Vermont Law Review
Volume 28, Number 4 (2004)
reprinted by permission of the Law Review
SYMPOSIUM: LAW IN FILM/FILM IN LAW: INTRODUCTION
Michael M. Epstein*
This symposium began as a panel of presentations
delivered under the auspices of the Association of American Law Schools'
(AALS) Section on Law and the Humanities at the AALS Annual Meeting in
Atlanta, Georgia, in January 2004. Arranged and organized by Professor
Philip N. Meyer of Vermont Law School, the symposium is the latest effort
in an annual series from this Section that, over the last four years, has
sought to present a spectrum of interdisciplinary scholarship engaging
popular representations of law and lawyers as art, instruments of socio-economic
hegemony, and signifiers of cultural power. Since 2000, the Section on
Law and the Humanities has benefited greatly from a steady increase in
active members. This increase was evident at the Atlanta program, which
drew nearly 100 participants and culminated in a lively and thoughtful
full-room debate that underscored the inclusion and diversity that the
Section seeks to foster. This year, the Law and Humanities symposium is
publishing six articles, all of which undertake to engage critically the
image of the lawyer in film.
In an article entitled "The Slotting Function:
How Movies Influence Political Decisions," John Denvir examines representations
of law and lawlessness in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The
Godfather, The Godfather II, and Dirty Harry. Using a
form of analysis that mixes film criticism with an effects hypothesis akin
to George Gerbner's cultivation theory, Denvir places his film study in
dialogue with President George W. Bush's violent response to the attacks
of September 11, 2001.
James Elkins, in "Reading/Teaching Lawyer
Films," chronicles how he uses film as a tool to help his law students
develop a set of skills and sensibilities that will enrich them as lawyers
and as people. In describing this process of "professional socialization,"
Elkins provides readers with an endorsement of the educational effectiveness
of a number of lawyer films, though he expresses concern that some films
may lose their educational value because students find them too entertaining.
In "Using Non-Fiction Films as Visual Texts
in the First-Year Criminal Law Course," Philip Meyer sets out to do precisely
what the article's title suggests. Meyer offers an empirical analysis of
how visual texts can be used effectively in the law classroom, with special
emphasis on television programs such as Frontline and The Sopranos.
Meyer presents his view that these texts can enhance law school pedagogy
since students learn differently when they engage the law visually and
in the context of storytelling.
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Francis M. Nevins, in "Reconnoitering Juriscinema's
First Golden Age: Law and Lawyers in Film, 1928-34," reviews films that
used lawyers, law and the concept of justice as themes during the era when
"talkie" films were emerging in America. In analyzing films from this period,
Nevins has coined the neologism "juriscinema" to identify narrative formulas
relating to the lawyer character and use of the courtroom that are evident
across genre during the early thirties.
For David R. Papke, the focus is on cinematic
representations of law professors and whether these representations reflect
the reality of law teaching. In "Crusading Hero, Devoted Teacher, and Sympathetic
Failure: The Self-Image of the Law Professor in Hollywood Cinema and in
Real Life, Too", Papke critically examines representations of legal academicians
such as Edward G. Robinson's zealous, self-righteous Lindsay in I Am
the Law, devoted curmudgeons like Kingsfield in The Paper Chase
and Stromwell in Legally Blonde, and morally flawed, pathetic has-beens
typified by Sam Shepard's Callahan, linked romantically to Julia Roberts'
character in The Pelican Brief. He assesses the impact of these
representations on the identities that real law teachers construct for
themselves.
Finally, Papke's analysis complements this
author's contribution to the symposium, "Law and the Supernatural: How
One Film's Truth Compulsion Conceit Critiques and Redeems the Post-O.J.
Lawyer," which sets out to assess the cultural power of the magically transfixed
trial lawyer in the film Liar, Liar.
The AALS Section on Law and the Humanities,
in conjunction with the Vermont Law Review, is pleased to present
to the reader this year's symposium issue, Law in Film/Film in Law.
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* Professor of Law, Southwestern University School of
Law
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