Miss Lumière selects 10 of her favourite courtroom films ... An Atticus Finch/John Grisham free zone ... Not all is black and white ... Flaws in the legal process finely wrought on celluloid ... Most if not all are available on streaming services
Twelve Angry Men (1957)
Peeved about the High Court's Pell verdict? Here's why. Twelve angry (white, hairy, middleclass) men lock horns while locked together in a sweaty Manhattan jury room. They must decide the fate of a Puerto Rican teenager accused of fatally stabbing his abusive father. Tautly written and directed by Sidney Lumet with riveting performances by the 12 jurors who include Henry Fonda, Martin Balsam and E.G. Marshall. A bona-fide classic.
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
A fruity Billy Wilder melodrama with equally fruity performances by Charles Laughton as London barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts, Marlene Dietrich as a suspicious near-femme-fatale and Tyrone Power as the accused Vole (Leonard) - from a spiffing short story by Agatha Christie. High-camp courtroom antics interspersed with superlative smoking scenes and a twist in the tail ending, make Witness first class, late-night entertainment.
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Robert Bolt's witty, sumptuous account of the trial of the Lord Chancellor of England Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield) on charges of treason, features one of the greatest courtroom scenes ever, full of silver-tongued sophistry. A gargantuan Orson Welles as Cardinal Wolsey is almost out-classed by a creepy young John Hurt as the perjurer Richard Rich. At one point More says to Rich: "Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for Wales?" Exquisite.
The Trial (1963)
Welles is mostly stuffed behind the camera in this surrealistic vision of Franz Kafka's 1925 novel of the same name. Anthony Perkins (freshly unnerved and unnerving from Psycho) is Joseph K, a man accused of an unknown crime by an unnamed state, negotiating a bureaucratic legal nightmare. Welles employs all his weird, extravagant cinematic powers, including dollops of black humour, to masterful effect.
Judgment at Nuremburg (1961)
And for the (almost) real thing, it's Stanley Kramer's tour de force about the 1948 trial of four Nazi judges by an American court in occupied Germany. Starring Spencer Tracy as a US judge, Richard Widmark as a haunted, firebrand prosecutor and the elegant, slippery Maximilian Schell as the defence lawyer, with lightly burnished cameo appearances from Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift. Like all good fiction, it conveys greater truths by resisting easy answers.
Breaker Morant (1980)
Based on a play by Kenneth Ross, this true story recounts the contrived injustice meted out by a British military court to three Australian soldiers accused of murdering German prisoners in the Boer War. Beautifully directed by Bruce Beresford and featuring Edward Woodward as Harry "Breaker" Morant, Bryan Brown in possibly his best ever role, and Jack Thompson as their passionate defence lawyer, Breaker Morant makes A Few Good Men look like stale popcorn.
JFK (1991)
Oliver Stone's sweeping, controversial political thriller examines New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison's (Kevin Costner) attempts to uncover the alleged conspiracy to assassinate President Jack Kennedy. Playing fast and loose with fact and theory, Stone nevertheless succeeds in making a handsome, gripping film, full of politics and purpose. The final courtroom scene, involving the infamous "magic bullet theory" is worth the more than three-hour wait.
In the Name of the Father (1993)
Set in Northern Ireland, Jim Sheridan's gritty, powerful film tells the true story of the men wrongfully convicted of the 1974 IRA Guilford pub bombings, which killed four off-duty British soldiers and a civilian. Daniel Day Lewis makes the oafish Gerry Conlon positively attractive, and Emma Thompson is thoroughly convincing as the campaigning lawyer who accidentally unearths the evidence (police lies, no less) that exonerates them. No blarney here, just the cold, heartless facts.
The Insult (2017)
Justice, Leb-style. Set in modern day Beirut, and written and directed by Ziad Doueiri, The Insult shows how a neighbourhood spat can escalate into a full-blooded courtroom stoush with national repercussions. The Insult is as eviscerating about the flaws of human beings as it is about the legal process. While much of the film is set in a courtroom, the drama resonates more widely. Like the Middle East, it's complicated. Close attention to the words as well as the actions, is rewarded.
Joh's Jury (1993)
Boldly made by the ABC just two years after the perjury trial of former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, this savvy, insightful film is based on interviews with eight of the twelve jurors. (It was legal then). Director Ken Cameron engineers an enthralling, bare-bones examination of jury room politics and power, utilising the talents of many of the country's best actors. The brilliant Gerry Connolly as Sir Joh is an unfunny delight.