Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book (2nd Edition) (Politics, Media, and Popular Culture 8)

Both law and popular culture pervade our lives. Popular culture constructs our perceptions of law and changes the way that players in the legal system behave. Now in its second edition, Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book explores the interface between two subjects of enormous importance to everyone – law and popular culture. Each chapter takes a particular legally themed film or television show, such as Philadelphia , Dead Man Walking , or Law and Order , treating it as both a cultural text and a legal text. The new edition has been updated with new photos and includes greater emphasis on television than in the first edition because there are so many DVDs of older TV shows now available. Law and Popular Culture is written in an accessible and engaging style, without theoretical jargon, and can serve as a basic text for undergraduates or graduate courses and be taught by anyone who enjoys pop culture and is interested in law. An instructor’s manual is available on request from the publisher and author. Cover Contents Acknowledgments Preface Part I: Law, Lawyers, and the Legal System 1. Introduction to Law and Popular Culture 1.01 What this book is about 1.02 Definitions of “popular culture” and “popular legal culture” 1.02.1 The double meaning of “popular culture” and “popular legal culture” 1.02.2 Popular culture and high culture 1.03 Why a course in law and popular culture? 1.04 The relationship between popular culture and the law 1.04.1 Popular culture as reflection 1.04.2. Media effects 1.04.3 The cultural study of law 1.05 The (many) meanings of cultural texts 1.05.1 The feedback loop between law and popular culture—Miranda and Dragnet 1.05.2 The process of meaning-making—signifier and signified 1.05.3 Justitia’s blindfold 1.05.4 How do films and TV shows produce contested meanings? 1.05.5 Viewer-response theory 1.06 Filmmaking and reality 1.06.1 Micro and macro reality 1.06.2 Making legal films and TV shows seem “real” 1.06.3. The editing process 1.06.4 Filmmaking today 1.06.5 Intertextuality Notes 2. The Adversary System and the Trial Genre: Assigned Film: Anatomy of a Murder (1959) 2.01 Anatomy of a Murder—The film and the book 2.02 The trial genre 2.03 Anatomy and the Production Code 2.03.1 Hays, Breen, and the Production Code 2.03.2 The decline and fall of the Production Code 2.03.3 Anatomy of a Murder and the Production Code 2.04 Justice, the adversary system, and Anatomy of a Murder 2.04.1 Law and justice 2.04.2 The adversary system 2.04.3 The inquisitorial system 2.05 Legal ethics in Anatomy of a Murder 2.06 Defenses to homicide in Anatomy of a Murder 2.06.1 The unwritten law 2.06.2 Insanity 2.06.3 Manslaughter 2.07 Film theory and cinematic technique in Anatomy of a Murder 2.07.1 Editing 2.07.2 Editing—Preminger’s long takes and deep focus 2.07.3 Distance and objectivity 2.07.4 Music 2.08 Review questions Notes 3. Lawyers as Heroes: Assigned Film: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) 3.01 To Kill a Mockingbird—The book and the film 3.02 Harper Lee and the Scottsboro boys 3.02.1 Messages from the author and filmmaker 3.02.2 The Scottsboro boys 3.03 Lawyers as heroes 3.03.1 The revisionist view of Atticus Finch 3.03.2 Heroic intertextuality—Young Mr. Lincoln and Mockingbird 3.04 Tom Robinson was clearly innocent, right? 