Alright. I've looked through the clips, reviewed your thoughtful comments, and narrowed the field to four movie trials/trial movies.
1) And Justice for All. Al Pacino at his best.
2) My Cousin Vinny. Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, and Herman Munster. What's not to love?
3) A Few Good Men. Jack and Tom, trying to handle the truth. 'Nuff said.
4) To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck as a noble Southern lawyer, fighting the good fight.
It pained me to leave out Bogie as Captain Queeg, and Spencer Tracy as Clarence Darrow, but you can't have everything is this world. Monty Python and the Holy Grail didn't make the cut because, even though I loved the trial and the ridulous logic resulting in a witch's conviction ("It's a fair cop"), the trial wasn't central to the movie. I've also included a movie where the trial itself may not have been stellar, but it was central to a great movie with wonderful ideals. Vote for your favorite. Vote for more than one, if you want. Vote often. May the best candidate(s) win.
Leo Baggett
About Me
- superdave524
- I was born in Montana, raised in Tampa, and reside in a small town in the lowcountry of South Carolina with the Lovely Lady Di, and son Tyler. Walterboro (the 'Boro) has about 5,100 residents. It's a moderately interesting place. I work in the public defender's office representing poor people charged with crimes. Some of them did it. Some of them didn't do it. Some are not very nice, a lot of them are just regular Joes with a huge plate of bad luck. I'm a moderately interesting fellow, who has the good fortune to know or be related to some very interesting people. Is there anyone out there?
14 comments:
I've thought about it. I have to go with TKAMB. It's the only movie without a fatal flaw.
And Justice for all. You're all out of order. Yeah right AL, drop and give me 20... more cliche's and go back to work in that diner, whoo-Rah. Fatal Flaw.
My Cousin Vinny, ok, it's a comedy and I like it, but Ralph Macho doesn't even do the Crane Technique once. That's a fatal flaw.
A Few Good Men. Ok, this dude's planned and planned and lied and lied, and this dude that Jack hates gets him to spill his guts in court. Right. More likely Jack has him fragged. But he keeps his cool when the Cuban's shoot at him, but L Ron's boy draws the truth out of him. Fatal Flaw
Actually, the more a witness hates you, the more likely you can make him angry. Once they get angry, they're a lot easier to control. Smart witnesses are also easier to cross-examine than dumb ones, because they'll try to figure out where you're going and give the opposite answer. They usually guess wrong. Lawyers are terrible witnesses because of that. Best way to counteract that? Tell the truth.
The hardest nuts to crack are the dudes or dudettes that say, "that's my story and I'm stickin' to it". They don't recognize when they should be "in trouble" so they never change their story.
Yeah, no Crane technique is a problem.
Every Witness should start with, "Look I don't know what you thought you saw..."
Exactly! The Audacity of a well-told lie. That is one of the stories a frequently tell about one of my War-Eagle relatives.
Nobody even mentioned The Verdict, another great law-talkin' flick ... or the late, great Perry Mason ... or Matlock ... say, what if Perry Mason and Matlock were on opposite sides, who would win?
As for you note earlier, did I get drunk and dis' Sunny? I don't seem to remember it .. Sunny, if I did, my bad.
My friends are used to me saying outrageous shit when I'm drunk.
Chase, I guess you coulda been dissing me, or maybe nobody. Anyway, didn't seem like anybody got their feelings hurt.
Perry Mason totally rocked. Sunny said that Atticus Finch drove her into law; it was Perry Mason that hooked me. Not sure I ever talked much about it as a lad, but being a lawyer was something I wanted to do since I was little (I also wanted to marry my buddy's sister and become a senator. In the words of John Mellancamp, "Just like everything, those dreams sorta came and went"). Matlock was also very cool. I very seriously considered t.v. trials or lawyers. Maybe I'll do that one later.
So, how come you didn't vote yet?
I thought I did vote, ain't it clear? (sorry, I've lived in Florida, I expected either you'd change my vote to suit your will a la 2000, or you'd ignore my vote, a la 2008 ...
Atticus is my boy.
I'm going with Atticus. Cause none of the other movies make me cry. (Unless you count the sobs in between "Make Tom Cruise go awaaaayyyy.")
Must be sumpin' wrong with the vote counter. I'm only seeing two votes cast. Course, like Chase says, I was raised in FLA. Maybe it's automatic.
I've missed more work due to Matlock and Perry Mason than any two people around. Seems that they have those things on Every Day!
Perry would dominate Ben. Perry wasn't all that nice a guy, and he had Paul Drake (1st car phone on TV) and Della Street. Who'd Ben have? Don Knots, get the f' out!
Yeah, Perry was all business. Man, I loved that theme music, too. Hey, maybe I'll start carrying it around on a boom-box for entrances!
Thanks SD, and if I had the gall to vote, it'd be for Atticus. Is it beer-thirty yet?
Nah. Wine was the drink of the day (it being Palm Sunday and all). Always good talking to you, Sunny.
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