Law and Popular Culture
I. Basics
A. Popular culture: commodities and experiences produced by the culture industry for
mass audiences
B. Types of popular culture
1. Laws (but not the law itself)
2. Legal institutions
a. Courts
b. Lawyers
c. Prisons
3. Films
4. TV shows
5. Cheap literature
C. Characterization – need effective characterization for popular culture to work. Can use
dialogue to endow certain persons with moral and dispositional qualities. Characters
temperament and behavior alter us to motivation. Often something in the culture that
fosters portrayals.
1. Stock characters – building blocks
2. Characters – more fully developed
3. Caricatures – less developed, but interesting for the narrative
D. Closed Text v Open Text
1. Closed – meanings are established. Not much room for disagreement
a. Generic works, like judge shows
2. Open – open-ended, open to multiple interpretations
a. Michael Clayton. What to make of ending? Karen Crowder?
E. Cultural Jurisprudence – law lives within culture and drives from culture
1. Law is self-replicating. Lives on by its own logic. Use precedent to argue how
future cases should be decided
2. Social forces and attitudes, norms, etc. explain what the law is.
3. Cyclical – culture influences and shapes law and the public’s understanding
which then shapes people’s expectations. Popular culture products can
influence lawmakers who re-influence how people behave and view these
matters.
F. Cultivation Effect – regular viewers of TV programming or avid consumers of popular
culture come to see social reality differently
1. Pop culture cultivates, but doesn’t create views of social reality
2. Think that crime is growing
G. Conventionalize – agreement between producer/audience about how to render reality.
1. Naturalize – take the convention for granted and take into our understanding
H. Transmogufication – process by which a given pop culture work is changed in form or
into a different medium
1. Safe investment – Hollywood knows it’s already popular.
2. Perry Mason
I. Moral pluck – doing the right thing, even if it’s unethical
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1. Perry Mason
2. Public expects moral pluck from lawyers – wants them to do the right thing.
a. Olivia Pope
J. Alignment – culture films take a stance
K. Timeline
1. 1850s – pop literature
2. 1910 – film
3. 1920 – radio
4. 1950 – television
5. 1980 – internet
L. Consumer capitalism/communization – almost everything can be and is put for sale.
M. Themes
1. Grisham: David v. Goliath
2. Michael Clayton: reclaiming soul
3. Erin Brokovich: struggle to be somebody, don’t give up
Legal Figures
I. Legal Education
A. Model
1. 3 years of study
2. Full time academic professors
3. Major focus of study is opinions
B. Examples
1. Legally Blonde, John Grisham, How to Get Away With Murder
a. Legally Blonde makes fun of legal education and those in legal
education. Also objectifies women.
C. Characters
1. Majority of important characters are law students – protagonists. Room for
growth and development. Can change.
2. Law professors are formed. Antagonists. Tyrants.
D. Core learning process - Socratic Method – intense, edgy, terrorist version is good for
drama. Rude and insensitive.
E. Doesn’t link education to justice – nasty and dehumanizing process. You may fight
through and become a good person, but it’s usually in spite of legal education and not
because of it.
1. Why? People don’t like lawyers. Legal professor represents the perception of
lawyers. Easy to create conflict.
II. Lawyers
A. Types of Characters
1. Heroic – quest to do good
a. Usually defense attorneys representing innocent victims
b. Popular in 1950s and 1060s – civil rights movement. Stand up for those
who deserve justice
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c. Today, most heroic lawyers are prosecutors – War on drugs, fear in
crime, put away bad guys.
2. Redeemed – does good in the end
a. Prove themselves admirable – have a crisis then moment of truth.
b. Can become heroic
c. Shows growth and change
d. Lawyers are easy targets because they are viewed poorly
3. Existential – trying to stay above water and may do good sometimes.
4. Comic – the butt/foil
B. There has been a shift from heroic and redeemed to comic and existential since the
1970s. Public’s respect for lawyers is probably part of it.