3.05 The trial strategy of Atticus Finch 3.06 Atticus Finch and Boo Radley 3.07 Filmic analysis of Mockingbird 3.07.1 Robert Mulligan 3.07.2 Memories of childhood 3.07.3 Between two worlds—Childhood and law 3.08 Melodrama and Mockingbird 3.08.1 The melodramatic mode in American movies 3.08.2 Melodrama in films with racial themes 3.09 Review questions Notes 4. Lawyers as Villains: Assigned Film: The Verdict (1982) 4.01 The Verdict—Book and film 4.01.1 David Mamet and Sidney Lumet 4.01.2 Paul Newman 4.02 Public opinion of lawyers 4.03 Bad lawyers in the movies 4.04 The relationship between works of pop culture and public attitudes—The cultivation effect 4.04.1 Popular culture as follower of public opinion 4.04.2 Popular culture as leader of public opinion 4.04.3 The cultivation effect 4.04.4 Studies of the cultivation effect 4.04.5 Lawyers on television versus lawyers in the movies 4.04.6 Viewer response theory 4.05 Ethical problems in The Verdict 4.05.1 Witness coaching 4.05.2 Ambulance chasing 4.05.3 The settlement offer 4.06 Legal errors in The Verdict 4.07 Redemption of lawyers 4.08 The two hemispheres of law practice 4.08.1 Distinguishing the hemispheres 4.08.2 Ethical issues in the two hemispheres 4.08.3 Contingent fees and hourly billing 4.09 Storytelling in The Verdict 4.09.1 Narrative and narration 4.09.2 The classical Hollywood style 4.09.3 Variables in narration—Subjectivity and restricted narratives 4.09.4 Narrative about narrative 4.10 Visual design in The Verdict 4.10.1. Interiors in The Verdict 4.10.2 The use of the color red 4.11 Review questions Notes 5. The Life of Lawyers: Assigned Film: Counsellor at Law (1933) 5.01 Elmer Rice and William Wyler 5.01.1 Elmer Rice 5.01.2 William Wyler 5.02 Lawyer movies of the early 1930s 5.03 The life of lawyers 5.03.1 A lawyer’s day 5.03.2 Lawyers and money 5.03.3 Simon & Tedesco 5.04 The character of George Simon 5.04.1 Simon as a lawyer 5.05 Religion, ethnicity, and class in Counsellor at Law 5.05.1 Religion and ethnicity 5.05.2 The Depression 5.05.3 Class 5.06 Jewish lawyers in popular culture 5.07 Ethical issues in Counsellor at Law 5.07.1 The stock tip 5.07.2 The Richter fee 5.07.3 Perjury in the Breitstein case 5.08 Composition in Counsellor at Law 5.09 Review questions Notes 6. Legal Education: Assigned Film: The Paper Chase (1973) 6.01 U.S. legal education 6.01.1 U.S. law school is graduate school 6.01.2 Harvard Law School 6.01.3 The Paper Chase and 1L—The movies and the books 6.01.4 The Paper Chase—See it before you go to law school? 6.02 The Socratic method 6.02.1 In defense of the Socratic method 6.02.2 Origins of the Socratic method—And its future 6.02.3 Calling on students 6.02.4 Kingsfieldism 6.02.5 Teaching professional skills 6.03 Gender and legal education 6.03.1 Guinier’s critique 6.03.2 Is there a gender gap? 6.03.3 Difference versus equality feminism 6.04 The economics of legal education 6.04.1 The cost of legal education—and of student loans 6.04.2 Law schools in competition 6.05 Sound design and composition in The Paper Chase 6.05.1 The functions of sound 6.05.2 Sound editing 6.05.3 Composition 6.06 Review questions Notes 7. Law on Television: Assigned Material: Boston Legal, Season 1, disk 1 (episodes 1–4) 7.01 Television—Business and culture 7.01.1 Commercials 7.02 Lawyers on television 7.02.1 Perry Mason 7.02.2 The Defenders 7.02.3 L.A. Law 7.02.4 After L.A. Law 7.02.5 Boston Legal and its ancestors 7.02.6 Female attorneys on Boston Legal 7.03 Narration on television 7.03.1 Series and serials 7.03.2 Commercial interruptions 7.03.3 Conditions of consumption 7.04 Bad lawyers on television 7.05 Sexual harassment 7.06 Ethical issues on Boston Legal 7.06.1 Conflict of interest 7.06.2 Competence 7.06.3 Truth telling 7.06.4 Obstruction of justice and witness tampering 7.07 When the lawyer is certain the client is guilty 7.07.1 Legal ethics and the guilty client 7.07.2 Telling false stories in narrative 7.07.3 The guilty client in pop culture 7.07.4 Defending the guilty 7.08 Dual plot structure on Boston Legal 7.09 Review questions Notes Part II: Criminal Justice 8. The Criminal Justice System: Assigned Television Show: Law & Order (Season 5, episodes 1–4) 8.01 The U.S. criminal justice process 8.01.1 Goals of the criminal process 8.01.2 Investigation and searches 8.01.3 The first appearance and the process of questioning a suspect 8.01.4 Preliminary hearing or grand jury 8.01.5 The criminal trial 8.02 Law & Order—the