Movie Therapy For Law Students
(And Pre-Law, Paralegal, And Related Majors)
By Sonia J. Buck, Esq.
Author House
$19.95, hard cover, 195 pages, 978-1-2019-7529-0 (2009)
I always enjoy reviewing books written by
I’d say that I’ve seen no more than half of the movies presented. Most of those that I’ve seen were based upon books I’ve read that inspired the movie. Since I’m one of those people that typically likes the book better than the movie, I wished that Buck would have taken a bit more time to explore some of the main differences in the movies and the books – though I realize that would have added many more pages to the book.
However, Buck does an excellent job in summarizing each movie (don’t read these spoilers if you haven’t yet seen the movie), and she picks out the legal issues that a casual viewer of the movie would often miss. What I like about the book is that she often doesn’t just supply the reader with an answer, but often poses a thought-provoking question instead.
Take the movie To Kill a Mockingbird for example. After summarizing the movie, Buck notes that during the trial, Atticus Finch paints the alleged rape victim, Mayella, as consenting to the sexual contact. She notes the effectiveness of his impeachment of Mayella’s testimony and discusses how the modern rape shield laws might apply. But instead of just stating her opinion of the result, she asks, during the cross examination “how many evidentiary and/or violations can you spot?”
While I enjoy this aspect of the book, I can’t help but wonder how often someone genuinely interested in answering some of these questions would have to view certain scenes from the movie. (Clearly you need to be ready to hit “reverse” and “fast forward” frequently while watching.)
This book is exceptionally well organized. The Table of Contents makes each movie easy to locate in the book, and Buck thoughtfully includes an alphabetical list of the movies and even breaks them down by subject matter. I liked the synopsis of each movie and the additional comments regarding substantive law, ethical and evidentiary rules, and suggested bar exam questions. She even includes other resources for law students on the last page of the book.
If I can find any fault in the book, it’s that each movie is typically analyzed in just 4 to 6 pages. I would have preferred a little more discussion of each movie – even if it meant that fewer movies were presented.
Buck’s prose is lively (or as lively as can be expected when discussing bone-dry rules of evidence or ancient case law). I especially enjoy how she often describes evidence scenes, like this one in her review of Kramer v. Kramer:
The later scenes in this film, from Scene 20 forward, take place mostly in the courtroom. Some portions of the witness questioning during these lengthy trial scenes follow the civil rules of evidence and procedure, but other parts follow the rules of
This book is an entertaining way to cast a critical legal eye on many of the best movies of all time. Titles like Paper Chase, The Verdict, Silkwood, Wall Street, Presumed Innocent, My Cousin Vinny, The Firm, Erin Brockovich, Michael Clayton and many others are vividly portrayed in the book.
If you have someone you know pursuing a career that is in any way related to the law, consider giving this book as a gift. It’s one that’s sure to please.
Buy it on Amazon here.
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