Asimow, Michael

Bergman, Paul

English

UND Scholarly Commons (University of North Dakota)

North Dakota Law Review Volume 73 Number 2 Article 8 1997 Reel Justice - The Courtroom Goes to the Movies Paul Bergman Michael Asimow Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr  Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Bergman, Paul and Asimow, Michael (1997) "Reel Justice - The Courtroom Goes to the Movies," North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 73 : No. 2 , Article 8. Available at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol73/iss2/8 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Dakota Law Review by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact und.commons@library.und.edu. BOOK REVIEWREEL JUSTICE - THE COURTROOM GOES TO THE MovIEsBy Paul Bergman and Michael Asimow. Andrew and McMeel, 1996.REVIEWED BY: BRUCE D. QuICK*Famous last words! I promised myself, and my legal assistant, HazelAshworth, that I would never, even in my weakest moment, ever agree towrite another Law Review article, and that she would never have to typeanother footnote.lJust when you thought it was safe to go back into the water .... 2But this is not really a Law Review article; this is a book review. Iconfess that when the Editor in Chief provided me with the book inquestion and advised me to "just look at the book" and if I did not wantto do the book review, I could keep it, I secretly had no intention ofwriting the book review. I began reading the book, became interested,and finished it. Alas, I now feel compelled "to do the right thing." 3I suspect I was given the book because the students at the NorthDakota Law School believe that Professor Lockney and I need some newmaterial. They are presumably tired of seeing snippets from the movieMy Cousin Vinny and Anatomy of a Murder, which have found their wayinto our criminal trial advocacy class over the past five years.Well, I am pleased to notify all of you attorney types who happen toenjoy movies about trials of an excellent resource for your library. Thisbook, Reel Justice - The Courtroom Goes to the Movies,4 is written forboth lawyers and non-lawyers alike (although I cannot imagine any non-lawyer paging through a Law Review for any reason, especially perusingbook reviews). The co-authors, Paul Bergman and Michael Asimow,who are professors at the UCLA School of Law (who do not includetheir own biographies or photographs, unless Bergman and Asimow look* Attorney at Law, Vogel, Kelly, Knutson, Weir, & Hunke, Ltd., 502 First Avenue North, Fargo,North Dakota 58107 USA.1. There is just something about Law Review articles that seems to cry out for footnotes andcitations. It was not easy to find a case law citation for this paragraph, but see Snyder's Drug St., Inc.v. North Dakota St. Bd. of Pharmacy., 219 N.W.2d 140, 143 (N.D. 1972), in which Chief JusticeErickstad begins a North Dakota Supreme Court appellate decision with the words: "Famous lastwords!"2. Loosely quoted from the movies "Jaws 1, II, and III."3. This is not an actual quotation but there is a recent movie called "That Thing You Do" and anolder astronaut movie called "The Right Stuff ' .4. PAUL BERGMAN & MICHAEL AsImow, REEL JusTicE- T HE CouRTRooM GoEs To ThE MOVIES(1996).NORTH DAKOTA LAW REVIEWa lot like Woody Allen and Humphrey Bogart), have picked sixty-ninetrial movies by searching for the "great classics of the genre" but alsosome "not-so-great trial movies that present interesting legal and ethicalissues." 5They have also ranked each movie on a scale of one to four gavels.Their ranking system is based on "the quality, dramatic power, andauthenticity of the trial scenes in the movie.. Four gavels is a classic,three is good, two is just okay, and one means ask for a new trial."6The authors generally provide a summary of "the story" followedby a legal analysis of the various issues that may have arisen during themovie. They often conclude with a segment entitled "trial brief." It isthe authors' intention, and I believe they do it well, to advise the readerwhen Hollywood is bending the rules "to inject drama or humor intotrial movies." 7They also attempt to answer the moviegoer's "unanswered ques-tions" after they see trial movies. Was the plot legally plausible? Canthe attorney do that? Did the judge properly rule on the various objec-tions and why? For example, in the classic Inherit The Wind the authorsexplain the story, which involves the State of Tennessee passing a crimi-nal statute which forbade any public school teacher from teaching thatman descended from a lower order of animals. The local biologyteacher violated the law only to be criminally prosecuted by a three-timepresidential candidate who was hired by the local prosecutor for thispurpose. The national media descended upon the town and the newspa-per hires a famous trial lawyer to conduct the defense. Despite brilliantcross-examination of the prosecutor, who takes the stand as an expert onthe bible, the jury convicts the teacher. The judge requires a minimalsentence of a $100 fine and the fill-in prosecutor has a stroke and dies.In the legal analysis of the movie, the authors discuss the wisdom ofchange of venue (which was not requested); the purpose of jury selection(which was used here for long speeches by both attorneys); jury nullifi-cation in a criminal case; and finally, many of the evidentiary rulings,including the testimony by the opposing counsel as an expert witness.Of course, Inherit the Wind is a recreation of the Scopes monkeytrial that actually occurred in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925. The ACLUadvertised for a teacher willing to cooperate in a challenge of the statute,and apparently the local businessmen thought that a trial would bringthem national attention. The teacher was actually a football coach whonever taught evolution but generally discussed football during biology5. Id. at xviii.6. Id.7. Id.