television show 8.02.1 Dick Wolf 8.02.2 The puzzling success of Law & Order 8.02.3 The politics of Law & Order 8.02.4 Ben Stone and Jack McCoy 8.02.5 Adam Schiff: The Voice of Moral Realism 8.03 Criminal law on Law & Order 8.03.1 Degrees of homicide 8.03.2 Self-defense and the battered woman syndrome 8.04 Prosecutorial discretion 8.05 The indeterminacy of past facts 8.06 Prosecutors and defense lawyers on Law & Order 8.06.1 Crime control on Law & Order 8.06.2 Prosecutors in popular culture 8.06.3 Criminal defense lawyers 8.06.4 Defending the guilty 8.07 Realism on Law & Order 8.07.1 The ordinary filmgoer’s conception of realism 8.07.2 How the spectator arrives at a conception of the real world 8.07.3 What seems realistic—Some generalizations 8.08 Narrative structure on Law & Order 8.09 Review questions Notes 9. The Jury: Assigned Film: 12 Angry Men (1957) 9.01 12 Angry Men—Prequel and sequel 9.02 Fonda’s “star” image and intertextuality in legal films 9.03 The jury in the trial film genre 9.04 Constitutional role of the American jury 9.05 Conflicting visions of the jury—The brighter vision 9.06 Conflicting visions of the jury—The darker version 9.06.1 Rationality of jury verdicts 9.06.2 Efficiency of the jury system 9.06.3 Juries worldwide 9.07 Empirical research on juries 9.08 Jury passivity 9.09 Race and gender discrimination in jury pools 9.09.1 Historic discrimination in selection of jury pools 9.09.2 The Batson rule 9.09.3 Jury consultants 9.10 Seeing the witnesses, finding the facts 9.11 Jury nullification 9.12 Direction and cinematography in 12 Angry Men 9.12.1 Camera placement and movement 9.12.2 Focus on one character while another speaks 9.12.3 Closeups and editing 9.13 Review questions Notes 10. Military Justice: Assigned Film: A Few Good Men (1992) 10.01 The film and the play 10.02 The military justice system 10.02.1 The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) 10.02.2 Command influence 10.02.3 Why is there a separate military justice system? 10.02.4 Accusing superior officers of crime 10.03 Military justice in popular culture 10.04 The following-orders defense 10.04.1 The law of following orders 10.04.2 Following orders in A Few Good Men 10.04.3 Abu Ghraib and the war on terror 10.04.4 The Milgram experiments 10.05 Daniel Kaffee 10.06 Female lawyers in the movies 10.06.1 Female lawyers—Yesterday and today 10.06.2 Favorable portrayals of women lawyers in the movies 10.06.3 Female lawyers in film—Rita Harrison 10.06.4 Negative treatment of women lawyers in contemporary film 10.06.5 Difference versus equality feminism 10.06.6 Female lawyers on television 10.06.7 Understanding the negative treatment of female lawyers in the movies 10.07 Cinematic technique in A Few Good Men 10.07.1 Sound editing 10.07.2 Rack focus in A Few Good Men 10.07.3 Lighting 10.08 Review questions Notes 11. The Death Penalty: Assigned Film: Dead Man Walking (1996) 11.01 The book and the movie 11.02 Death penalty movies 11.02.1 Political stance of death penalty movies 11.02.2 Redemption of the condemned 11.02.3 Transformation of the intermediary 11.03 Pictures at an execution 11.04 The voice of the victims 11.05 Purposes of the death penalty 11.05.1 Deterrence 11.05.2 Studies of deterrence 11.05.3 Incapacitation 11.05.4 Moral opposition to the death penalty and retribution 11.06 Judicial flip-flops on the death penalty 11.07 The death penalty in the United States—Law and practice 11.07.1 The risk that an innocent person will be put to death 11.07.2 Clemency 11.07.3 Racial disparities 11.07.4 Class discrimination 11.07.5 Quality of legal defense 11.07.6 Delays 11.07.7 Error rates 11.07.8 Costs and strains on the criminal justice system 11.08 The death penalty outside the U.S. 11.09 Filmic analysis of Dead Man Walking 11.09.1 Camera placement in Dead Man Walking 11.09.2 Collision montage in Dead Man Walking 11.10 Review questions Notes Part III: Civil Justice 12. The Civil Justice System: Assigned Film: A Civil Action (1998) 12.01 The civil justice process 12.01.1 Civil cases 12.01.2 Lawyers in civil cases 12.01.3 Pleadings in civil cases 12.01.4 Discovery 12.01.5 Managerial judges 12.01.6 Jury trial 12.01.7 Witnesses and evidence 12.01.8 Trial procedure 12.01.9 After the trial 12.02 The book and the movie—the real case against Beatrice and Grace 12.02.1 The docudrama form 12.02.2 The importance of films based on actual events 12.02.3 Adapting a book into a film 12.02.4 The lawyers 12.02.5 What really happened? 