The verdict is out: These are the 7 classic courtroom dramas you must watch

We love the things we don’t get to witness first hand. That’s probably the prime reason why cinephiles watch courtroom dramas with such fascination. Watching a lawyer making their case, watching some gruelling cross-examination, and the prevailing tension in the air, keep us glued to our screens. And at the end of the day, we also end up learning a thing or two about the law and the system that we find ourselves a part of. 

If you’re looking to watch some courtroom dramas, we’ve five fantastic ones. Not watching them will see us hold you in contempt. We’re pretty sure you won’t have any objection to watching them. 

Erin Brockovich

This multi-award winning film is a biographical drama about a woman in California who goes head on—and prevails—in a lawsuit against utility giants Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The terrific Julia Roberts, who is an absolutely scene stealer, plays the role of Erin Brockovich, a single mother of three, who comes across many skeletons hidden in the closet after reviewing the case files against PG&E. Her intuition, that drives her ahead, convinces her that the numbers simply don’t add up only to discover a cover-up of the city’s water supply being polluted, thereby threatening the health of its citizens. What follows is an interesting series of events that see her law film  get involved in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.

A Few Good Men

One might associate Tom Cruise with the Mission Impossible series and him soaring the skies in Top Gun, but this legal drama from the early 90s gave fans much more than a glimpse into the powerhouse of talent that the actor was going to be. The film sees him as Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a lawyer who’s appointed to defend two marines charged with the death of a fellow trainee. He teams up with naval investigator and Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) with whom he discovers that the marines were acting under the orders of the victim’s commanding officer Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland). While the plot will keep you gripped right from the word go, it is Jack Nicholsan’s, (playing Kendrick’s superior Colonel Nathan R Jessup), the iconic line in the film—‘You can’t handle the truth!’ that garners the most claps. He’s a legend for a reason. 

To Kill a Mockingbird

This film isn’t just one of the best legal dramas, but is also ranked high on the charts of the best films to ever be made. Based on Harper’s Lee award-winning novel of the same name, this 1962 adaptation went on to scoop three Oscars (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction in Black and White, and Best Actor for Gregory Peck) at the 35th Academy Awards. Set in the town of Alabama during the 1930s where racism was rampant, the film revolves around the lawyer Atticus Finch (Peck) defending a coloured man who finds himself wrongly framed for raping a White woman. Such was the impact of the film on the legal minds of the world that it was named the American Bar Association Journal’s greatest legal film ever made as well as inducted into the National Film Registry in 1995 for its cultural and historical importance. It’s a timeless classic that you certainly shouldn’t miss. 

12 Angry Men

This entire film takes place within a small jury room in New York where 12 men debate the fate of a man charged with murdering his father. The film isn’t just a crash course in how cases are decided, but a cinematic masterclass in camerawork. . The camera seems to be the silent spectator and the narrator in the movie that takes the story ahead—the power play in the room is in full flow as the higher angles show which characters are the alphas while scenes with the camera placed lower show who’s being dominated. These 12 strangers do not know each other by name, but they do know that their personal beliefs and biases could be the deciding factor in what makes a man live or die. The movie never lets us know if the defendant is innocent or guilty, but what it perfectly shows us is if the members of the jury have a reasonable doubt about his guilt. 

Anatomy of a Murder

Here’s a courtroom drama that’s classy, full of suspense, and a riveting watch all packed into one. The film sees small-town Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler (James Stewart) take on the case of Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzarra), a US army lieutenant charged with the first-degree murder of a bartender he believed had raped his wife, Laura (Lee Remick). The screenplay is sophisticated and serious, yet funny, and the cinematography is one of the best in the genre of courtroom dramas. While one might feel that the ending could have been much better, the performances by the ensemble cast and the high-on-entertainment courtroom scenes make for an engaging watch.

The Rainmaker 

A novel by John Grisham and director Francis Ford Coppola behind the camera—legal dramas certainly don’t get any better than this. The film stars Matt Damon as Rudy Baylor, a graduate fresh out of law school, who gradually comes to terms with the corruption in the judicial system and how justice tends to be delivered to those with the most money. He does a stellar job in essaying the character of someone who cannot be bought with money but realises that his ideals and morals, and not to forget a lack of experience, could prove detrimental to the case. He and paralegal Danny Devito end up taking a case about a denied health insurance claim, one that could have saved the victim’s life. The movie may be more than two decades old, but it paints the ground reality of the court system as it shows how red tape puts a spanner in the works and how corporate wrongdoings are the brushed under the carpet—topics relevant in the time and age that we find ourselves today. 

Witness for the Prosecution

Adapted from a short story and play by legendary English crime writer Agatha Christie, Witness for the Prosecution is packed with thrilling twists and turns. It tells the story of Sir Wilfrid Roberts (Charles Laughton), a barrister recovering from a heart attack, who goes against his doctor’s orders and takes up a murder case. If you like some fine drama, storyline twists, a little dose of comedy, and great acting and dialogues, this is a classic film to check out.