a) Billy Budd,
and the Devil and Daniel Webster. These are for a course in
American Legal History through American literature.
b) Skokie, and
Inherit the Wind.
These are for my course in American Legal History through
major/significant trials.
Jonathan Lurie
Professor and Pre-Law Advisor
Department of History, Rutgers University
****************************************
For the little known
story of how the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals served the primary role of
implementing BROWN II, I suggest "Impact of the Courts--I, II, and III"
from THE AMERICAN SOUTH COMES OF AGE series, produced jointly by the
University of South Carolina and South Carolina ETV (contact marketing
there for preview copies). These 28-minute videos show the interaction
between the courts and the civil rights movement during a time when the
Fifth Circuit became the institutional equivalent of the civil rights
movement. (They are based in part on my book, UNLIKELY HEROES). The
videos were produced under an N.E.H. grant supplemented by the Ford and
Rockefeller Foundations and are in documentary format. They include
historical footage and interview segments of most of the judges involved
in a series of landmark decisions and are narrated by a group of
distinguished historians, including Leon Litwack, John Hope Franklin, and
Dan Carter. The judges were mostly Eisenhower Republicans hand-picked by
Attorney General Herbert Brownell, a Goerge Norris Progressive who grew up
in Nebraska and was quite proud to be related to Susan Brownell Anthony.
Jack Bass
*****************************************
I have used, at various
times:
Go For Broke 1950
(Van Johnson): It is a film about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during
WWII made up of Japanese Nisei. I use it in conjunction with Korematsu,
Hirabayashi, Yasui and Ex Parte Endo.
Judge Horton and the
Scottsboro Boys (Arthur Hill) I use it with Powell v. Alabama
and Norris V. Alabama.
To Kill A Mockingbird
1962 (Gregory Peck) may also be used here.
Gideon's Trumpet,
1980 (Henry Fonda) It is the story of Clarence Earl Gideon Absence of
Malice 1981 (Paul Newman) Use with Near v. Minnesota and NYT v.
Sullivan. The
Verdict (1982) Paul Newman The case is a state case but it could
be used with "end of life" issues currently in the news.
J Belpedio
Becker College
Worcester, MA
****************************************************************
In
American legal history for our law students (who have little to no
background in history) I like to use some of these documentaries:
- “One Woman, One
Vote” on women’s suffrage (Not for Ourselves Alone, about
Stanton and Anthony, would be good too, but does not fully show the
civil rights demonstrations and political maneuverings to get the
amendment, if I recall)
- “Nothing to Fear”,
a little documentary of average (at best) quality, but nice for giving
visual images of the New Deal conflicts in a short video format – I
think there may be superior videos out there on this but this one work
reasonably well for my students
- “Scottsboro: An
American Tragedy” is excellent for covering a lot of the ground that
Goodman did in his book (he comments in the documentary and may have
consulted). This may do more on social and sub-constitutional issues,
but the right to counsel and jury issues are covered. I would guess you
are able to cover the lynching, race, and criminal law issues a lot
better yourself, so maybe this one is less helpful for you than for the
rest of us.
- I sometimes use
excerpts of the Ric Burns New York documentary series for particular
points of legal, but not really constitutional, history – a section on
the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, a section on the 1920s-1930s
setting up the New Deal. I think there may be some stuff on burgeoning
NY industry in the early 19th century which might work as
background for some of the Marshall and Taney court cases.
- Scottsboro and One
Woman One Vote are both American Experience documentaries. Many of the
other American Experience documentaries look interesting (one on Ida
Wells, another on Reconstruction), but I have not used most of them:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/archives.html
- There is a tv movie of
the Gideon's Trumpet
(Henry Fonda as Gideon, Jose Ferrer as Abe Fortas, you may recall) that
is okay – except they wrongly give the Florida assistant AG (and my
current colleague), Bruce Jacob, a southern accent for “dramatic” effect
J
-
The Supreme Court Historical Society has a
computer/online “documentary” of about 10 minutes on the court packing
episode:
http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/02.html
James W. Fox Jr.
Associate Professor
Stetson University College of Law
1401 61st St. South
Gulfport, FL 33707
(727) 562-7890
*******************************************
One film that I use on
the connections between constitutional law and politics, free speech and
presidential power, is
All the President's Men.