12.02.6 The counter-attack 12.03 Litigation problems in toxic tort cases 12.03.1 Complexity of toxic tort cases 12.03.2 Alternative ways to compensate victims of toxic torts 12.04 Litigation financing 12.05 Judges 12.05.1 Judges in popular culture 12.05.2 Judge Skinner 12.05.3 The rule of law 12.05.4 Political appointment and elections 12.05.5 Federal judges 12.06 Settlement negotiations 12.06.1 Schlichtmann’s negotiations in the Woburn case 12.06.2 Negotiation theory 12.07 Big business in the movies 12.08 Framing in A Civil Action 12.09 Review questions Notes 13. Civil Rights: Assigned Film: Philadelphia (1993) 13.01 Philadelphia—The cases and the film 13.01.1 The real-life inspiration of Philadelphia 13.01.2 Philadelphia—the film 13.02 Clients and lawyers—access to justice 13.03 LGBT lawyers in the movies 13.03.1 LGBT lawyers 13.03.2 The representation of LGBT characters in film 13.03.3 Queer Theory 13.04 Black lawyers in the movies 13.04.1 African Americans and the legal profession 13.04.2 Black lawyers in the movies and television 13.04.3 Blacks in the movies and television—1930 to 1970 13.05 Law firms 13.05.1 Philadelphia and the hemispheres of law practice 13.05.2 Economics of biglaw 13.05.3 Why big law got so big 13.05.4 Two models of law practice: Professionalism and business 13.05.5 Billable hours 13.05.6 Quality of work life 13.06 Law firms in the movies 13.07 Employment law and civil rights 13.07.1 At-will employment 13.07.2 Exceptions to the at-will rule—Good cause discharge 13.07.3 Public policy and at-will employment 13.07.4 Civil rights protection 13.07.5 Disability discrimination 13.07.6 Race and sex discrimination 13.08 Strange doings in Philadelphia 13.09 Filmmaking in Philadelphia 13.09.1 Framing and Composition 13.09.2 Lighting 13.09.3 Montage 13.10 Review questions Notes 14. Family Law: Assigned Film: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) 14.01 The book and the film 14.02 The cultural context of Kramer vs. Kramer 14.02.1 Divorce 14.02.2 The backlash against feminism 14.02.3 The “sensitive male movement” 14.03 From the Hays Code to Kramer vs. Kramer 14.03.1 Divorce under the Hays Code 14.03.2 From the Hays Code to Kramer vs. Kramer 14.04 Ingredients of a classic divorce movie 14.05 Fault and no-fault divorce 14.05.1 Fault divorce 14.05.2 No-fault divorce 14.06 The law of child custody 14.06.1 The tender years presumption 14.06.2 The best interests of the child 14.06.3 Child custody in the movies 14.07 The family law process 14.08 Lawyer-client relationships in family law 14.09 Cinematic technique in Kramer vs. Kramer 14.10 Robert Benton 14.11 Review questions Notes References Stage plays Movies Television Shows and Series Court Cases Index "This book explores the interface between law and popular culture, two subjects of enormous current importance and influence. Exploring how they affect each other, each chapter discusses a legally themed film or television show, such as Philadelphia or Dead Man Walking, and treats it as both a cultural and a legal text, illustrating how popular culture both constructs our perceptions of law, and changes the way that players in the legal system behave. Written without theoretical jargon, Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book is intended for use in undergraduate or graduate courses and can be taught by anyone who enjoys pop culture and is interested in law."--Jacket.