MRQE Ranks: Cinema's Best Law Movies

1

Rashômon (1950)

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Synopsis: This landmark film is a brilliant exploration of truth and human weakness. It opens with a priest, a woodcutter, and a peasant taking refuge from a... [MORE]

2

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Cast: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, John Megna, Frank Overton

Director: Robert Mulligan

Synopsis: Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel was translated to film in 1962 by Horton Foote and the producer/director team of Robert ... [MORE]

3

12 Angry Men (1957)

Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Ed Begley, Jack Warden

Director: Sidney Lumet

Synopsis: A Puerto Rican youth is on trial for murder, accused of knifing his father to death. The twelve jurors retire to the jury room, having been admonis... [MORE]

4

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden

Director: Otto Preminger

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling novel by Robert Traver (the pseudonym for Michigan Supreme Court justice John D. Voelker), Anatomy of a Murder stars Jame... [MORE]

5

JFK (1991)

Cast: Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Gary Oldman, Jay O. Sanders, Ed Asner

Director: Oliver Stone

6

Chicago (2002)

Cast: Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly

Director: Rob Marshall

Synopsis: A starry-eyed would-be star discovers just how far the notion that "there's no such thing as bad publicity" can go in this screen adaptation of the... [MORE]

7

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton, James Cromwell, Crispin Glover

Director: Milos Forman

Synopsis: "If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, then it'll protect all of you -- 'cause I'm the worst," declares Hustler Magazine publisher... [MORE]

8

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Cast: Edmund Gwenn, John Payne, Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood, Gene Lockhart

Director: George Seaton

Synopsis: Edmund Gwenn plays Kris Kringle, a bearded old gent who is the living image of Santa Claus. Serving as a last-minute replacement for the drunken Sa... [MORE]

9

Gandhi (1982)

Cast: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Edward Fox

Director: Richard Attenborough

Synopsis: It was Richard Attenborough's lifelong dream to bring the life story of Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi to the screen. When it... [MORE]

10

Michael Clayton (2007)

Cast: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack, Michael O'Keefe

Director: Tony Gilroy

Synopsis: Michael Clayton (George Clooney) handles all of the dirty work for a major New York law firm, arranging top-flight legal services and skirting thro... [MORE]

11

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry, Jane Alexander, Howard Duff

Director: Robert Benton

Synopsis: Robert Benton's Oscar-winning adaptation of Avery Corman's bestseller takes on contemporary problems of divorce and shifting gender roles, as a jil... [MORE]

12

Presumed Innocent (1990)

Cast: Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, Raul Julia, Bonnie Bedelia, Paul Winfield

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Synopsis: Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) is a bland, oppressed man who burns with a quiet, corrosive intensity that can flare uncontrollably. A Philadelphia pr... [MORE]

13

In the Name of the Father (1993)

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Emma Thompson, Corin Redgrave, John Lynch

Director: Jim Sheridan

Synopsis: The My Left Foot team of star Daniel Day-Lewis and director Jim Sheridan were reunited to make this political docudrama about Irish citizen Gerry C... [MORE]

14

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Cast: Julia Roberts, Aaron Eckhart, Albert Finney, Marg Helgenberger, Cherry Jones

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Synopsis: Julia Roberts stars in this legal drama based on the true story of a woman who helped win the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsu... [MORE]

15

Philadelphia (1993)

Cast: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas, Jason Robards Jr.

Director: Jonathan Demme

16

The Verdict (1982)

Cast: Paul Newman, James Mason, Jack Warden, Charlotte Rampling, Milo O'Shea

Director: Sidney Lumet

Synopsis: In Sidney Lumet's powerful courtroom drama The Verdict, Paul Newman stars as Frank Galvin, an alcoholic Boston lawyer who tries to redeem his perso... [MORE]

17

Amistad (1997)

Cast: Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, Nigel Hawthorne, Djimon Hounsou

Director: Steven Spielberg

Synopsis: This Steven Spielberg-directed exploration into a long-ago episode in African-American history recounts the trial that followed the 1839 rebellion ... [MORE]

18

The Rainmaker (1997)

Cast: Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

19

A Few Good Men (1992)

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland

Director: Rob Reiner

Synopsis: In this military courtroom drama based on the play by Aaron Sorkin, Navy lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is assigned to defend two Marines, P... [MORE]

20

A Civil Action (1998)

Cast: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Stephen Fry, James Gandolfini, Dan Hedaya

Director: Steven Zaillian

Synopsis: Directed by Schindler's List screenwriter Steve Zaillian, this courtroom drama is based on a true story and non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr. The ... [MORE]

21

My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Cast: Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Marisa Tomei, Mitchell Whitfield, Fred Gwynne

Director: Jonathan Lynn

Synopsis: When sweet Northern college kid Bill (Ralph Macchio) and his buddy Stan (Mitchell Whitfield) are picked up and thrown into the slammer in a hick So... [MORE]

22

Primal Fear (1996)