C. Perry Mason – moral pluck
1. Tampered with evidence, add evidence to the crime scene.
D. Michael Clayton
1. Marty Bach – says Arthur’s death was ultimately good for the firm. Personifies
large, corporate law firm. Chief loyalty to the firm.
2. Arthur Edens - spends a large portion of his life on Unorth case and starts
building case against his own client. Moves towards redemption
3. Karen Crowder - gives hit order and is in on cover up
4. Michael Clayton – janitor. Gambling problem. Divorced.
5. Legal profession may be made up of moral people, but the legal profession itself
isn’t.
6. Michael Clayton is similar to McDeer – at the end, he washes his hands of the
legal profession.
III. Law Related Popular Culture in Print
A. Feel like you walk away with more from a novel than a movie – you have to work for it
B. 1980s – new trend. Small publishing houses disappear and publishing industry develops
a blockbuster mentality – find a book that becomes a cultural phenomenon.
1. One-L – memoir about first year of law school
C. The Firm – Mitch McDeer
1. Lesson – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Greed and being too
hungry.
2. At the end, Mitch doesn’t develop a deep respect for the law.
D. Millennial generation is less likely to read books.
E. Grisham is paranoid – always looking for a big force.
IV. Judges
A. In reality, judges are administrative
B. Modern scholarly literature has been demystifying what being a judge is.
C. Belief in rule of law
1. Law applies neutrally, objectively, and achieves just results.
D. Characterization
1. Not protrayed as lawyers – public doesn’t think of them as such
2. Judge personified as the belief in the rule of law. Judge is human symbol of
justice.
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3. In popular culture, judges are female or minority
a. Liberal guilt? Best character for a show (white dude is boring)
4. Historically, judges have been flat. Now they’re more round – more characters
than caricatures
a. Changing views of the legal system and a more disrespectful culture
leads to shift of how judges are protrayed
b. Start attacking the system by attacking the symbol of it
Legal Institutions
I. Daytime Judge Shows
A. Setting – Hollywood courtroom set. Clean, simple, cozy.
B. Characters – average, middle class people, bailiff, judges
1. Most shows are named after the judge
2. Litigants appear pathetic
3. AA women judges are “sassy gals”
C. Plot/Drama – debt collection, divorce, landlord/tenant, minor PI. Nothing deep
D. Climax – conflict
E. Resolution – how stupid people are
F. What’s so appealing? Enough substance, but not too much. Superiority.
G. Cultivation effect – judge centered vision of the courtroom proceeding
1. Severe authority figures meeting out hard justice
II. Syndi-Court
A. Frequent viewers saw courts differently and expect different things
1. Judges should have an opinion on outcome of the case
2. Judges should ask questions
3. Judges should make clear any displeasure or doubts
B. View aren’t correlated to exposure to real courts
III. Trials
A. Less interest in characterization of lawyers/judges, but more the story and narrative
1. Trials as entertainment.
2. Stories were in magazines, cheap novels, newspapers, etc.
B. Modern culture continues to feast on trials
1. Local news – Casey Anthony, OJ
2. Television shows – the Good Wife, How to Get Away With Murder
3. Novels – Grisham
C. Fictional trials are used in various ways
1. Near the end/end – conclude the text – climax – conflict resolved
a. Law and Order – trial at the end
2. Near the beginning to launch the story
a. 12 angry men
b. Common in prison movies where trial results in incarceration
D. Conventionalized (same pattern, form, technique)
1. Setting – courthouse setps, chambers, courtroom
a. Always nice
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b. Set up is the same – both sides are on equal footing but also adversarial.
c. Set up like a stage but almost like a church
d. Judge on high
2. Plot – almost always criminal or like-criminal, even in civil trials
a. Rarely see sentencing, jury instructions, victim statements
3. Characters
a. Innocent defendant – wrongfully accused
b. Lawyers as defendant
c. Defendants who prevail and defend themselves
d. Female murderers
e. Lawyers – difficult relationship to the truth. They know something that
isn’t on the table in the trial and how do they keep that?
