25 Greatest Courtroom Movies
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1.
12 Angry Men
(1957)
A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court. (96 mins.)
Director: Sidney Lumet
2.
My Cousin Vinny
(1992)
Two New Yorkers are accused of murder in rural Alabama while on their way back to college, and one of their cousins--an inexperienced, loudmouth lawyer not accustomed to Southern rules and manners--comes in to defend them. (120 mins.)
Director: Jonathan Lynn
3.
A Few Good Men
(1992)
Neo military lawyer Kaffee defends Marines accused of murder; they contend they were acting under orders. (138 mins.)
Director: Rob Reiner
4.
To Kill a Mockingbird
(1962)
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice. (129 mins.)
Director: Robert Mulligan
5.
Kramer vs. Kramer
(1979)
A just-divorced man must learn to care for his son on his own, and then must fight in court to keep custody of him. (105 mins.)
Director: Robert Benton
6.
Liar Liar
(1997)
A fast track lawyer can't lie for 24 hours due to his son's birthday wish after the lawyer turns his son down for the last time. (86 mins.)
Director: Tom Shadyac
7.
The Lincoln Lawyer
(2011)
A sleazy defense attorney has a crisis of conscience when he represents a wealthy client who has a foolproof plan to beat the system. (118 mins.)
Director: Brad Furman
8.
Erin Brockovich
(2000)
An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply. (131 mins.)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
9.
Paths of Glory
(1957)
When soldiers in WW1 refuse to continue with an impossible attack, their superiors decide to make an example of them. (88 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
10.
The Social Network
(2010)
Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking website that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers who claimed he stole their idea, and the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business. (120 mins.)
Director: David Fincher
11.
The Firm
(1993)
A young lawyer joins a prestigous law firm only to discover that it has a sinister dark side. (154 mins.)
Director: Sydney Pollack
12.
Fracture
(2007)
An attorney intent on climbing the career ladder toward success, finds an unlikely opponent in a manipulative criminal he's trying to prosecute. (113 mins.)
Director: Gregory Hoblit
13.
JFK
(1991)
A New Orleans DA discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story. (189 mins.)
Director: Oliver Stone
14.
The Hurricane
(1999)
The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence. (146 mins.)
Director: Norman Jewison
15.
The Rainmaker
(1997)
An idealistic young lawyer and his cynical partner take on a powerful law firm representing a corrupt insurance company. (135 mins.)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
16.
Legally Blonde
(2001)
When a blonde sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend, she decides to follow him to law school to get him back and, once there, learns she has more legal savvy than she ever imagined. (96 mins.)
Director: Robert Luketic
17.
Nuremberg
(2000 Mini-Series)
The dramatized account of the war crime trials following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. (180 mins.)
18.
Rules of Engagement
(2000)
An attorney defends an officer on trial for ordering his troops to fire on civilians after they stormed a U.S. embassy in a third world country. (128 mins.)
Director: William Friedkin
19.
Basic
(2003)
A DEA agent investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry. (98 mins.)
Director: John McTiernan
20.
Intolerable Cruelty
(2003)
A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce. (100 mins.)
Director: Joel Coen
21.
Breaker Morant
(1980)
Three Australian lieutenants are court martialed for executing prisoners as a way of deflecting attention from war crimes committed by their superior officers. (107 mins.)
Director: Bruce Beresford
22.
Red Corner
(1997)
An American attorney on business in China, ends up wrongfully on trial for murder and his only key to innocence is a female defense lawyer from the country. (122 mins.)
Director: Jon Avnet
23.
North Country
(2005)
A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States -- Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit. (126 mins.)
Director: Niki Caro
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