Crim Movie Recommendations

I love to watch many sorts of films, and many a movie has some claim to being ‘about’ criminal law or procedure. But when I am asked for recommendations by students, or am looking for something for my own classroom, these are some of those I turn to most often. As always, please share any additions or thoughts in the comments.

Crimprofs don’t come any better than Jon Rapping, and Gideon’s Army is a terrific documentary featuring several then-public defenders affiliated with Rap’s Gideon’s Promise. Patrick McGuinness was another terrific lawyer, and he and his fellow public defender Ann Finnell run circles around an unjust prosecution in Murder on a Sunday Morning. Some similar classics are the Paradise Lost Trilogy (accentuated by a great Metallica soundtrack), The Staircase (this one was pathbreaking, and while a bit plodding at times, it nicely documents building a defense case—be sure to catch the 2004 version and then the Netflix additions), and The Thin Blue Line.

Unlike when I began teaching, students are no longer skeptical of false confessions and erroneous convictions. But Frontline’s Burden of Innocence remains a poignant film that includes interviews with Ron Williamson, the star of Grisham’s The Innocent Man (now itself a Netflix series). CourtTV’s The Interrogation of Michael Crowe is also really terrific, but it is now hard to find (let me know if you’d like to try and track down a copy, and don’t confuse this with the dramatization starring Ally Sheedy).

Folks are more split on whether it chronicles a false confession and/or erroneous conviction, but there is no doubt Netflix’s Making a Murderer rightly captured the world’s attention; the same could be said for HBO’s documentary on Adnan Syed. Equally deserving of attention is The 13th, which critically analyzes the racial injustice of the modern wars on crime, and 15 to Life: Kenneth’s Story, which poignantly demonstrates the cruelty of life without parole for juvenile offenders. Netflix also features The Confession Tapes, which are of interest because they highlight instances of potential false confessions that have led to convictions.

It is always fascinating to ponder what happens inside the jury room. My favorite remains the first time cameras captured an American jury’s deliberations, Frontline’s 1986 Inside the Jury Room. This one is increasingly difficult to find (again, let me know if you’d like help trying to track down a copy), but is really special. Another option is ABC News’ In the Jury Room.

If you want to summarize a lot of 1L criminal law—solicitation, conspiracy, and attempt (including impossible attempt), complicity, and even entrapment—students are sure to enjoy Netflix’s The Legend of Cocaine Island. (Where but in criminal law do you get characters like these? Positional entrapment, or sheer lunacy?) And, speaking of good characters, Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors is quite a good film regarding how it might feel to get away with murder.

Sometimes a dramatization does as well as a documentary, and that is certainly true of these classics: Judgment at Nuremberg, To Kill a Mockingbird, 12 Angry Men, Witness for the Prosecution, Anatomy of a Murder, Breaker Morant, and The Ox-Bow Incident. A somewhat less well-known film that presents a fascinating criminal law hypothetical—but only after a great deal of buildup—is Let Him Have It. When it comes to a great watch you simply can’t beat HBO’s The Night Of; whether it sufficiently instructs about the criminal law, you be the judge. Finally, The Star Chamber gets a bit silly, but it presents some intriguing exclusionary rule hypotheticals.

If you want to convey a sense of what it means to live in a totalitarian surveillance state, The Lives of Others is a beautiful film. And if you want to lighten things up, there’s My Cousin Vinny.

Plea bargaining is understandably less often featured in film. An older documentary that continues to make some strong points is Frontline’s The Plea.

For those interested in policing there is The First 48 series, some of which are available on DVD, and of course the fictional, critically-acclaimed The Wire.

Finally, in the ‘slightly less great’ category, I’d include these: Requiem for Frank Lee Smith, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, After Innocence, and American Violet.

Enjoy the movies!