Great Attorney Performances on the Big Screen

I recently graduated from law school and I have always had a love for the legal system.  As a child, I watched movies and I was drawn to the actors who played attorneys in the movies.  In most cases, the attorney played the role of a hero.  The attorneys seemed to be the good guys who fought against oppression and spoke for the indigent and underprivileged.  Nowadays, it seems that attorneys have been stereotyped as greedy, unscrupulous, deviant people.  I do not agree with this generalization and quite frankly, I find it to be quite offensive.    As in any profession, it only takes a few bad apples to ruin the reputation of a profession that otherwise is full of courageous, selfless, and generous professionals.  The list below symbolizes some of the ways attorneys have been stereotyped by movie directors.

“A Few Good Men” is a classic movie.   Tom Cruise plays a defense attorney who represents two marines accused of murdering a fellow marine.  At the beginning of the movie, one of the co-defendants did not respect Cruise and even went so far as to not salute him even though he was a Navy officer.  He viewed Cruise as being a person who only cared about himself.  By the end of the movie, however, Cruise had earned his respect by displaying characteristics of honor, loyalty, and courage.  My favorite scene in the movie occurs when Tom Cruise calls Jack Nicholson’s character to the witness stand and performs a direct examination regarding whether he ordered a “Code Red.”  Because Nicholson’s character was a decorated military hero, Cruise knew he could be placed in contempt of  court and possibly brought up on charges as well if he did not approach the examination with due care.  In the famous scene, Cruise asked Nicholson a question and Nicholson responded by saying, “you want the truth, you can’t handle the truth!”  Check it out.

“My Cousin Vinny” is a comedy starring Joe Pesci.  Pesci played a New York defense attorney and his nephew and nephew’s friend were charged with murder in Alabama.  Pesci had an unorthodox style and the movie is filled with funny moments.  Although it is a comedy, the scene in the movie where Joe Pesci laid the foundation for an expert witness has actually been used in teaching the technique in Trial Practice classes across the country.  My favorite scene in the movie occurs when Joe Pesci cross examines a witness about how long it took him to make grits.  During direct testimony, the witness testified that it took him ten minutes to make breakfast.  On cross examination, Pesci attacked his credibility and asked him how it took him ten minutes to make grits when it takes much longer to make grits anywhere else in the country.  He joked that maybe the witness had magic grits.  Although his method was unorthodox, he proved his point of destroying the witnesses’ credibility. 

In Lincoln Lawyer, Matthew McConaughey plays a slick, borderline unethical defense attorney.  McConaughey represented a wealthy defendant who was accused of a heinous murder.  At first, McConaughey believed he was innocent, but he later discovered the defendant was guilty of the current murder and that he had also committed an eerily similar murder a few years prior to the current murder charge.  And to make matters worse, McConaughey actually represented the defendant in the first case, who was innocent, and he persuaded him to take a plea bargain.  As a result, that man ended up being incarcerated for a crime he never committed.  Because his current client told him he committed the murder during an attorney/client meeting, the confidential communication was protected by the attorney-client privilege and he could not tell the authorities that his client was guilty.  Ultimately, McConaughey maneuvered around the system and found a way to zealously represent his client and to help the innocent man be released from prison.  My favorite scene from the movie is where he figures out that his client is really guilty and he devises a plan that ultimately leads to the innocent man being exonerated of the murder he was convicted of committing.

“A Time To Kill” is by far the most serious movie on my list.  In this movie, McConaughey plays a defense attorney who represents a man who is accused of murdering the men who raped his little daughter.  Samuel L. Jackson played the role of a hard working father who did not have a lot of money or formal education.  When Jackson discovered his daughter’s attackers would likely be released after serving minimum or no time in prison, he snapped and murdered them both at the courthouse.  At this point, we all understood why the movie was properly entitled “A Time To Kill.”  During McConaughey’s representation of Jackson, he experienced a range of emotions and endured many trial and tribulations.  Ultimately, he defended Jackson and won a favorable outcome for his client.  My favorite scene from the movie is McConaughey’s closing argument.  Check it out.

Peace