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The Celluloid Courtroom A History of Legal Cinema
Ross D. Levi
Book Code: C8233
ISBN: 0-275-98233-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-98233-1
192 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 3/30/2005
List Price: $41.95 (UK Sterling Price: £24.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • The author looks at American courtroom films and categorizes them according to "parties to the action": client, judge, jury, lawyer. He argues that these films reveal that, despite Americans' recognition that corruption is possible within the legal system, as a population they also tend to (want to) believe that justice triumphs....[a] useful compendium of a particular film genre over the past 30 years. Extensive film collections.
    —Choice     March 2006
  • The Celluloid Courtroom will be a useful handbook for aficionados--and hopefully, a springboard for future studies.
    —Film International     2007
  • [L]ooks in turn at the major players in such films - the client, judge, jury, and the lawyer - and examines how their portrayals have changed over the course of cinematic history.
    —Reference & Research Book News/Art Book News Annual     August 2005
Description: The genre of legal cinema is an extensive and revealing one: it is a body of films that depicts lawyers, clients, criminals, judges, and juries, often not as they actually are, but as we would like them to be. The idealized courtroom of many legal movies tells us a great deal about what we think of our justice system and what we want it to reflect about America, but the films in the genre vary widely in how they do this. From To Kill a Mockingbird to Liar, Liar, from A Time to Kill to Twelve Angry Men, we see certain stereotypes repeating themselves again and again: the judge as stern referee, the jury as an ultimately fair body of decisionmakers, the lawyer as hardworking and passionate fighter for the underdog. In this new and comprehensive study of this understudied category of film, author Ross D. Levi argues that, contrary to popular belief, legal movies show us a system that is far more fair than our actual one, with corruption downplayed and greed made subordinate to compassion and compromise. These are films that have affected as much as reflected the American justice system, as we enter the courts hoping, often against hope, that they will be something like what we've seen in the movies. With a comprehensive filmography, penetrating analysis--both legal and cinematic--and engaging and enlightening discussion, The Celluloid Courtroom is an indispensable guide to a key aspect of American movies and American justice.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: Making the Case
  • Parties to the Action
  • The State Versus... The Client
  • All Rise: The Judge
  • Trial of One's Peers: The Jury
  • Shysters and Saints: The Lawyer
  • Conclusion: Summary Judgement
  • Appendix: Order in the Court
LC Card Number: 200402824
LCC Class: PN1995
Dewey Class: 791
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