It didn't make honorable mentions, even. It seems weirdly obvious to be missing entirely; maybe they decided it was more of a war film.

I have to disagree about "12 Angry Men". That's the one of the bunch I consider to be overrated. The direction is inferior to what Robert Mulligan does with "To Kill a Mockingbird" (especially the brilliant opening title sequence), stagey and the one character breaking down at the end because of the trial's supposed connection to his personal life I found melodramatic and not believable.

I would even wedge something like "The Ox-Bow Incident" (which may not take place in a courtroom, but it is about a trial) above it.

Anatomy of a Murder is one of my favorite movies and has one of the greatest sound tracks. The sound track is as important as the acting and script. It is a shame that Anatomy of a Murderis only shown every few years.

The honorable mention list including the Caine Mutiny is a crime, it is a top 25 film and more deserving more a few that made the top 25..

Missing from both lists are two that I like a Murder of Crows (1999) and Body Heat (1981).

This thread makes me miss Sydney Pollack .He perfectly perfected playing a veteran lawyer.

Preach!


My list:

To Kill a Mocking Bird

12 Angry Men

The Paper Chase

A Man for All Seasons

Judgment at Nuremberg

Inherit the Wind

Reversal of Fortune

Compulsion



"The Paper Chase" should probably be a the top. Yeah. . . it should.

See, I thought The Paper Chase was kind of meh, if only because it didn't approximate my law school experience. But I really need to see Judgment at Nuremberg.

I've always really liked 12 Angry Men because it was such a change from the typical popcorn film that often passed as cinema in the late fifties. Certainly subsequent efforts bettered it, but how can you go wrong with the plot? Kudos to the director for the deliberately minimal set and inventive camera shots that keep the audience into the film even though most of the action takes place in a single room.

I sometimes think my Torts prof, who has probably been teaching since before the The Paper Chase came out, was the inspiration for Prof. Kingsfield. Three piece suit, watch chain, seating chart with pictures, insulting comments - the whole bit. On the first day of class he wrote an 800 number on the board. He said: "This is the number for truck-driving school. Most of you should call." My brother had him 25 years before I did; prof. kicked him out of class on the first day b/c he was wearing a t-shirt.

I think Michael Clayton is a movie about a lawyer but not a "legal movie." Michael Clayton doesn't really belong on the list for the same reason The Firm doesn't belong on the list.

More or less my feelings. The breakdown at the end is a bit on the melodramatic side, but frankly, all drama at the time was a bit on the side of overstatement and I don't think it stands out. I don't think the direction was especially "stagy" to the extent that you can possibly avoid being stagy in a movie that takes place in one room, but that's pretty subjective. And I have to admit that for whatever reason, I have a weakness for dialogue heavy movies in one or two rooms.

As far as Mockingbird goes, maybe I should see it again (like most of these movies, it's been a few years), but Ebert's review essentially contains my thoughts, plus a few I didn't really consider, so I'll just link that here.

Well, I'd disagree with that on two levels. One, it's a movie about several different lawyers not just one, and two it's actually more representative of the type of law that the majority of lawyers in this country practice. It doesn't have any courtroom scenes, sure. But most civil litigators in this country don't spend a whole lot of time in court anyway.

There's a deposition scene, there's discovery issues, there is interplay between an in-house counsel and a litigation firm... I think there's quite a bit of law there. For my money, no movie has nailed the toil and desperation of working for one of those BigLaw firms quite like Clayton.

That's pretty awesome. But yeah, I showed up to my first day of law school with almost as many spikes on my belt as I had on my head and no one batted an eyelash.

I did relate to the competitiveness between the students aspect of it (most of the people I went to law school with were intolerable grade-grubbing pricks), but not really with the profs.