The Legal Underground

Oliver Stone: Sending Him Out to Pasture

Professor Bainbridge suggests it's time to give Oliver Stone "some sort" of lifetime achievement award and send him out to pasture.

Some might say he's out there already. Before he's forgotten completely, however, how should we remember him? By JFK? Wall Street?  Born on the Fourth of July? Natural Born Killers?

Anyone feel like defending the oeuvre?

The First Amendment, Hollywood-Style

"If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, then it will protect all of you--because I'm the worst."

--Woody Harrelson as Larry Flynt in The People v. Larry Flynt

Sex, drugs, and the justices of the Supreme Court: now that's entertainment.  You'll find it all in The People v. Larry Flynt, the 1996 movie that tells the more-or-less true story of Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine and its legal ups and downs.  The most amusing part of the movie, other than the way Courtney Love seems to be portraying herself, is the interplay between Flynt and his attorney Alan Isaacman.  Isaacman is played by Edward Norton.

As in all-things-Hollywood, plenty of liberties are taken with the truth.  Isaacman's Supreme Court argument isn't even close to accurate.  You can listen to the real one here.  And if you want to truly go overboard, you can read the Supreme Court opinion that serves as the movie's climax, Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, which was written by Chief Justice Rehnquist.

The real-life Isaacman can be found at Isaacman, Kaufman & Painter in Beverly Hills.  Larry Flynt, who recently turned 62, can be found here.

"Wipe that Smirk Off Your Face!" And Other Things Plaintiffs' Lawyers Don't Really Say to Opposing Counsel

"My co-counsel Ron Motley and I have filed a lawsuit against the tobacco industry on behalf of the State of Mississippi to get the state reimbursed Medicaid costs for treating people with smoking-related illness.  If you'd be interested in talking to us, we'd certainly like to talk to you."

--Colm Feore as Dickie Scruggs in The Insider

In the quoted passage, the actor who portrays real-life plaintiffs' lawyer Dickie Scruggs is talking to Jeffrey Wigand, the tobacco-company "insider" played by Russell Crowe.  It's not many movies that could make a line about a Medicaid-reimbursement lawsuit sound dramatic. 

Additional drama in The Insider is provided by the actor who portrays plaintiffs' lawyer Ron Motley.  As Motley is conducting a deposition of Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco lawyer interrupts with an objection.   "We've got rights here," the tobacco lawyer says. Motley responds:

Oh, you've got rights.  And lefts.  Ups and downs and middles.  So what?  You don't get to instruct anything around here.  This is not North Carolina, not South Carolina, nor Kentucky.  This is the sovereign state of Mississippi's proceeding.  WIPE THAT SMIRK OFF YOUR FACE!  Dr. Wigand's deposition will be part of this record.  And I'm going to take my witness's testimony whether the hell you like it or not.

You go, Mr. Plaintiffs' Lawyer!  At the end of the movie, this notice appears: "Although based on a true story, certain events in this motion picture have been fictionalized for dramatic effect."  But certainly the fictionalization wouldn't apply to the portrayal of a deposition that actually happened.  Right?   

Wrong.  If you read the actual deposition, you'll find that Motley's heated speech was the product of Hollywood screenwriters.  During the actual deposition, the lawyers were polite to each other, generally speaking.  Perhaps Overlawyered.com wasn't far off the mark when it called The Insider a "portentous litigation epic."

[Below the fold: Something Ron Motley actually said at the Wigand deposition.]

Another Day at the Office

"If you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain. Do you know which 'philosopher' said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she's just a big pair of tits."

--Ricky Gervais as David Brent in The Office: Series 2

With those lines, the second season of the BBC's comedy series The Office comes to an end. It's a satirical send-up of a group of British office workers and their mid-level boss, David Brent, who'd rather entertain than manage his employees. Remember to turn on the subtitles, since sometimes the actors are a little hard to understand with their variety of accents. And if you're going to watch The Office, be sure to do it soon, so you can see how badly NBC ruins the show with its remake in the fall.

Double feature suggestion: Reno 911, another recent TV comedy that makes liberal use of hand-held cameras.

Fahrenheit 9/11: Law Students and Lawyers Respond

In yesterday's Law School Roundup, I linked to two reviews of Fahrenheit 9/11 and invited readers to send me links to others. I'll use this post to collect any I receive. Here's what I have so far:

• David Gulbransen of Preaching to the Perverted, a "liberal" who has "mixed feelings about Michael Moore" is generally positive about the film, and concludes "[i]t's clear that even if you hate Moore, we can't trust our president."
• Sally Greene, a lawyer who's guest-blogging at Is That Legal, posts a review that contains these lines: "Critics of the movie call it propaganda. Then why does it seem so resoundingly consistent with the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission: that there were no meaningful links between Al Qaida and Iraq?"
• Matt Schuh, a soon-to-be 1L at St. Louis University School of Law and a self-described conservative, recommends the movie but writes, "For all of his bellyaching about how the Bush administration distorts the truth and relies on people not thinking critically about his policies, Moore uses the exact tactics he criticizes to make his points."