E. Overall, more than the trial. We start to think about larger political views (black man
getting a fair trial) and core values of the culture as a whole (honesty, ambition, what do
we value?)
IV. Jury
A. History
1. Men were summoned, would investigate, and testify. Cease in the 1700s when
witnesses and juries were separated
2. Jury came to have special role in American life. Empowered citizens, taught
citizens how to be citizens. Did more than sort out guilt.
3. Today, jurors are supposedly prone to misconduct, are stupid.
B. Indictment of the jury
1. OJ trial was televised and people disapproved of the acquittal
2. 2012 – George Zimmerman and other jury verdicts where jury finds for white
people sparks BLM movement
C. Civil juries
1. Cannot be trusted – hot coffee case
2. Legislation for punitive damages and capped damages – distrust. Guide juries to
proper conduct.
D. Jury Story Lines
1. Populist – ordinary people standing up to evil corporations. Admirable.
2. Hamiltonian – businesses and corporations are victimized by fraudulent clients
and money-hungry lawyers. Juries are the problem as they help lawyers pick-
pocket.
3. Wilsonian – juries can foster social change and provoke movements
E. Why are we turning on the jury?
1. We don’t trust each other as citizens anymore
2. People have seen how trials come out unjustly
3. Starting to distrust the democratic process
F. Contemporary Juries
1. Often disappear – you don’t go with them into deliberations
2. Pop culture rarely does anything creative/engaging with the jury
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a. People don’t like juries – why make a story about something people
don’t like?
b. Viewers are invited to be the jury themselves
G. 12 angry men
1. 1950s – cold war
2. Rule of law and democracy vs the rule of law and authortairsim
3. Prides the institution of the jury, but the jury is only the surface story
4. Inclusive of democracy – brings everybody together from all walks of life to talk
together
V. Punishment
A. Penitent – idea that when you go to prison, you reflect and are full of sorrow. Regret
doing wrong.
B. Used to be public and punishment narratives used to be about the infliction. Now, we
don’t see the state punishing.
1. What happens in prisons is a mystery to us
C. Problem with mass incarceration has caught attention of rappers – majority of listeners
are middle-class whites
D. Punishment in Films
1. Protagonists are inmates and protrayed positively
2. Antagonists are guards/wardens
a. Inverted morality tale – forces of law and order and characters who
represent it are negative, while the convicted prisoners are positive
3. Motifs
a. Wrongfully convicted/admiral inmate
b. Escape
c. Corrupt/conniving guards or the prison system is corrupt
d. Prisoners who did it and would do it again
e. Bad food
f. Regretful trip to doctor
g. Solitary confinement
4. We’re drawn in by the horror of confinement and being trapped
E. Shaped prison narrative – innocent/redeemed inmates battling against wardens in a
facility with bad food and violence. Inmates are planning jailbreaks. Encouraged by
theory that the human spirit cannot be broken.
F. Literature
1. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
a. We like horror movies because of suspension and entertainment
b. Innocent, admiral inmate, inmates who are not so nice, mean corrupt
wardens and guards, solitary confinement, escape.
c. Red – reflects on storytelling and life. Comes alive as his character in his
storytelling
d. Andy – distant, mythic character. We don’t get to know him. Actually
innocent.
e. Hope springs eternal – always maintain your hope
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f. Author doesn’t dictate meaning. Depends on the reader’s response.
VI. Capital Punishment
A. Viewed separately from prison
B. US is a big user of this. Peaked in 1998.
1. After 4 year moratorium, Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that capital punishment
could be constitutional
C. Regional – Poverty? Bible Belt?
D. We don’t see it. Not televised.
1. May be more appalled by it if we did.
E. Death row is a form of punishment itself – living with death on top of you
F. Public sentiment is polarized
1. Pros – war on crime, law and order. Death penalty makes sense
2. Cons – argue for respect for being human
3. Used as a plot device - Underscores the character’s traits and decisions. Crucial
turning point in the narrative.
