Transcript Y200 Politics and Film

April 12, 2011
Giglio on Hollywood Lawyers
 “What does Hollywood have against lawyers? The
answer is ‘nothing’ because the studios hire many and
work closely with them. How, then, to explain their
screen portrayals? One explanation is that the
entertainment media has turned lawyering into a
performance art. In a culture dominated by the visual
media, the screen courtroom is no longer a venue for
sifting through the facts to discover the truth. Rather it
is an opportunity for lawyers to sway jurors with
emotional appeals, bombastic rhetoric, and courtroom
tricks.” (p. 171)
Evil Female Lawyers
 Glenn Close in Jagged Edge
 Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
in Mass Action
 Barbara Hershey in
Defenseless
 Jessica Lang in Music Box
 Kelly McGillis in The Accused
Giglio, pp. 168-9
TV Shows Featuring Lawyers
 The Good Wife
 LA Law
 Boston Legal
Mainstream Films of the 1960s
 James Bond spy movies
 Advise and Consent (1962)
 The Best Man (1964)
 The Ugly American (1963)
 The Green Berets (1968)
 Patton (1970)
Christensen
and Haas,
Ch. 8
President Nixon Loved “Patton”
 “One of the most fascinating sections of Nixon at the
Movies is its discussion of a film close to the
President's heart: Patton (1970). It stars George C.
Scott as the American General, a devout Christian who
believes in reincarnation, leading his forces in a series
of victorious battles across North Africa, Sicily and
Bastogne in France until he finally ploughs through to
Germany itself. Patton is shown as brusque,
disconcertingly frank, a believer in the rightness and
efficacy of American military might.”
Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sukhdevsandhu/blog/
2009/01/23/nixon_and_the_movies
Counterculture Films of the 1960s
 Easy Rider (1969)
 Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
 The Graduate (1967)
 Z (1969)
Paranoia and Cynicism in 1970s
Films
 The Candidate (1972)
 All the President’s Men (1976)
 Network (1976)
 Being There (1979)
 The China Syndrome (1979)
Christensen and Haas, ch. 9
The New Patriotism of the 1980s
 The Rambo franchise
 Top Gun (1986)
 The Right Stuff (1983)
 Chuck Norris films
 Clint Eastwood and Arnold
Schwarzenegger films
Science Fiction of the 1990s
 Later Star Wars episodes
 Men in Black (1997)
 The Truman Show (1998)
 The Matrix (1999)
 Minority Report (2002)