teaching / pop culture help

Heather R · June 2011

Do you know any of these movies well enough to tell me if they have a good opening / closing arguments in the courtroom? (I know Few Good Men, My Cousin Vinny, and others-- but they are rated R and I can't show even a clip from an R movie in class. Hmm )

The Rainmaker (recent one)

Philadelphia (Tom Hanks)

Runaway Jury (John Cusack)

My Sister?s Keeper

Civil Action (Travolta)

License to Kill (Denzel)

Legally Blonde

Liar, Liar (Jim Carey)

Trial and Error

Jury Duty (Pauly Shore?)

jlthompson19 · June 2011

https://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5719960/best_movies_to_watchpart_ii_courtroom.html?cat=40

Looks like they suggest Philadelphia, The Client, A Civil Action, High Crimes, and American Violet (for PG-13).

I have seen none of the above other than Legally Blonde. I don't know what that says about me.

Was Primal Fear rated R?

Mrs.adambabycakes · June 2011

A Time to Kill? Might be too much for a younger audience, but I haven't seen it in a while. Good movie.

Edit: Nevermind, it's R.

huber22 · June 2011

Legally Blonde has the whole Perry Mason "a-ha" scene, but I don't think its a closing argument.

Heather R · June 2011

Mrs.adambabycakes:

A Time to Kill? Might be too much for a younger audience, but I haven't seen it in a while. Good movie.

motherfuckings R. I would give a kidney in order to show this after I teach To Kill a Mockingbird.

Heather R · June 2011

huber22:

Legally Blonde has the whole Perry Mason "a-ha" scene, but I don't think its a closing argument.

"Chuck is just a friend."

"Youbitch!"

lol.

Mrs.adambabycakes · June 2011

Heather R:
Mrs.adambabycakes:

A Time to Kill? Might be too much for a younger audience, but I haven't seen it in a while. Good movie.

motherfuckings R. I would give a kidney in order to show this after I teach To Kill a Mockingbird.

What grade are you teaching? My highschool history teacher played Schindler's List in our class (seniors) sex and all.

CinemaGoddess · June 2011

Try these:

Compulsion

Inherit the Wind

Both are from the 50s and are therefore ok for school viewing.

Incidentally, both are based on Clarence Darrow cases.

So there you go.

Heather R · June 2011

Mrs.adambabycakes:
What grade are you teaching? My highschool history teacher played Schindler's List in our class (seniors) sex and all.

high school, but R is totally, strictly, utterly forbidden.

jlthompson19 · June 2011

Mrs.adambabycakes:
Heather R:
Mrs.adambabycakes:

A Time to Kill? Might be too much for a younger audience, but I haven't seen it in a while. Good movie.

motherfuckings R. I would give a kidney in order to show this after I teach To Kill a Mockingbird.

What grade are you teaching? My highschool history teacher played Schindler's List in our class (seniors) sex and all.

It doesn't matter what grade, it matters what the school policy is.

Mrs.adambabycakes · June 2011

cinema_goddess:

Try these:

Compulsion

Inherit the Wind

Both are from the 50s and are therefore ok for school viewing.

Incidentally, both are based on Clarence Darrow cases.

So there you go.

Yes! This was a good one, also a highschool history staple.

CinemaGoddess · June 2011

There's also Judgement at Nuremberg. The subject matter may be heavy, but the courtroom scenes are outstanding.

Mrs.adambabycakes · June 2011

jlthompson19:
Mrs.adambabycakes:
Heather R:
Mrs.adambabycakes:

A Time to Kill? Might be too much for a younger audience, but I haven't seen it in a while. Good movie.

motherfuckings R. I would give a kidney in order to show this after I teach To Kill a Mockingbird.

What grade are you teaching? My highschool history teacher played Schindler's List in our class (seniors) sex and all.

It doesn't matter what grade, it matters what the school policy is.

True. I was just using that as an example of my experience.

Mrs.adambabycakes · June 2011

https://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=Courtroom+dramas

HTH.

Heather R · June 2011

cinema_goddess:

Try these:

Compulsion

Inherit the Wind

Both are from the 50s and are therefore ok for school viewing.

Incidentally, both are based on Clarence Darrow cases.

So there you go.

Great minds think alike, but I teach Inherit later, so I don't want to double up curriculum. The year will be starting with 12 Angry Men and persuasive writing (emphasizing introductions and conclusions as the kids know all about evidence and structure but SUCK at writing informed and eloquent intros). So I wanted to tie court with persuasion/intro writing / real life uses for it, but I can't steal the thunder from Inherit, see?

