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3 Essential Lawyer Films Every Movie Fan Should See
by Susan Melony
There are a lot of movies about lawyers. Some have certainly been more successful than others in theaters, but a few have become contemporary classics. Those that have were able to make the law and courtroom cases seem exciting and dramatic.
In this article, we’ll go over a few of the more compelling lawyer movies out there. If you’re a movie buff, you should definitely add these to your watch list. You can often find them on the various streaming services that are available now.
My Cousin Vinny
In this film, released in 1992, a small-town police force accuses two young New Yorkers of murdering a gas station attendant. They’re in the South and out of their element. You’ll probably recognize one of them, Ralph Macchio, best known for playing Danny LaRusso in the Karate Kid movies and the ongoing Cobra Kai series.
The two youths call for the only lawyer they know, the titular cousin Vinny, played by Joe Pesci. Pesci was at the height of his fame, coming off successes in Home Alone and Goodfellas the previous two years.
Pesci, along with his girlfriend, the talented and lovely Marisa Tomei, arrives in town, where the audience quickly realizes that Pesci has no courtroom experience to date. In fact, he does not have a valid license to practice law yet.
This is essentially a fish-out-of-water story, with the humor coming from Pesci’s inept character, with Macchio playing the straight man. Marisa Tomei is the real gem, though, as she picked up an Oscar for her performance and became a veritable household name as a result.
Tomei’s character proves to be a regular fount of knowledge, who tends to know about all things mechanical. As it turns out, knowing obscure facts, such as there being more than 100,000 trucking accidents on US roadways annually, can sometimes save you from a murder charge in a courtroom. It’s Tomei’s automotive know-how that ultimately gets Macchio and his friend off the hook.
A Few Good Men
This is another quintessential 90s movie, this one starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, and a whole slew of others, including Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kevin Pollack.
After a Marine turns up dead, Cruise is the inexperienced lawyer who must get to the bottom of what happened, along with Demi Moore and Kevin Pollack’s help. The marines who are on the hook for the murder contend that they were acting under orders.
This leads to one of the most well-known and explosive courtroom scenes in cinematic history when Cruise questions Jack Nicholson’s character under oath. Like Pesci in My Cousin Vinny, Nicholson was arguably at his career’s height, as he’d made a ton of money depicting The Joker in Batman a couple of years earlier.
The courtroom scene builds to a dramatic crescendo, with Nicholson screaming at Cruise’s character that “you can’t handle the truth!” Nicholson made a killing on this film, despite the fact that he only appeared in a few critical scenes.
Philadelphia
In yet another 90s throwback, Tom Hanks won an Oscar for his depiction of a man with AIDS whose company fires him. This was a controversial topic in the 90s, and while Hanks has played some standout characters over the years, this was perhaps one of the most memorable and tragic.
Denzel Washington also shines as the homophobic small-town lawyer who has to confront his prejudices and undergoes a transformative experience as he learns about his own humanity and decency. This film, much like A Few Good Men, shows the courtroom as being a place where determined individuals force the truth to the surface.
That seems to be the job of the best lawyer dramas: they build to dramatic cross-examinations where a central character wins over the jury, or else the crusading lawyer gets the main antagonist to reveal more about themselves than they would have wished.
The Rainmaker, also from this era, gets an honorable mention, as does The Lincoln Lawyer, which came along some years later. Many of the best actors of the past half-century picked up award nominations and wins for their lawyer dramas, and writer John Grisham has made millions from various directors turning his novels into blockbusters.
Courtroom dramas are not everyone’s favorites, but there are several that seem to have an enduring legacy. Also, a director can typically make them without a massive budget for explosions and special effects, and that’s a distinct rarity these days.
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