[VOL. 73:389390BOOK REVIEW - REEL JUSTICEclass. The football coach/teacher was never actually called as a witnessbecause he knew nothing of evolution, and the school boys who testifiedabout the incident in question had to be coached. The fill-in prosecutorwas obviously William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow was retainedby the ACLU to defend Scopes. As in the movie, Darrow actually calledBryan to the stand as an expert on the bible, but the judge struck theentire cross-examination as irrelevant. Both sides agreed that the juryshould receive a directed verdict of guilty and neither side made closingarguments. Bryan lived five days after the trial having arranged forpublication of his summation before he died. On appeal, the TennesseeSupreme Court reversed the conviction but upheld the statute.8 TheCourt recommended that the case not be retried in the interests of"peace and dignity of the state" and it was not.9 This statute remainedon the Tennessee books until it was repealed in 1967, but the footballcoach was the only person ever prosecuted under it.The authors take a similar approach, more or less, to discussing theother sixty-eight trial movies mentioned in their book. The movies areorganized into eight sections:The Story You Are About to See is True... - Although there areother true crime movies in other sections of the book, there are elevenmovies discussed here which include Inherit the Wind, Judgment atNuremberg, and A Man for All Seasons.Men in Uniform - The trial movies collected here deal with the sy-stem of military justice and include classics such as Breaker Morant, TheCaine Mutiny, as well as more current movies such as A Few Good Men.The Lighter Side of Lawsuits - As the title implies, the trial movieshere are generally satires, and the best of the lot is My Cousin Vinny.Heroic Lawyers and Clients - The movies in this category aredesigned to improve the perception of lawyers and include To Kill aMockingbird, In the Name of the Father, and Philadelphia.Don't Become Too Attached to Your Client - Not too many non-criminal cases in this category, although the trial movies discussed hereaddress not only romantic involvements but also friendship. The moviesdiscussed here include the classic Witness for the Prosecution and TheJagged Edge.It's Nothing but a Bunch of Circumstantial Evidence - There aresome great trial movies in this category including A Place in the Sun,Fury, and Presumed Innocent.Unusual Judges and Jurors - This includes two of the all-timeclassics, Anatomy of a Murder, and Twelve Angry Men.8. Scopes v. State of Tennessee, 289 S.W. 363, 367 (1927).9. Id.19971NORTH DAKOTA LAW REVIEWDollars and Sense - The majority of the civil cases found theirway into this category including Libel, Kramer v. Kramer, and Miracleon 34th Street.Of the sixty-nine movies analyzed, all but eleven deal with criminallaw in some way. I am frankly baffled as to why more trial movies havenot been written about probate, tax law, mortgage foreclosures, and thelike, but I suspect that Rumpole of the Bailey is right when he states:When I was called to the Bar, too long ago now for me toremember with any degree of comfort, I may have had high-flown ideas about general practice of a more or less lushvariety - divorcing duchesses, defending stars of stage andscreen from imputations of unchastity, getting shipping com-panies out of scrapes. But I soon found that it's crime whichnot only pays moderately well but which is also by far thegreatest fun. OI certainly do not mean to suggest to the non-criminal law practi-tioners that practicing criminal law is any more interesting than draftingcontracts, probating estates, or answering complex tax questions, butperhaps some of you may wish to volunteer for the federal courtappointment list.I was surprised by the number of Academy Award nominations andAcademy Awards that trial movies have collected over the years. Of thethirteen "four gavel winners," all but one (Libel, a non-criminal case)was either nominated for or received Academy Awards. The four gavellist is as follows:Anatomy of a MurderBreaker MorantThe Caine MutinyFuryInherit the WindJudgment at NurembergLibelThe Life of Emil ZolaA Man for All SeasonsMy Cousin VinnyTo Kill a MockingbirdTwelve Angry MenWitness for the ProsecutionOf the remaining fifty-eight movies, another twenty-four also received10. JoHN MORTIMER, THE TRLALs oF RUwMOLE (1988).392 [VOL. 73:389BOOK REVIEW - REEL JUSTICEAcademy Award nominations and Awards or both.In addition to summarizing the story of the movie and providinganalysis, the authors also offer four sidebars throughout the book:* Women Trial Lawyers in the Movies• The Hearsay Rule* Circumstantial Evidence* Character EvidenceIn three of these "digressions" the authors explain, in layman'slanguage, various niceties of the hearsay rule, the rules against badcharacter evidence introduction, and an explanation of circumstantialevidence. (Where was this stuff in law school?) The fourth sidebardiscusses the stereotypical treatment women trial lawyers often receive inthe movies.For those attorneys who believe we do not need a book about trialmovies to explain the abuses that Hollywood inflicts on these movies toencourage attendance, let me offer the following. A number of thesemovies are based, sometimes literally, often loosely, on true events. Ifound it extremely interesting, for example, to read the true facts of themovie The Accused, which details the attempts of a victim of a gang rapeto seek justice against the barflies who cheered on the rapists.And come on - do all of us really know all the ins and outs of therules of evidence? For example, in the analysis of my favorite, MyCousin Vinny, the authors explain that Vinny's girlfriend, Mona Lisa,would be eligible to testify as a mechanic even though her backgroundwas that of a hairdresser:Of course, half the cast turns out to be expert mechanics.Vinny, Mona Lisa, the FBI agent, and Trotter [prosecutor] allsound like they should be maintaining the Starship Enterpriserather then doing hair or trying cases. They may explain whyit's so difficult to get a decent tune-up these days; qualifiedmechanics are writing movies or practicing law.IlIn short, I would recommend that you pick up a copy of this book,and, as importantly, rent as many of these movies as possible. As anaside, I have always wanted to write a book about a true crime case, but Imay have to be satisfied with simply writing a book review of a bookabout the true crime genre.Fortunately, this book predates all of the O.J. books and what Ipresume will be all of the O.J. movies. I suspect a sequel will benecessary.11. BERGMAN & AsiMow, supra note 4, at 107.1997] 393

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