Heather R · June 2011

Thank you, my beauties! Really, thanks for the input and the links! Wilted Flower

CinemaGoddess · June 2011

Heather R:
cinema_goddess:

Try these:

Compulsion

Inherit the Wind

Both are from the 50s and are therefore ok for school viewing.

Incidentally, both are based on Clarence Darrow cases.

So there you go.

Great minds think alike, but I teach Inherit later, so I don't want to double up curriculum. The year will be starting with 12 Angry Men and persuasive writing (emphasizing introductions and conclusions as the kids know all about evidence and structure but SUCK at writing informed and eloquent intros). So I wanted to tie court with persuasion/intro writing / real life uses for it, but I can't steal the thunder from Inherit, see?

Gotcha. Hmmm...I would still consider Compulsion, though. It's really a great film and a perfect example of how great an actor Dean Stockwell really is. Totally unsung actor, IMHO.

Oh wait hold up. How bout To Kill A Mockingbird?

Heather R · June 2011

cinema_goddess:
Oh wait hold up. How bout To Kill A Mockingbird?

Movie cut the opening and closing arguments. AsshoIes.

CinemaGoddess · June 2011

Heather R:

cinema_goddess:
Oh wait hold up. How bout To Kill A Mockingbird?

Movie cut the opening and closing arguments. AsshoIes.

Curses!

Heather R · June 2011

cinema_goddess:
Heather R:

cinema_goddess:
Oh wait hold up. How bout To Kill A Mockingbird?

Movie cut the opening and closing arguments. AsshoIes.

Curses!

Yeah, you know it's considered one of the AFI's top 100 of all time, right? But I think it is such an inferior movie, I really do.

I think it only earned its reputation because people didn't read (like they still don't read), so the movie reached out to the public as opposed to the book, kwim? That's why it's considered a great film, IMO.

::shrug::

write2nicole · June 2011

What about Law & Order? The older episodes have lots of both.

CinemaGoddess · June 2011

Heather R:
cinema_goddess:
Heather R:

cinema_goddess:
Oh wait hold up. How bout To Kill A Mockingbird?

Movie cut the opening and closing arguments. AsshoIes.

Curses!

Yeah, you know it's considered one of the AFI's top 100 of all time, right? But I think it is such an inferior movie, I really do.

I think it only earned its reputation because people didn't read (like they still don't read), so the movie reached out to the public as opposed to the book, kwim? That's why it's considered a great film, IMO.

::shrug::

I think it's a great movie because Gregory Peck is the shiits and Robert Duvall was properly creepy-lovable as Boo Radley.

It's a great movie in terms of movies. It's not the best adaptation of a book but it's eons better than, say, The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore. I cried a little that Gary Oldman had his name and acting chops tarnished by that movie.

I guess I still hold out faith that people will read the book after they've seen the movie.

I'm naive like that.

Heather R · June 2011

write2nicole:
What about Law & Order? The older episodes have lots of both.

Really? I confess I've never watched it! Can you think of any particulars to direct me to?

xoxo.

bstrangely · June 2011

cinema_goddess:
It's not the best adaptation of a book but it's eons better than, say, The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore. I cried a little that Gary Oldman had his name and acting chops tarnished by that movie.

then do not watch this. it makes the scarlet letter look like citizen kane.

CinemaGoddess · June 2011

Heather R:

write2nicole:
What about Law & Order? The older episodes have lots of both.

Really? I confess I've never watched it! Can you think of any particulars to direct me to?

xoxo.

What is wrong with people on this board? First yankee hasn't seen Office Space and you haven't seen Law and Order?

GAH!

Get the first season of the original series. Watch the episodes entitled:

Subterranean Homeboy Blues

The Torrents of Greed (parts 1 and 2)

Prescription for Death

Ben Stone had some of the greatest opening arguments in the series, but Jack McCoy had some of the best closing arguments. The ones listed above were Stone. I can't think of any specific McCoy ones off the top of my head.

Heather R · June 2011

cinema_goddess:

It's a great movie in terms of movies. It's not the best adaptation of a book but it's eons better than, say, The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore. I cried a little that Gary Oldman had his name and acting chops tarnished by that movie.

I guess I still hold out faith that people will read the book after they've seen the movie.

I'm naive like that.

lol at the Scarlet Letter. wtf with the yellow bird scenes thrown in with the lovemaking scenes?

Scarlet Letter (book) truly is one of my favorite "classics."

The yellow bird thing is probably a throwback to the Crucible, which is sort of simultaneous with SL in terms of setting (in Crucible, the "bewitched" girls pretend to see a bird getting ready to attack them when Mary Warren calls them liars in court)-- but wtf nonetheless?!