If you're a blogger with a Fahrenheit 9/11 review, please feel free to send me an e-mail with a link. It doesn't matter if you're a law student, lawyer, or non-lawyer--all views are welcome.

UPDATES:

• 6/28. Professor Althouse, one of my favorite bloggers, posts this non-review, which I found on my own: "So am I going to go see 'Fahrenheit 9/11'? I've been told it will give me something to blog about. I could describe the Madison audience and the noises made at various points and so forth. I could monitor my own reactions. But no, life is too short for that. I zap TV commercials--why would I sit through a feature length anti-Bush commercial?" (Too bad: I was looking forward to the Professor's comments.)

• 6/30. I received word of a review from the author of The Neutral Zone Trap, who recommends Fahrenheit 9/11 but adds: "I think that a lot of the cinematic criticism is valid. There are a few times when Moore is just beating a dead horse. A needlessly dead horse." Interestingly, she also notes that "[t]hroughout the movie, there was some spontaneous cheering and applause."

• 7/5. Ditzy Genius writes: "If anyone thinks that this movie is going to persuade any serious Bush supporters from voting for him, I've got 2 words for you: Get Real. The only people this movie might *possibly* persuade is people who were already on the fence and don't really care about any glaring ommissions from the film. In addition, I was annoyed by Michael Moore's incredibly smug tone throughout the movie - his voice is very irritating."

Aliens: Entertainment, or Philosophy?

"You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamned percentage."

--Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens (Director's Cut)

It's another movie quote that could be applied generically to a few of the plaintiffs' lawyers I've met. Aliens is the sequel to the classic Alien. Even more than the first film, it will remind you of Jurassic Park set in outer space. Other notable facts about Aliens: It was directed by James Cameron in 1986, about ten years before Titanic but two years after The Terminator; Paul Reiser of Mad About You fame plays the villain; and Carrie Henn, the child actor who plays Weaver's surrogate daughter, never made another film. Double feature suggestion: Galaxy Quest.

Mystic River: Worth Your Time

"I can't trust my mind anymore, Celeste. I'm warning you. I can't trust my mind."

--Tim Robbins as Dave Boyle in Mystic River

In the crime thriller Mystic River, three men, once childhood friends, are thrown together again by a murder that touches them all. Sean Penn plays the ex-con, Kevin Bacon plays the cop, and Tim Robbins plays the troubled soul who's still trying to make sense of a childhood tragedy. It's all-star acting by a first-rate cast, which also includes Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney, and others. Clint Eastwood directs.

Mystic River is worth your time, but don't expect things to be wrapped up too neatly at the end. They're not, which is one of the reasons the film seems fresh. Double feature suggestion: The Player.

Dirty Harry: A Man Ahead of His Time

"Go ahead. Make my day."

--Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan in Sudden Impact

Pauline Kael, the longtime New Yorker film critic, wasn't kind to the first Dirty Harry movie back in 1972: she called it "a perfect piece of propoganda for para-legal police power."

I suppose it's true. Dirty Harry might be a true American hero, but he's also a little too American for some: he's intolerant, he's close-minded, and he's got very large guns. Meanwhile, he's got no time for due process of law or for "the court rulings [like] Miranda and Escobedo" that a "liberal society gives its criminals," to borrow from Kael again. Here's how she summed up the film: "fascist medievalism."

Yes, Pauline Kael was awfully hard on Dirty Harry. As for me, I love his movies. And who knew he'd go on to become the Attorney General of the United States?

Or is that John Ashcroft? I get so confused sometimes . . . (Double feature suggestion: Starsky & Hutch.)

UPDATE 6/9/04. Abnu of Wordlab has come up with another Dirty Harry-John Ashcroft connection of sorts, which is explained this Wordlab post. The first draft Abnu's post can be found in his comment to this post.

What's Luck Got to Do with It?

"People get next to me, their luck turns. It’s always been that way."

--William H. Macy as Bernie Lootz in The Cooler

A cooler is a person whose luck is so terminally bad that a casino employs him to “cool” winning tables just by sitting down with the winners. I don’t think coolers really exist, but it doesn’t matter: when you begin watching this movie, you’ll willingly suspend your disbelief and forget about the mathematics of luck, just like when you throw down $200 on the pass line and scream for a seven.

Down With Love, Up With Blogs

It's always fun to troll through the archives of favorite blogs. That's what I was doing when I found George Wallace's post "Pure Piffle for Now People" about the movie Down With Love, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. On George's recommendation, I rented Down with Love, and I concur with his brief review.

It makes sense to get movie recommendations from blogs. When you become a regular reader of a certain blog, you get to know a lot about the author's tastes and interests; if those tastes and interests agree with yours, you can trust the author's judgment about movies. Among law bloggers, Ernie, Jim Dedman, and Xavier Morales all post about movies. If you want to cast a wider net, Maud Newton recommends pullquote .