Movies

Standard Of Review: Where Have All The Legal Films Gone?

Culture columnist Harry Graff wonders: why is this decade so bereft of quality legal films?

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My original idea for this column was to critique the ABA Journal’s recent feature on “100 Years of Law at the Movies,” in which it named the “most important and influential legal movies for each decade” since the publication launched in 1915. But a column criticizing another article doesn’t make for good reading, and just seems unnecessarily nitpicky (not that I am above being unnecessarily nitpicky, of course). However, one aspect of the list particular struck me: the three films that the ABA Journal chose for 2005-2014 are The Social Network, North Country, and Fracture, a strange trio of “legal” films. That got me thinking – why have there been so few quality legal films during the last decade?

As an initial matter, The Social Network is not a legal movie (I told you that I was not above being unnecessarily nitpicky). The Social Network is, obviously, a lightly fictionalized drama about the founding of Facebook, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. The ABA Journal undoubtedly chose the film because it uses the deposition of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) as a framing device (remember a couple weeks ago when I wrote about pointless framing devices? This a great example of one). But Zuckerberg’s deposition is a very inconsequential aspect of the film. Moreover, while I think The Social Network is a fantastic film, the legal scenes are memorable for the wrong reasons. I was a 3L in law school when the film came out and I saw it with several of my law school friends; we all literally burst out laughing when Rashida Jones’s character tells Zuckerberg that she is a second-year litigation associate who “specializes” in voir dire.

I have not seen North Country since it came out in 2005, but I remember that while the sexual harassment case of Charlize Theron’s character Josey Aimes dominates much of the second half of that film, I would hesitate to call it a “legal film.”  And while North Country is a very good film, it is not particularly memorable (no joke; I literally had to look up the review I wrote of it for my college newspaper to even remember that I liked it) and basically disappeared into the ether, save for Academy Award nominations for Theron and Frances McDormand. (Fracture is definitely a legal movie, though I’ve never seen it; it has a 68 on Metacritic, which is solid but not spectacular).

Then what is the best truly legal film of the last decade? Amazingly enough, I might have to say The Lincoln Lawyer, which, while certainly not spectacular, features an engaging story and a solid leading performance by Matthew McConaughey, who at that point was on the cusp of the “McConaissance.” (I’m not sure if Michael Clayton counts as a legal film; if it does, then that is definitely better than The Lincoln Lawyer.) But these films pale in comparison to some of the other decades on the ABA Journal list. For example, the 1955-1964 period contains the (no pun intended) murderer’s row of 12 Angry Men, Anatomy of a Murder, Judgment at Nuremberg, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Even the 1995-2004 period has Legally Blonde, which is (in my opinion) probably the greatest legal comedy of all time (and is inexplicably left off the ABA Journal list – ok, I really need to stop nitpicking).

So why is this decade so bereft of quality legal films? TV networks are still pumping out law shows; in the past five years, we’ve had, among others, Suits, How to Get Away with Murder, Better Call Saul, and the upcoming Rob Lowe comedy The Grinder (which I cannot wait to write about).

At the risk of sounding like an old fogey (despite being in my late 20s), Hollywood just does not make as many “middlebrow” dramas as it used to. There are very few dramas or thrillers that are not either:  (a) aiming to be a blockbuster (such as the Mission: Impossible series); or (b) aiming for Academy Awards. Hollywood makes very very few movies like The Lincoln Lawyer; released in March on a modest $40 million budget, that film never had any aspirations of breaking box office records or winning awards, but it turned a profit (grossing over $80 domestically) and is well regarded. Hollywood nowadays is much like former MLB player Adam Dunn, constantly swinging for the fences and ending up with a lot of strikeouts. But it should be a little more like Ichiro, content with hitting a lot of singles (or, to continue the analogy, making a lot of small legal films).

Even so, Hollywood still green lights a large number of “prestige” films in order to win Academy Awards. But with the exception of The Judge, I can’t remember any legal films in the last five years or so that were even pushed as Oscar contenders (though I am sure someone will not hesitate to tell me that I am forgetting something). I am struggling to come up with a legitimate reason why studios do not make more legal films with Oscar aspirations. My only possible rationale is that perhaps studios believes that the traditional arc of a legal film (attorney receives a case, struggles with various obstacles, and finally pulls out a huge legal victory during the climax – think A Few Good Men) is played out and would not be received well by the Academy. But television shows such as Better Call Saul have proven that legal movies don’t have to stick to the traditional formula. And the Academy Award success of The King’s Speech and Argo proves that the Academy has not shied away from awarding more “traditional” films that are done right.

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I think these answers are pretty unsatisfying, so I am going to chalk this up to a strange anomaly. Consider this my open letter to Hollywood – make more legal films (especially good ones)! That way, I will have a lot of fodder when I nitpick the next ABA Journal list in 2025.

100 years of law at the movies [ABA Journal]

Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.

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