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Real to Reel: Truth and Trickery in Courtroom Movies
By Michael Asimow and Paul Bergman
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Vandeplas Publishing, 2021 516 pages; $38.99
Reviewed by Henry Cohn
Movies about lawyers are widely popular. In 1996, two UCLA law school professors, Michael Asimow and Paul Bergman, published a comprehensive reference book on movies based on legal themes. Titled Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies, it was well-reviewed, and they issued a revised version in 2006 that discussed additional movies. In 2021, now emeritus, they issued yet another edition, renamed Real to Reel: Truth and Trickery in Courtroom Movies.
Real to Reel, with some differences, retains the basic organization of the earlier books. It has 15 chapters, each discussing movies with similar significant legal or social issues. The films are summarized, and, where applicable, there are sections on the relationships to actual incidents that inspired the movie plot. The authors also discuss the legal subject matter and the accuracy of its presentation as well as the long-term public implications of the film.
The book covers a variety of movies.
Town Without Pity involves a situation where townspeople turn against a woman who alleges she was raped by four soldiers. Its well-known theme song was performed by singer Gene Pitney. Vera
Drake portrays a time in England when performing an abortion was a crime. Judgment at Nuremberg and The Life of Emile
Zola highlight the court’s role in eliminating intentional suppression of the truth by a government.
Evidentiary proof lies at the heart of My
Cousin Vinny and Witness for the Prosecution. The authors point out interesting twists as defense counsel present unexpected witnesses.
The abolition of the death penalty is a theme in A Place in the Sun and Knock on
Any Door as well as in Just Mercy, a 2019 film about a real case handled by attorney Bryan Stevenson.
The authors do not ignore humorous legal films. Among these are Adam’s Rib, where Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn play a husband and wife aggressively facing off as prosecutor and defense attorney in a murder trial. In Legally Blond, a law student who is presumed to have weak trial skills is able to persevere and prove her winning capabilities in the courtroom.
The following classic films are among those analyzed in the book:
Compulsion is fiction but is based on the true story of the Leopold-Loeb murder trial, in which Clarence Darrow represented both defendants. The authors criticize the fact that both Clarence Darrow and the Clarence Darrow character in the movie pressured the two accused clients to enter guilty pleas just before jury deliberations. This approach gave Darrow the opportunity to convince the court to give his clients life sentences instead of the death penalty.
The Wrong Man, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Henry Fonda, concentrates on the difficulties faced by the accused and his family. The authors use this movie to emphasize the importance of bail, showing how the accused uses his time on bail to assemble his defense. 12 Angry Men is regarded as one of the finest films ever made. Both the movie and Real to Reel give insight into the importance of the jury system. Henry Fonda’s character was the only juror to vote not guilty during the deliberations; this would have secured a mistrial. But by convincing the other 11 jurors to change their votes from guilty to not guilty, he was able to get the defendant acquitted. This makes for an exceptional drama.
Inherit the Wind is based on the famous Scopes monkey trial, with wonderful acting by Frederick March and Spencer Tracy. The authors consider whether the presiding judge went too far in excluding evidence and in failing to rule that the Tennessee law, on which the trial was based, was unconstitutional.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Miracle on 34th Street address the relationship between a guardian or conservator and a ward. Similar issues have been raised recently by Brittany Spears.
The Verdict is a spectacular film in which an attorney, brilliantly played by Paul Newman, wins a case that he probably should have lost based on the law. The authors discuss whether the trial judge correctly excluded evidence under the best evidence rule.
Anatomy of a Murder was based on a book written by a Michigan Supreme Court Justice. The authors find the heart of the story to be the rule that, on cross-examination, an attorney should NEVER ask a question not knowing how the witness will answer.
Asimow and Bergman’s fascinating observations will enhance one’s enjoyment of these legally themed movies.
Judge Henry S. Cohn was appointed a judge of the Connecticut Superior Court in 1997 and became a Connecticut Judge Trial Referee in 2015. He is the co-author of a book on the 1944 Hartford, Connecticut, Circus Fire published by Yale University Press. He has written several law review articles, and The Federal Lawyer has published his book reviews for many years.
