Top Courtroom Movies

haven't seen most of the movies mentioned here hence North Country and Amistad are my pick. both had me extremely intrigued and captivated at a point in time

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The classics are terrific, and I've always liked Suspect and A Time to Kill, too.

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Just saw ...and justice for all, a few days ago. i thought it was brilliant

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I really haven't seen many, but I think it would be pretty hard to top 12 Angry Men

They were probably captivating because they were both emotionally and structurally manipulative. Amistad is piece of garbage in the forcefulness of it's revisionist "whitey sucks" Steven Spielberg politics. North Country shows a rapist teacher, and a woman who of course gets pregnant from him. I learned from North Country that all men are either chauvenists or rapists. Unless of course you're Woody Harrelson and the top male lead in the film.

I'll stick to Witness for the Prosecution, 12 Angry Men, and the brilliant Anatomy of a Murder.

But I'll be nice and give you the entertaining, sentimental, and heart-felt - though naive To Kill a Mockingbird along with Amistad.

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Oh and another lovely courtroom movie I enjoy very much is the Harrison Ford flick, Presumed Innocent, despite the fact that the filmmakers got confused over Chicago and Detroit.

The court scene in A Miracle on 34th Street makes my Christmas every year. In saying that A Few Good Men is absolutly fantastic!

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12 Angry Men, surely, although I have a feeling many will say To Kill A Mockingbird.

Oooh, A Matter of Life and Death! Sure it's a celestial court but still...

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i agree amistad is a powerful films

there are quite a few of the courtroom movies that I like; some of which is Murder in the First, the Jury; and the movie where Richard Norton and Richard Gere starred in (guys, please help me out on the title of this one). Mebbe posting some more once I get enough sleep

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Primal Fear is the movie you're thinking of, Maxine. Ed Norton and Richard Gere.

Such an interesting category.

The Verdict
A Few Good Men
To Kill a Mockingbird

I've Netflixed A Time to Kill and I expect to be adding it here.

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I Am Sam is a very heartwarming courtroom story.

Nothing beats out 12 Angry Men, if it counts, since it's not actually in a courtroom (a jury room)

A Civil Action was good too.

err! while i agree NORTH COUNTRY & AMISTAD where structured & emotional i do not think they were manipulative as the case maybe. hv not seen most of the films u mentioned but will try them out. btw i think SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is another decent one

>Shawshank
>Courtroom

There was maybe a minute of courtroom, I believe. I'm going to have to report this post.

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12 Angry Men tries to show the strength of our legal system, but it actually shows its flaws. Its basically saying that you can get any verdict you want if you argue it enough and question everything. Sorry, but what's the point of the trial then? If trials are so flawed, I highly doubt a bunch of random people are going to do better than lawyers, detectives and so on. I don't know. I always leave it with a sour taste, like maybe the guy was guilty. I don't think anything they said was very definitive.

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I never knew that what based on a true story. Well...you just taught this old dog sumpthin' new.
I always loved Inherit the Wind....great cast and performances. I had my daughter watch it and ever since then she's been interested in seeing Spencer Tracy whenever he's in a movie.

Another great trial film based on a real trial is Compulsion (1956), this time with Orson Welles playing a character based on Clarence Darrow (as was Spencer Tracy's role in Inherit the Wind) defending two smart, rich young psychopaths charged with the senseless murder of a young boy just for the hell of it. Based on the famous Leopold & Loeb trial. In the movie, the Darrow character pulls a risky manuver to try to save the lives of these two superior maniacs. Knowing that if they go to trial before a jury of normal people they'll be convicted and then the jury will decide punishments, which is almost certain to be death for such a gruesome crime. Darrow in real life was very much against the death penalty. So he changes the plea to guilty, at which point the jury is dismissed and the judge hears the arguments on punishment. As I recall this is what the real Darrow did in the real trial, figuring he'd have better luck talking the judge into a life sentence rather than death than he would with 12 members of the general public. It's a hell of a film and does inject a little judicial reality into the film.

Was there ever a movie made about the Bruno Hauptman trial in which he was convicted of kidnapping and killing the Lindburg baby? I remembered seeing years ago one pretty good film about that trial on TV but it may have been made for TV.

The most fun courtroom scenes, however, are in the musical Chicago with Richard Gere giving 'em that Razzledazzle!