Now that I know you are a literary fan as well as a movie fan, we can talk lots!

I can't speak about adults reading, only kids. And teens by and large hate to read. Crying

Heather R · June 2011

Y'all kickass.

CinemaGoddess · June 2011

Heather R:

cinema_goddess:

It's a great movie in terms of movies. It's not the best adaptation of a book but it's eons better than, say, The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore. I cried a little that Gary Oldman had his name and acting chops tarnished by that movie.

I guess I still hold out faith that people will read the book after they've seen the movie.

I'm naive like that.

lol at the Scarlet Letter. wtf with the yellow bird scenes thrown in with the lovemaking scenes?

Scarlet Letter (book) truly is one of my favorite "classics."

The yellow bird thing is probably a throwback to the Crucible, which is sort of simultaneous with SL in terms of setting (in Crucible, the "bewitched" girls pretend to see a bird getting ready to attack them when Mary Warren calls them liars in court)-- but wtf nonetheless?!

Now that I know you are a literary fan as well as a movie fan, we can talk lots!

I can't speak about adults reading, only kids. And teens by and large hate to read.

I really just tried to block that movie out of my memory. I hadn't read the scarlett letter when I saw it, but I knew enough about the book to realize Nathaniel Hawthorne wouldn't have written this garbage.

I'm grasping at straws here, but do you know of any paper or something that outlines the political and social meaning behind The Hunchback of Notre Dame? (Kind of like The Wizard of Oz is an allegory of US politics in the 1890s.)

write2nicole · June 2011

Heather R:

write2nicole:
What about Law & Order? The older episodes have lots of both.

Really? I confess I've never watched it! Can you think of any particulars to direct me to?

xoxo.

Honestly, you could just randomly turn on TNT or USA and there's a 50% chance you'll catch an episode, and from there it's at least a 30% chance it's one with an opening or closing argument.

BUT, I checked youtube for "law & order closing argument" and got this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-kh7GKSQ-c

I can't hear it on my work computer so this could be a lame one, but BONUS: there are lots of "closing argument" videos on the right-hand side of the screen.

CinemaGoddess · June 2011

write2nicole:
Heather R:

write2nicole:
What about Law & Order? The older episodes have lots of both.

Really? I confess I've never watched it! Can you think of any particulars to direct me to?

xoxo.
Honestly, you could just randomly turn on TNT or USA and there's a 50% chance you'll catch an episode, and from there it's at least a 30% chance it's one with an opening or closing argument.
BUT, I checked youtube for "law & order closing argument" and got this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-kh7GKSQ-c

I can't hear it on my work computer so this could be a lame one, but BONUS: there are lots of "closing argument" videos on the right-hand side of the screen.

That's not a lame one. Nullification is an awesome episode.

AMossy · June 2011

What is the Mod's name again?

AmandaAndTj · June 2011

I'm not sure about the ones you listed but Witness for the Prosecution has great court scenes. It's super old though, so I'm not sure of it relevance for what you're doing in class.

snansley · June 2011

Seriously, how have you never seen Law and Order? Really?

In case you have some students who really get interested in persuasive arguments, the recordings of some of the big Supreme court decisions could be interesting. https://www.amazon.com/May-Please-Court-Significant-Arguments/dp/1595580905

Also, I don't remember To Kill A Mockingbird cutting the closing argument.

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechtokillamockingbird.html

ames71 · June 2011

Philadelphia is incredible. A Time to Kill is another good one.

Roxpup · June 2011

cinema_goddess:
Heather R:

write2nicole:
What about Law & Order? The older episodes have lots of both.

Really? I confess I've never watched it! Can you think of any particulars to direct me to?

xoxo.

What is wrong with people on this board? First yankee hasn't seen Office Space and you haven't seen Law and Order?

GAH!

Get the first season of the original series. Watch the episodes entitled:

Subterranean Homeboy Blues

The Torrents of Greed (parts 1 and 2)

Prescription for Death

Ben Stone had some of the greatest opening arguments in the series, but Jack McCoy had some of the best closing arguments. The ones listed above were Stone. I can't think of any specific McCoy ones off the top of my head.

say whaaat?

grapeape73 · June 2011

Philadelphia is incredible.

I haven't watched it in forever, but we watched Amistad when I was senior, and it was great.

MamaNikita · June 2011

I haven't seen the movie, but i'm a court reporter and i can tell you attorneys ALWAYS reference it in real-life closing arguments, 12 Angry Men. it's an old movie and the movie takes place in the jury room after the closing arguments. i don't know what it was rated, but here's the wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Angry_Men_(1957_film)

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