Cast: Richard Gere, Edward Norton, Laura Linney, Alfre Woodard, John Mahoney

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Synopsis: A high-profile slaying becomes the case of an ambitious attorney's career in this legal thriller based on the novel by William Diehl. Richard Gere ... [MORE]

23

The Firm (1993)

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Terry Kinney

Director: Sydney Pollack

Synopsis: In this drama, based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham, Mitch McDeer (Tom Cruise) is a young man from a poor Southern family who has strugg... [MORE]

24

The Devil's Advocate (1997)

Cast: Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Ivey

Director: Taylor Hackford

Synopsis: Supernatural forces hover over the courtroom in this devilish drama adapted from the novel by Andrew Neiderman. Attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves)... [MORE]

25

North Country (2005)

Cast: Charlize Theron, Elle Peterson, Thomas Curtis, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean

Director: Niki Caro

Synopsis: A fictionalized account of one of America's most groundbreaking sexual harassment lawsuits comes to the screen in this hard-hitting drama. In the l... [MORE]

26

Legally Blonde (2001)

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis, Victor Garber

Director: Robert Luketic

Synopsis: Reese Witherspoon stars in this romantic comedy, the feature film debut of award-winning Australian director Robert Luketic. As a ravishing Miss Ha... [MORE]

27

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

Cast: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cedric the Entertainer, Geoffrey Rush, Edward Herrmann

Director: Joel Coen

Synopsis: Joel and Ethan Coen take on the classic battle-of-the-sexes screwball comedy with Intolerable Cruelty. George Clooney plays Miles Massey, a high-po... [MORE]

28

Fracture (2007/I)

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike, Embeth Davidtz

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Synopsis: A structural engineer (Anthony Hopkins) and an ambitious young district attorney (Ryan Gosling) become locked in a deadly battle of wits when the f... [MORE]

29

A Time to Kill (1996)

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Brenda Fricker

Director: Joel Schumacher

Synopsis: Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) takes the law into his own hands after the legal system fails to adequately punish the men who brutally raped a... [MORE]

30

The Client (1994)

Cast: Susan Sarandon, Brad Renfro, Tommy Lee Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony LaPaglia

Director: Joel Schumacher

Synopsis: A sterling cast headed by Oscar-nominated Susan Sarandon makes this slick thriller one of the better adaptations of a John Grisham bestseller. Mark... [MORE]

31

Liar Liar (1997)

Cast: Jim Carrey, Jennifer Tilly, Maura Tierney, Swoosie Kurtz, Amanda Donohoe

Director: Tom Shadyac

Synopsis: An attorney who tells the truth for 24 hours straight? This has got to be the movies! Fletcher Reede (Jim Carrey) is a lawyer obsessed with his car... [MORE]

32

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)

Cast: James Woods, Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, Craig T. Nelson, Susanna Thompson

Director: Rob Reiner

Synopsis: This is a long-awaited film telling the story of the trials of Medgar Evers' killer. Medger Evers (James Pickens, Jr.) was a black civil-rights act... [MORE]

33

The Pelican Brief (1993)

Cast: Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Synopsis: Embroiled in an affair with Thomas Callahan (Sam Shephard), her alcoholic professor, precocious 24-year-old Tulane University law student Darby Sha... [MORE]

34

...And Justice for All. (1979)

Cast: Al Pacino, Jack Warden, John Forsythe, Lee Strasberg, Jeffrey Tambor

Director: Norman Jewison

Synopsis: Norman Jewison's blackly satirical look at the American justice system has gained in stature as one of the more incisive social commentaries of its... [MORE]

35

The Paper Chase (1973)

Cast: Timothy Bottoms, John Houseman, Lindsay Wagner, Graham Beckel, James Naughton

Director: James Bridges

36

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

Cast: Spencer Tracy, Maximilian Schell, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich

Director: Stanley Kramer

Synopsis: After the end of World War II, the world gradually became aware of the full extent of the war crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich. In 1948, a ser... [MORE]

37

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray, Van Johnson, Jose Ferrer, Robert Francis

Director: Edward Dmytryk

Synopsis: Robert Francis is at the center of the story as Willis Keith, a newly-minted ensign assigned to the destroyer/minesweeper U.S.S. Caine during World... [MORE]

38

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

Cast: Henry Fonda, Marjorie Weaver, Alice Brady, Arleen Whelan, Eddie Collins

Director: John Ford

Synopsis: John Ford's fine direction distinguishes this highly fictionalized account of the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The film shows Lincoln (Henry Fond... [MORE]

39

Inherit the Wind (1960)

Cast: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Florence Eldridge, Dick York

Director: Stanley Kramer

Synopsis: The Evolution vs. Creationism argument is at the center of the Jerome Lawrence-Robert E. Lee Broadway play Inherit the Wind. Lawrence and Lee's ins... [MORE]

40

The Accused (1949)

Cast: Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey, Sam Jaffe, Douglas Dick

Director: William Dieterle

Synopsis: The Accused is a mystery melodrama with a predictable plot involving blackmail, attempted rape and murder. Loretta Young stars as Wilma Tuttle, a p... [MORE]