Courts

'On The Basis Of Sex': The Must-See Biopic About Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Get ready to learn more about a pioneer for women's rights and become part of a stunning cinematic experience.

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The year 2018 is finally drawing to a close, and these 12 months have been marked by legal controversy after legal controversy in the #MeToo era, each one inspiring lawyers to stand up for what’s right, what’s just, and what’s fair, reminding the world exactly why this is often referred to as the most noble profession. What better finale for the Year of the Woman than the story of the humble beginnings of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the first women to declare that time was up for gender-based discrimination in what was once a man’s world.

Released just months after “RBG,” the wildly successful documentary film that tracks Justice Ginsburg from her childhood to her 25th year on the Supreme Court, “On the Basis of Sex” serves as the origin story for the feminist superhero that the Notorious R.B.G. has become through her life’s work. Directed by Mimi Leder, a very serious Felicity Jones stars as a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg and brings screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman’s engaging script to life through her chemistry with co-star Armie Hammer, who plays a young and incredibly endearing Martin Ginsburg.

I recently had the opportunity to watch an advance screening of the film thanks to Warshaw Burstein, in partnership with The Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law. This review may contain spoilers, in so much as history can be considered a spoiler.

The film begins in the late 1950s, when Ginsburg — a young mother who was just one of nine women in a class of hundreds of men at Harvard Law School — is forced by Dean Erwin Griswold (Sam Waterston) to explain why she’s “occupying a place that could have gone to a man.” Before graduation, Ginsburg struggles with her husband’s testicular cancer diagnosis by attending his classes as well as her own (Martin is a year ahead of her in school), and later transfers to Columbia Law to keep her family together after he lands a job at a white-shoe law firm in New York. Following graduation, despite all of her successes thus far, because she’s a woman, Ginsburg is unable to find employment at any law firm and resigns herself to a career in academia instead of working as an attorney. Sensing his wife’s disappointment, Martin offers a celebratory, heart-warming toast of “Hooray for Mommy,” encouraging their young daughter to clink her sippy cup against her parents’ champagne glasses.

Fast forward to the 1970s, and Ginsburg — who often clashes with her daughter, Jane, over the era’s protest culture for women’s rights — is inspired by what will soon become the landmark case of Moritz v. Commissioner, and finds herself at one of the most pivotal moments of her career: with Martin at her side in the first and only case they’ll ever litigate together, she’s about to “topple the whole damn system of discrimination.” The case winds up at the Tenth Circuit, where Ginsburg delivers such an impassioned plea for gender equality in the law that audience members couldn’t help themselves but to shed a tear. “This is just the beginning,” Ginsburg intones as they exit the courthouse together. In the final shots of the film, Jones is filmed from behind as she climbs the steps that lead up to the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The camera angle then changes to reveal a cameo by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself as she enters the courthouse, ready to change the world once more.

This is a film that will surely resonate with the legal community, and with women in particular. Though Natalie Portman was originally supposed to take on this role, Felicity Jones, who bears an uncanny resemblance to our beloved RBG in her youth, brought Ginsburg’s character to life (despite her occasional difficulties with the Justice’s Brooklyn accent). On the whole, Jones’s captivating rendition of the aspirational women’s rights pioneer who truly believes that there can be equality for all is simply breathtaking. Her performance, dare I say, may well be Oscar bait.

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In a special panel session after the screening that featured Daniel Stiepleman (who is not only the film’s screenwriter, but Ginsburg’s nephew) and Kathleen Peratis of Outten & Golden (who worked with Ginsburg as the former director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project), Stiepelman told those who were gathered in the theatre an important lesson he learned about the judicial system while writing his screenplay.

Kathleen Peratis and Daniel Stiepelman (Photo via Staci Zaretsky)

It’s an ideal that Ruth taught me which is kind of hard to remember today. That it is possible to live in a country where we try to persuade the people who disagree with us instead of destroying them, and that the courts should be the best place to do that. and that’s what they’re supposed to exist for. I don’t know how we get back to that, but I really hope we can, and I hope that this film can help remind people of that ideal.

In fact, Stiepelman became so engaged with his aunt’s life story that he thought he might want to follow in her footsteps and become a lawyer himself.

When I was writing this, I became convinced that I wanted to go to law school and I took an LSAT. By the way, I did very well I’ll have you know. Then I finished the script and I was like why did I think I wanted to be a lawyer? It wasn’t me, it was Aunt Ruth in my head. Then she was really disappointed because the movie got sold and she was like, ‘I thought you were going to go to law school.’ I think she’s okay with it now because she really likes the film.

Peratis, who worked alongside Ginsburg and remains friends with her to this day, shared this anecdote about her ascension to woman we know as the Notorious R.B.G.

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One of the things that I find remarkable about Ruth becoming such a superstar, a superhero, the most famous meme in the world, is that that wasn’t how she was when Marty was alive. The diva in the family was Marty. Ruth had and has a very modest demeanor; Marty did not have a modest demeanor. He was a big, funny, wonderful person, and I think that this persona which she loves — she loves what’s going on now — I don’t think that would’ve happened if he was still alive. I don’t think she would’ve stepped into that spot. She wouldn’t have been comfortable with it.

Sophie Jacobi-Parisi, a partner at Warshaw Burstein who organized the screening, had this to say about the movie: “As a working lawyer mom trying to balance marriage, parenting, firm partnership, and clients, this is an absolute must-see!” I could not agree more, and sincerely hope you’ll consider watching this film. After all, you could learn a lesson or two about how America’s justice system is supposed to work.

“On the Basis of Sex” opens in theatres on December 25, 2018.

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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