ITEMS TO LOOK FOR DURING SCREENINGS
Issues to be discussed. Here are some issues to be thinking about as you watch a film or TV show about a legal subject. .
1. Law and popular culture. What does this particular work teach us about law, lawyers, the legal system, ethics, or justice? What does it teach the general public? How accurate and fair is the film’s account in reflecting the reality of law and lawyers?
2. Public policy and legal theory. What specific issues of legal or ethical policy emerge from the film? Many films dwell on the difference between “justice” and “law.” Do you see a gulf between the two in a particular film? If so, how did you come up with your version of “justice?” And what’s wrong with “law” if it didn’t produce “justice?”
3. Learning about lawyers. Treating the film as an account of what lawyers do and believe, what can we learn about such questions as: How do lawyers interact with other lawyers or judges or with non-lawyers such as clients, staff, friends or family members? What is the impact of lawyers’ work on their personal lives and relationships? What professional roles do lawyers play other than in litigation and how well do they play these roles? What can we learn about how lawyers feel about what they do and how these feelings influence their public actions and their private lives? Do these filmic representations align with what real lawyers do and believe?
4. Law genre. There is a genre of law films and television shows, meaning a set of audience expectations or stock stories, in the same sense that there is a western or detective or horror film genre. Can we identify patterns of the genre? Does this movie or television show conform to the limitations of the genre or does it transcend them?
5. Signifiers. As explained in Chapter 1 of Law and Popular Culture: A Coursebook, all human communication is made up of “signs,” consisting of the “signifier” and the “signified.” Identify an important signifier in the film or TV show and explain the meaning it conveys to you.
6. Filmmaking. What can we learn about the craft of filmmaking from this film or TV show? What is distinctive about its editing, music, cinematography, direction, art direction, mise-en-scene, acting, or sound?
7. Personal reaction. Treat the show or film as a form of experiential learning as if you were a participant in the events depicted in the film. How did you react to the film? What emotions did it stir? How would you like to have been one of the lawyers, law students, clients, jurors, or the judge involved in this film? Would you have acted differently than they did? Do you see the lawyers involved as role models or just the opposite?