Greatest Courtroom Dramas

Created by eiriknielsen.

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One of the best subject areas for dramatic films (or sometimes crime films) are suspenseful, law-related courtroom dramas, which include trials that pit lawyers against each other, and set up a tense one-on-one conflict between a prosecutor and a defendant. Sometimes, the protagonists are a "little" guy (an individual) against a "big" guy (or corporation), or the more abstract "good" vs. "evil," or they often involve wider issues, such as race, sex, capital punishment (life and death), and morality. It has to be said that not all legal (courtroom) dramas include a court of law sequence (although they are fairly mandatory), while still full of legal jargon and proceedings.

And of course, courtroom dramas usually contain some of the most fascinating thematic elements in film -- murder, betrayal, deception, perjury and sex, often presented with powerful monologues or speeches, thrilling scenes of the pursuit of evidence or suspects, or climactic cross-examinations. They also may feature unexpected twists and surprise testimony, unusual motives, moral dilemmas, crusading lawyers and wrongly-accused victims.

AFI defined the courtroom drama as:

"A genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film's narrative."

Many courtroom film dramas are based on historical events, such as the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial (in Inherit the Wind (1960)), the war crimes tribunal (in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)), and Sir Thomas More's defense against treason (in A Man For All Seasons (1966)). However, for reasons of length, many non-fiction courtroom dramas are often shortened or compressed, and details are sometimes glossed over or changed.

The 'golden age' of feature film courtroom dramas lasted through the 1990s, but then a shift occurred with the rise and prominence of legal-courtroom-related TV shows, including Law & Order (1990-2010) and its spin-offs, Ally McBeal (1997-2002), The Practice (1997-2004), and other police procedurals (the NCIS franchise (2003- ) and JAG (1995-2005)). Most people fondly and nostalgically remember the earliest popular legal dramas on TV, such as Perry Mason (1957-1966) and Dragnet (1951-1959) and their many derivatives.