Gideon's Trumpet is
very good, very legal, and relates to the right to counsel. I have used
it in the past. (Henry Fonda)
Kurt Hohenstein|
Hampden Sydney College
********************************************
Peter D. Finocchiaro
Graduate Student - Loyola University of Chicago,
and, Pachter, Gregory & Finocchiaro, Esq.
I use Eyes on the Prize
as well in my law school class on the Fourteenth Amendment. Most of the
episodes are not too good on the legal issues. But I recommend the one
that concentrates on the Little Rock and Meredith cases. Can't remember
the title. This episode has the virtue of emphasizing the con law issues
(with interviews with Constance Baker Motley and John Minor Wisdom, among
others), shows the attitudes of blacks and whites in the south toward race
issues and shows that progress could not be made without the judiciary and
the executive working in tandem. All sorts of conlaw points. But the
real gem is the interview with Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock
students. He has some great anecdotes and discussion.
*******************************************
Steve Griffin
Tulane Law School
I use film clips in my
undergraduate class, and I have sometimes held a constitutional law film
festival. Here are a few choices:
The scenes from Tom's
testimony to the verdict in
To Kill A Mockingbird
set up Strauder v. West Virginia, though it would work with any
aspects of race in the jury box. It is also very nice for the Civil
Rights Cases. It has a powerful effect, especially for students
(like most law students now) too young to believe in private racism as a
real aspect of local law.
****************************************
Salt of the Earth
is good for Jones and Laughlin, although
The Molly Maguires
has Sean Connery. There is also a 1998 documentary of
The Great Depression
narrated by Mario Cuomo, which has lots of newsreel footage usable for
both Commerce Clause eras.
A&E's "*Biography*"
video on Richard Nixon covers Watergate well enough, with plenty of TV
clips for use in discussing the cases.
If you do individual
rights in the course,
Inherit the Wind is the ultimate for right to counsel. One that
is hard to believe but really good not only for free speech but also for
Supreme Court argument is
People v. Larry Flynt;
the argument scene is really quite good. If you do cruel and unusual
punishment, try I am a
Fugitive from a Chain Gang (although you might tell them the con
really did steal the $5.29 to eat).
If you do anything on
presidential powers over war crimes or international law, you can get to
Judgment at Nuremburg,
which is still tremendous.
I've toyed with but not
tried had the fortitude for Griffith's infamous last half hour from
Birth of a Nation
for the Civil Rights Cases.
I hope to hear what
others have, particularly for constitutional limits on crim. pro. What is
the best Miranda scene?
Steve Sheppard
University of Arkansas
School of Law
***************************************
Professor Ralph Stein at
Pace University Law School recommends the documentary,
With All Deliberate Speed.
Kenneth E. Aldous, Esq.
Proskauer Rose LLP
1585 Broadway
New York, New York 10036-8299
212.969.3946 (tel)
212.969.2900 (fax)
kaldous@proskauer.com
www.proskauer.com
***********************************
Persons of Interest:
A film guaranteed to raise the righteous indignation of anyone with a
favorable opinion of liberty, freedom or the Constitution.
Other American Voices:
"The combination of intelligent interviews and quiet moments merges into a
thoughtful documentary on contemporary U.S. politics... [The film's
participants] are patriotic to American ideals and fundamentals of the
Constitution. The ability to dissent, and to check and challenge
government power, fall within the Jeffersonian tradition and is the
highest form of patriotism." - Pop Politics
An Empire of Reason:
What would it have been like if television had covered the ratification
process of the U.S. Constitution?
Dylan M. McGinty
*******************************************
Feeling very out-of-sync,
but the two I've considered using are
Citizen Ruth
(abortion) and
Rabbit
in the Moon (a great PBS documentary about the internment of
Japanese-Americans).
Sue Hemberger
Washington, DC
*******************************************
In Modern American Legal
History this year, I showed
Twelve Angry Men
the original with Henry Fonda and Jack Klugman, to illustrate post-WWII
legal consciousness. Interesting discussion followed.
-Felicia Kornbluh,
History Department, Duke University
***********************************************
Perhaps we should list on
the H-Law website not just films dealing with Constitutional issues, but
also legal history issues as well suitable for teaching (I note several of
our listmembers have already done so, such as
Twelve Angry Men).
Also, films that deal with other legal traditions, not just American. I'll
start with a few I can think of off the top of my head, with perhaps more
to follow. Other suggestions, both documentary and feature, would I'm sure
be appreciated by many.
