With the Oscars less than a week away, it is an opportune time to look at the evolution of how attorneys have been portrayed in American cinema.
While it is true that these varying portraits of lawyers changed to fit with modern sensibilities, their traits have largely remained relatively the same: The protagonist is often seen as a a man of integrity who must right the wrongs within his society.
Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch in Robert Mulligan's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a town lawyer with a strong belief that all people are to be treated fairly, and to stand up for what one believes in. The film was made in 1962.
Finch remains dedicated to trying to protect Maycomb County from its inherent racism and bigotry, as well as protecting his young children from prejudice. Finch is asked to take a legal case that involves defending Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of abusing a 19-year-old white woman.
"In this country, our courts are the great levelers," Finch tells the jury. "I am no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and our jury system. That is no ideal to me. It is a living and working reality."
The film, based on Harper Lee's seminal novel, is heavily regarded as one of the greatest American films. Finch's character is a man of virtute in a particularly unsettling and bigoted time in American history.
Spencer Tracy's portrayal of Henry Drummond was based on the real-life lawyer Clarence Darrow in 'Inherit the Wind,' as directed by Stanley Kramer. Like Atticus Finch, Drummond's character maintains liberal values. The courtroom drama is based on the true story of the the famous "Scopes Monkey Trial" of 1925.
John Scopes was convicted and fined $100 for teaching evolution in his Dayton, Tennessee classroom, and the young high school teacher is put on trial for violating the Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of any theory, which denies the biblical account of divine creation.
The film was made in 1960, and some of the very themes of evolution are still being debated within American politics. The late critic Roger Ebert wrote in 2006 that the film should be commended for dealing with such audacious themes, especially for its time.
"Inherit the Wind" is a film "that rebukes the past when it might have also feared the future. Beliefs that seem like ancient history... have had a surprising resiliency," wrote Ebert in 2006.
"I wonder if a film made today would have the nerve to question fundamentalism as bluntly as the Tracy character does. The beliefs he argues against have crept back into view as 'creationist science," Ebert added.
Oft-times in cinema, lawyers ae portrayed as idealists who become increasingly disillusioned by a dry legal system.
"You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order!", wails the ethically-minded Baltimore lawyer Arthur Kirkland, as portrayed by Al Pacino in Norman Jewison's "And Justice For All," which was released in 1979.
Kirkland must defend a client he knows is guilty. His intense aggravation with the corrupt legal system, as well as defending someone he knows is guilty, puts him over the edge. Kirkland's exasperation reflects anguish lawyers often face within the courtroom.
Ron Silver portrayed Alan Dershowitz in "Reversal of Fortune" of the famous lawyer's defense of Claus von Bulow. In 1982, von Bulow was convicted of twice trying to murder his rich wife, but a retrial exonerated him.
Finally, Paul Newman's flawed Frank Galvin character in Sidney Lumet's "The Verdict" (as written by David Mamet) depicts a complex attorney who sees one final chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.
For all the personal misgivings of Newman Galvin's character, which includes his bouts with alcoholism, his interpretation might be the realistic, in that it is the most human portrayal of a lawyer in American cinema.
