A Filmmaker's Guide to: Courtroom Dramas

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Courtroom Dramas

What are they?

Legal thrillers set mostly within the courtroom setting or include a courtroom setting at a crucial point in the story, they depict themselves as more plausible than the common thriller for including the judicial system of the country in which they are taking place.

In literature, you might know of the author John Grisham who has made a career out of his mind-blowing brilliant legal thriller courtroom dramas. Here are some more that you can check out that are pretty cool:

• Fifty Fifty by Steven Cavanagh
• The Law of Innocence by Mike Connolly
• Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Pact by Jodi Piccoult
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Defending Jacob by William Landay

What about in film?

When it comes to film, sometimes people think that a courtroom drama can work a lot better than it does just on paper. This is normally because the movies exaggerate the judicial system and make the courtroom one of those media circus kinds that you would find in the nineties from someone like O.J Simpson and the like. This is normally inaccurate but a lot more effective for entertainment purposes. Let us have a look at courtroom drama movies. There are quite a few so they are not just limited to these in the list:

1. Anatomy of a Murder
2. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
3. A Few Good Men
4. Twelve Angry Men
5. Michael Clayton
6. Primal Fear
7. The Rainmaker
8. Erin Brockovich
9. On the Basis of Sex
10. The Judge
11. Witness for the Prosecution
12. The Firm

When you’re making a courtroom drama you need to remember one main thing - do not make the whole film about the courtroom. Make the film about whatever is going on in terms of the case. In something like “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” we get flashbacks to and from the courtroom and yet in “Twelve Angry Men” we get the whole thing set in a courtroom and yet the narrative is still very compelling. The speech is the way to go with this. By making your film speech-driven, you can manipulate the courtroom either way. Just have a look at “Anatomy of a Murder” in which the speech tells us very little about what is going to happen at the end and then we have the iconic courtroom scenes form “A Few Good Men” in which the speech lets us know about the state of character at certain times, shifting the tension this way and that way.

When we look at further reading, we're going to have a look at primary texts in order to understand how the courtroom is dramatised. I would also say when you do the primary reading, focus on how the dramatisation has an impact on the way in which the characters interact with the outside world. You will find it is one of the big-impact situations at the time of tension and climax.

Further Reading:

• Grisham, J (2010). The Rainmaker. USA: Arrow.
• Lee, H (2010). To Kill a Mockingbird. 2nd ed. USA: Arrow
• Traver, R (1983). Anatomy of a Murder. 2nd ed. USA: St. Martin's Press.