The Advocate
---great film about a medieval French Advocate defending a pig put on
trial for criminal damage (also a great opening sequence in which both a
farmer and a cow have been condemned for bestiality, but at the last
minute the cow is pardoned---but the farmer still hangs).
The Return of Martin Guerre---Again,
set in France, but this time in the Early Modern era, with a great trial
sequence.
Braveheart has
some courtroom scenes, but its so incredibly inaccurate in that as well as
other aspects that I do NOT recommend using it unless you wish to point
out all the incredible errors.
Jerome Arkenberg
Lecturer
Cal State Fullerton
***********************************************
"also legal history
issues" And Les Miserables for justice/mercy distinctions
Lisa McKinney
***********************************************
Although I am teaching a
Political Science course called "Cinematic Crime," I think many of the
movies that I'm using would be a natural fit, such as:
--"M",
a classic B&W German film starring Peter Lorre as a compulsive child
killer hunted by both the Berlin police and underground.
--Judgment at Nuremburg
--Skokie
--To Kill A Mockingbird
While I would use these
films in more a course devoted to the judicial & legal system, I think
they could be used to confront many issues in historical contexts as
well.
Michael Bitzer
Catawba College
Salisbury, NC
*******************************************
I have some self-interest
here, as, if you watch EMPIRE OF REASON very very closely, you'll see a
young R. B. Bernstein (with red hair and with no glasses) as a lonely
Federalist sitting among a bunch of Anti-Federalists in the audience of
the "Phil Donahue" segment. I helped to advise EMPIRE OF REASON and am
still impressed at how well it stands up as an accessible and reliable
documentary on the making and adoption of the Constitution.
The same film-makers,
Middlemarch Films, did another fine documentary that would be relevant
here: LIBERTY! THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1996), a six-part miniseries, the
last part of which focuses on the making and adoption of the Constitution.
The great thing about THE
RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE is that the principal historical consultant on the
movie, Natalie Zemon Davis, also wrote a wonderful book about the case
that included her musings on the process of turning history into a movie,
and it's short enough for classroom use and extremely well-written.
A fine movie for legal
themes is THE WINSLOW BOY, based on the play by Terence Rattigan that in
turn was based on a real case in Great Britain. There are two versions;
I've only seen the earlier one, starring Ronald Colman.
R. B. Bernstein
* Adjunct Professor
of Law, New York Law School, 57 Worth Street, New York, NY 10013-2960
* Member, Editorial Board, H-LAW
******************************************
There's also a decent
scene on Chancery Court proceedings in the 19th Century in David Lean's
version of "Great Expectations".
Jerome Arkenberg
I've used
Citizen Ruth for
abortion, but find that my students don't really get the irony. They
really respond well to
If These Walls Could Talk (I) on abortion.
I use clips from Law and
Order when discussing rights of the accused; also clips from Nightline and
Dateline when they do "true crime" and jury shows.
-Renee
Renee Ann Cramer
Assistant Professor of Political Science
California State University at Long Beach
*************************************
I might throw in
Witness for the Prosecution,
if only to see Charles Laughton's famous Bermuda shorts. I also wondered
whether the television movie adapted from Richard Kluger's book is
available on video, and likewise whether
Gideon's Trumpet
with Henry Fonda is available.
Michael Green
Community College of Southern Nevada
*********************************************
A couple of years ago I
compiled a list (and personally watched) of primarily documentaries for
world history (no American history, sorry), and I enclose the following
suggestions on this topic.
1. From When The Century
Was Young Series:
a. “Feminism, Technology & Science”
2. “Gender Matters in the Third World”
3. “The Gender Wars”
4. From David Frost’s History of the 20th Century Series:
g. “Women”
h. “Love & Romance”
i. “Childhood”
5. From A Century of Women Series:
a. “Work & Family”
b. “Sexuality & Social Justice”
c. “Image & Popular Culture”
6. “One Woman, One Vote”
7. “Emmeline Pankhurst & The Suffragettes”
8. “Through Chinese Women’s Eyes”
9. “Algeria: Women at War” (Algerian War, 1954-62 & Islamicist Uprising)
10. From The People's Century Series:
a. "1969: Half The People"
Of these, the latter is
probably the most easily accessible, and the best of the bunch.
Jerome Arkenberg
Lecturer
Cal State Fullerton
