Abstract
Hollywood’s hero-lawyer movies are a distinct group of American feature films. Typically, they each depict a lawyer who unwittingly finds himself at the heart of a moral drama involving a client and/or a community in distress, gross injustice, the rule of law and powerful, obstructive forces that must be overcome. Alone with nothing at his side but his professional legal skills, courage, and integrity (and sometimes a good friend and a good woman), the lawyer reluctantly comes to the rescue, often at great personal sacrifice. In the process, he must balance individuality and social commitment, and loyalty to friends, to the law, to the spirit of the law, to the legal community, to justice, and to himself. This chapter argues that Hollywood’s hero-lawyer is the symbolic “champion of equal liberty” as well as a liminal character on the frontier edge of society. This chapter claims that the hero-lawyer’s frontier-based liminality is inseparable from the moral-legal principle of equal liberty that he personifies. This chapter considers the ways in which Hollywood’s hero-lawyer’s liminality is linked with the character’s role as champion of equal liberty. This chapter follows the nuances of the hero-lawyer’s liminality and moral heroism in 15 films, focusing on the classic cinematic formulations of these points and tracing their variations in contemporary film. Presenting the classic Hollywood hero-lawyer films, this chapter demonstrates how contemporary cinematic hero-lawyers (such as Michael Clayton, from 2007) are modeled on their classic predecessors. Yet, in contradistinction to their mythological forerunners, they seem to encounter growing difficulty when coming to the rescue out of the liminal space on the outskirts of society. Contemporary hero-lawyer films present a world in which personal identity is acquired through membership in and identification with a professional elite group such as a corporation or a big law firm. The social world, according to these films, is no longer made up of individuals and their relationships with society but of closed elite groups that supply their members with their social needs. In return, these elite groups exact their members’ absolute adherence and loyalty. Further, despite their liminal personas, the new hero-lawyers often lack a frontier. They are trapped on the edge of an “inside” with no recourse to an “outside,” a Sartrean no-exit hell, if you like. This predicament undercuts the classic construction of the “liminally situated champion of equal liberty,” questioning both the significance of equal liberty and the meaning of liminality.
I am grateful to Talia Trainin for language editing this chapter. This chapter is dedicated to my father, Amior Kamir.
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Notes
- 1.
Speaking of “Hollywood’s hero-lawyer,” I do not refer to any and every image of a lawyer that appears on the screen in a Hollywood film. As in previous articles and chapters (see Kamir 2005, 2006a, b, 2009a, b), I specifically apply the term to the lawyer that stands up to overwhelming power and at significant personal risk, against all odds, does his best to defend the equal liberty of the weak and downtrodden. In other words, as I explain shortly, the term refers to the cinematic successor of the “hero cowboy” of the “classical plot western,” the subgenre that “revolves around a lone gunfighter hero who saves the town, or the farmers, from the gamblers, or the ranchers” (Wright 1975, 15). Many cinematic lawyers and most of those featuring in television series do not belong in this category. As I argue elsewhere (Kamir 2005), these lawyers can be regarded as successors of the hero of the “professional plot western,” the subgenre that portrays “a group of heroes who are professional fighters taking jobs for money” (Wright 1975, 15).
- 2.
Due to length considerations, this chapter focuses solely on these two thematic elements of the hero-lawyer film and will be followed by a future project focusing on cinematic motifs.
- 3.
These include the four classics—Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)—…and Justice for All (1979) and The Verdict (1982), which are discussed in Part IV, and the 1990s films, introduced in Part V: Class Action (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Philadelphia (1993), The Firm (1993), The Client (1994), Time to Kill (1996), Devil’s Advocate (1997), and Civil Action (1998). Michael Clayton (2007) is briefly presented in the conclusion to this section. I believe these to be the most outstanding, significant, and influential among Hollywood’s hero-lawyer films. Personal preferences undoubtedly interfered with the selection and choice of films, and I apologize to readers whose favorite hero-lawyer was left out. I hope to expand this discussion in the future and perhaps include additional hero-lawyer films.
- 4.
More accurately, as will be explained, the hero of the “classical plot” western, as defined by Wright (1975).
- 5.
My argument complements F. M. Nevins’ (1996). Nevins suggests that westerns were the predecessors of law films, that is, that westerns feature legal themes. I argue that hero-lawyer films are descendants of westerns, that is, that they emulate the western preoccupation with frontier and liminality as inherent to justice and morality.
- 6.
- 7.
Will Wright suggests that the close affinity to wilderness is the source of the “hero cowboy’s” dedication to equality and freedom, as well as the source of his expertise in violence and commitment to honor (Wright 2001, 46). Wright’s “wilderness” is the “outside” liminality that I associate with the character’s inner one. In other words, his inherent connection with the “outside”/“wilderness,” that is, his innate liminality is what makes the “hero cowboy’s” champion of natural law.
- 8.
Historically inaccurate, this depiction is a dramatic devise. See Moran (2002, 29).
- 9.
- 10.
In fact, Clarence Darrow lost the case and appealed the decision. Jennings died several weeks after the trial.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
For a full analysis of the film of Biegler as a hero-lawyer and of the film’s complex treatment of honor rights, see Kamir (2005).
- 14.
In some respects, Jagged Edge, made in 1985, can also be considered to belong to this category, though I hesitate to define its protagonist a “hero-lawyer.”
- 15.
I use this particular term following Wright (1975); see below.
- 16.
The Accused (1988) is a good candidate for this subgroup. Since its (woman) hero-lawyer is a public prosecutor, rather than a criminal defender, it belongs to a subcategory of hero-lawyer films that requires a discussion that is beyond this chapter’s scope. The Music Box (1989) is another worthy candidate, but the protagonist’s “heroism” is not a professional, legal one. It is not surprising that Hollywood’s women lawyers are harder to define as “hero-lawyer.” For a systematic analysis, see Lucia (2005).
- 17.
In Destry, too, the title character struggles to come to terms with the legacy of his dead sheriff father.
- 18.
For a more detailed analysis, see Kamir (2009a).
- 19.
For a full analysis, see Kamir (2009a).
- 20.
Atticus Finch was portrayed as losing his case and Paul Biegler as becoming somewhat more integrated in his community.
- 21.
Atticus Finch and Henry Drummond.
- 22.
For a detailed analysis, see Kamir (2009b).
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Kamir, O. (2014). Hollywood’s Hero-Lawyer: A Liminal Character and Champion of Equal Liberty. In: Wagner, A., Sherwin, R. (eds) Law, Culture and Visual Studies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9322-6_33
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