GUEST EDITORIAL: The Craziest Courtroom Movies
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The Craziest Courtroom Movies
by Kevin Gardner
The legal system is filled with strict procedures, rules of engagement, and all sorts of legal terminology - all of which were surely designed by lawyers. Lawyers and judges maneuver in this world only after years of training and passing exhaustive exams. With a process so heavily regulated and formal, it is the perfect backdrop for comedic movies. Misunderstandings due to legal jargon and pitting the common people against the system can create hilarious scenes. Here are some of the craziest courtroom movies.
Legally Blonde
The title of this movie alone conjures up images of the ditzy blond in a courtroom. But the movie is much more than that. The movie does start with the privileged, Elle Woods, in her normal environment. She attends college and lives with her sorority sisters. Soon, Elle will be graduating with a degree in fashion design. Her main goal in the opening is to marry her boyfriend before he heads to Harvard Law School. On the night she expects a proposal, he dumps her because he says, in essence, she isn’t smart enough to be an asset to his future goals. Elle decides to apply to Harvard Law School and win him back. Once there, she discovers he's already engaged to another girl. Elle is crushed but determined. She studies hard and is offered a spot on the student team to assist in a court case. They are defending a former sorority sister, and, with Elle’s unique perspective, she wins the case. The courtroom scenes are super fun and would make any court reporters Bend Oregon struggle to keep a straight face.
Liar Liar
Again, Liar Liar is a killer title for a movie about a trial lawyer. This movie is one of those contemporary fantasies where an odd twist of events wreak havoc on the earth's normal order. In this movie, Jim Carrey is the trial lawyer going through a separation from his wife because he spends all his time with his job, is always late picking up their son, and rarely keeps his promises. On the son's birthday, another without his father, the son wishes that his father can’t tell a lie before blowing out the candles. It comes true. The father is in the midst of defending a gold-digging woman in a divorce case seeking custody of children she doesn’t want. Jim sees right through her, and since he can’t lie, the courtroom scenes become quite hilarious in only a way Jim Carrey can deliver.
My Cousin Vinny
Though the title of this movie says nothing about the courtroom or the legal system, the movie is a hilarious jaunt through a new lawyer’s first trial, and it’s a big one. Vinny’s cousin, a young man, and his friend were on a road trip in the south and were falsely accused of murder. The boy’s family sends his cousin Vinny to represent them. Vinny is from New York, and there are scenes where dialect becomes hilarious exchanges as each party struggles to understand the other's accents. Vinny is in no way skilled to handle a murder trial, but with the help of his girlfriend, a car mechanic, and Vinny’s unethical approach to life, he makes his way through the trial.
A Fish Called Wanda
This is a British comedy about four very odd characters who pull off a diamond robbery. After they pull off the heist, they all turn on each other, landing one of them in jail. The one in jail is the only one who knows where the diamonds are stashed. Wanda, Jamie Lee Curtis seduces the jailed man's barrister to try and coax out the location. The characters are so odd, and each has distinct goals and motivations. The courtroom banter will leave you laughing out loud. This movie is an outrageous comedy done to perfection.
These are just a few of the more contemporary movies with crazy courtroom scenes. But there are lots of old black and white movies, equally as funny. In each of these movies, it is always unassuming, though interesting characters are set against the stodgy system, and the plots work out to perfection.
