Enigma Solicitors continues its look at the top-20 legal films of all-time.
Paths of Glory (1957): Directed by Stanley Kubrick (Spartacus, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket) and based on a novel by Humphrey Cobb, Paths of Glory stars Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, a former lawyer who defends three soldiers in a court-martial during World War I.
A French general’s desire for further promotion leads him to accept what he knows is a suicidal attack on a German position. When the assault fails, as the General knew it would, three soldiers are selected—one from each company involved in the attack—and are charged with cowardice. One soldier is picked because his commanding officer wants to bury evidence of his own failings; another is chosen by his captain as a “social undesirable”; and the final is chosen by lots.
Though the film is entirely fictional, the French army once shot a cat for spying and fraternising with German soldiers, so court-martialling soldiers this way is not without credibility. Like Breaker Morant, the court-martial is something of a farce and a political exercise, with Colonel Dax pleading, “Gentlemen of the court, to find these men guilty would be a crime to haunt each of you till the day you die.” Like Breaker Morant, a firing squad awaits the accused.
Paths of Glory—the title inspired by Thomas Grey’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: “…the paths of glory lead but to the grave…”—is currently ranked in 50th place in the favourite-films list of IMDB.com. It ends memorably with a German prisoner’s rendition of The Faithful Hussar.
Legal Eagles (1986): Ivan Reitman is best-known for action-packed comedies like Ghostbusters, Stripes and Kindergarten Cop, so if you’re wondering how he handled what was billed as a rom-com, the answer is, of course, with explosions and car chases. There are so many explosions and car chases, in fact, that the plot sometimes gets pushed into the background.
Conceived as a film based on the Rothko Case, the script was reworked by the writers of Turner and Hooch and Top Gun into a very different beast—a sometimes muddled hydra of a rom-com, thriller, courtroom drama, mystery and an FX-filled action film.
On her 8th birthday, Chelsea Deardon’s (Daryl Hannah) father died in a mysterious blaze, all of his paintings being allegedly destroyed with him. Many years later, Deardon is arrested for attempting to steal one of the allegedly-burned paintings from an art dealer played Terrence Stamp (Far from the Madding Crowd, Alien Nation). Deardon later finds herself accused of the murder of an art dealer. She is represented by Laura Kelly (Debra Winger), who attempts to convince Tom Kelly (Robert Redford), the Assistant District Attorney, of her client’s innocence.
The complicated plot involving art theft, insurance fraud, murder and the shady dealings of art dealers has too many action scenes trowelled on top of it, leaving disappointingly little room for Winger and Redford to display their obvious on-screen chemistry. Despite some flaws, Legal Eagles remains an entertaining legal-cum-action film, with an excellent supporting cast that includes Brian Dennehy and Christine Baranski (Bowfinger).
Adam’s Rib (1949): Hollywood greats Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy appeared together in many, many films, including Woman of the Year (1942); State of the Union (1957); Pat and Mike (1952); Desk Set (1957); and, lastly, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967). They also starred in Adam’s Rib, which set the bar where the husband-and-wife, battle-of-the-sexes legal film is concerned.
Based upon but not matching the real-life story of husband-and-wife lawyers William and Dorothy Whitney, who represented, respectively, Raymond Massey and Adrianne Allen in their divorce, before divorcing each other and marring their own clients. The husband-and-wife lawyers clash when Amanda Bonner (Hepburn) defends a woman on trial for shooting her philandering husband, with Adam Bonner (Tracy) being the prosecutor. Their fight spilled from the courtroom into their home. Not only were the leads married, the scriptwriters—Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin—were, too.
A little dated, a little too earnest but entertaining with it. A classic film.
Victim (1961): Copywriters sometimes like to slap “the film that changed the world” on the back of a reissued DVD. It’s usually not the case. But every once in a while a film does make a positive difference to society: Cathy Come Home, say, helped boost support for the newly-launched Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity.
The book Film and the Law: The Cinema of Justice—the “founding text” in the analysis of the legal film genre, according to the New York Law School—argues that Victim contributed to the liberalisation of English laws and society’s attitudes regarding homosexuality. Sexual acts between consenting men were illegal in England and Wales before the passing of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 and in Victim Dirk Bogarde (The Spanish Gardener, Doctor in the House, Death in Venice) plays Melville Farr, a closeted barrister. Farr is married—his wife played by Sylvia Sims (Ice Cold in Alex)—and is on course to become a QC.
When a gay friend of Farr commits suicide after being blackmailed, Farr chooses to stand up against the blackmailers, knowing that if his sexuality becomes public it’ll mean he’ll lose his career, his appointment as a QC and possibly his marriage.
Though initially banned in the USA for its use of the word “homosexual”, the film raised awareness of the injustice of the law where sexuality was concerned. With fine performances from Sims and Bogarde, who won the best-actor BAFTA for his role, Victim is a film worthy of the blurb “the film that changed the world a bit”.
My Sister’s Keeper (2009): Based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Jodi Picoult, a girl is conceived by in vitro fertilisation to be a genetic match for her older sister, who suffers from acute progranulocytic leukemia.
Unlike Kazuo Ishiguro’s neo-dystopian Never Let Me Go, Picoult’s novel doesn’t involve cloning or farming for body parts—rather, it’s centered on a child, Anna, being conceived with the intention of keeping her older sister, Kate, alive, her parents being played by Cameron Diaz (The Mask, There’s Something About Mary) and Jason Patric (The Lost Boys).
Anna later, aged 11, seeks medical emancipation from her parents when she is expected to donate a kidney to her sister Kate. The mother is aghast; her father sides with Anna. Diaz gets remission from the frothy roles she’s known for and viewers get to ponder what they’d do in a similar position.
Previously: 20-16
Next: 10-6
In November 2010, 
Enigma Solicitors' Blog 