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3. Witness For the Prosecution (1957)

One of Agatha Christie’s only true courtroom dramas, Witness for the Prosecution is the only movie in this list that will not touch upon a seemingly important social subject such as civil rights or the meaning of guilt and innocence against a broader moral compass. Instead, the thrilling mystery involves a tale as old as time: murder and a love affair. Marlene Dietrich stuns as the dutiful wife of a man accused of murder, whose defense is taken on by the timeless Charles Laughton, in this Billy Wilder classic.

A large part of the gimmick behind the advertising for this movie centered around the many twists and turns of its plot. True to form, the Agatha Christie play-turned-movie keeps viewers guessing both the identify and the nature of the true culprits. Did Dietrich’s husband kill that rich old widow? And what version of Dietrich’s competing stories are true - can she give an alibi to her husband or is she, as the title suggests, a key witness for the prosecution?

The beauty of this movie may not be in its long-lasting themes of social importance, but it is never an easy task to portray a courtroom drama in an entertaining and non-repetitive way. The makers of this movie do just that.

2. A Few Good Men

A controversial pick, no doubt, but the 1992 Best Picture nominee did inspire yours truly to seek a legal career, so I must name it as my second favorite courtroom drama of all time.

The cynical and pragmatic lawyer played by Tom Cruise is complemented well by the starry-eyed, if reckless, Demi Moore character, and they meet their match in a parade of ruthlessness that includes Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, and Jack Nicholson in a bone-chilling turn. Cruise and Moore are tasked with defending two marines from a murder charge after an initiation ritual goes horribly awry. Soon they realize they signed up for more than they bargained for, because the marines’ motivations for the acts implicate important figures in their base.

That the script was penned by Aaron Sorkin is of course a big reason this movie has become so ingrained in the cultural ethos. Who else could pen such a quick banter back and forth dialogue that ends with the classic “You can’t handle the truth!” explosion that eventually leads to the demise of Jack Nicholson’s character’s Colonel Jessup? Never mind that Cruise’s character would have been without question disbarred (and, in the context of a military tribunal, likely arrested) for badgering the witness, asking irrelevant questions, leading his own witness, testifying not under oath, and arguing with the judge. Never mind that Jessup would have had a savvy lawyer of his own who would have surely had him invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, or that he would have likely quashed any last-minute subpoena to have him testify. And never mind, of course, that the kitsch in some of the lines is as thick as the wit.

Leaving all this aside, the drama portrays well the ups and downs of a trial, the emotional roller coaster that every witness and every setback can bring. As the life of two privates hangs in the balance, it is left up to their wily but aggressive lawyer to uncover the truth that he eventually does seem to handle.

Years later, Tom Cruise would be shunned as a nutty celebrity, but back then he gave a tour de force performance that still chills the bone and rivals Gregory Peck or Denzel Washington any day of the week. And the clever way in which he arrives at the truth, coercing Jessep to confess, is amusing, gripping, and even a tad realistic. If this movie doesn’t restore your faith in the justice system…then good for you, because it shouldn’t. But it’s still a good movie.

Oh and, by the way, at some point A Few Good Men even explores the timeless and hopeless question about the dividing line between right and wrong in the context of military and other such orders. If your duty is to obey your commanding officers, but he orders you to do something illegal, should you still do it? And, if you do it, are you guilty of a crime? A Few Good Men seems to come down firmly on the side of “You shouldn’t do it,” and given the experiences humanity learned in the period examined in the first-place movie on this list, it’s not hard to understand why.

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