G. No real genre
1. Second character – somebody not on death row – watches things unfold and
comes to the conclusion that the person doesn’t deserve to die
2. Sentenced person is sympathetic and appealing. Some are innocent, some show
regret.
H. Films don’t opposed the punishment, they oppose the character.
1. We grow with the second character
2. Since public is divided on this, Hollywood is leery to take a position
I. Neoliberalism – since Regan era – stat can’t be relied up on to sort these things out.
We’re better served if we depend on a cost/benefit analysis and rely on the market
J. Dead Man Walking
1. Cowardly film – doesn’t take a stand
2. Pro – ugly character. Guilty.
3. Con – father comes to funeral and seems to show regret. Poor upbringing and
not much education.
The Law
I. Legal Education
A. Legal Positivism – laws exist, you can know them, emphasis on the rules
1. Students and professors are rule-bound.
2. Not much rule articulation in popular culture – just bare bones “that’s the law”
B. Three Ideas
1. Popular culture may serve suggestions about what law is like and may
correspond with what the lay public believes
2. May make clear what the role of the law is in the narrative or plot line, almost
like a minor but crucial character
3. Relationship of law to justice and fairness
II. Torts
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A. Most people don’t know what a tort is – no genre (need to have an unwritten
agreement between the audience and the film)
B. Films about bad conduct you may be able to address through law.
C. Plaintiff – little guy. Defendant – big corporation.
1. Defendant is personified by one lousy person (CEO, Attorney)
2. Lawyers are extension of their clients
D. Trial is criminal in nature – somebody doing something terrible
E. Law in this genre is wrong
1. Single act can be a tort or a crime. We distinguish them. In Movies, lawsuits are
grounded in tort seem like criminal prosecutions
2. In movies, we see villains who do bad things.
3. In practice, these cases involve expert testimony and dense information. In
movies, there is almost always a smoking gun/witness and doesn’t sort out
causation.
4. Punitive damages are rare in real life, but in movies damages always seem to be
large.
5. Technical v individualized/personified
6. Matter of fact v moralistic
7. Contributory and comparative vs black and white
F. Humans are connected to one another and have individual responsibilities to one
another. Pop cultural vision of social life.
1. Pop culture is not just “shit happens”
G. Erin Brokovich
1. Narrative driven, like Elle Woods, Michael Clayton, and Mitch McDear
2. Erin is a woman subject to objectification. We’re invited to enjoy the narrative
and her appearance. Erin purposefully uses this – not above objectifying herself.
3. Professional women are singled out negatively – one type of womanhood vs
another
a. Pushed to prefer the attractive female
b. We’re supposed to be shocked when these women are successful
despite how they dress
III. DocuDramas
A. Movies that are based on some real-life events. Stories related to real things. No
voiceover or narrator. Looks like a fiction film.
B. Establish truthfulness of the film
1. Use real names (PG&E, Erin Brokovich)
2. Runners (this is based on a true story)
3. Sometimes you see what actually happens at the end
C. Concerns
1. Fix the story to make it fit your purpose
2. We are accepting that reality is impression versus factual accounts
D. Law in Erin Brokovich
1. Legal education – Erin learns from Ed about the law. We learn as the characters
do
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2. Relationship between law and justice
a. Law is impersonal. Erin knows the case and plaintiffs, but she isn’t a
lawyer
b. Law provides road blocks. Needs a smoking gun.
c. Lay people see law in one way and the professionals have another
d. Law is a mystery – binding arbitration that we don’t see
e. You can get justice in the end, but in spite of the law. They were able to
win because an employee didn’t do what he was supposed to.
II. Constitution
A. American people don’t know what’s in it, but know it’s important
B. Icon – something used to reinforce your faith with contemplation. Constitution is an
icon for civil faith
C. Not as powerful as it once was. Took a hit
1. Bush v. Gore
D. Two points
1. Canonizing: praise the constitution – civil rights films
2. Commodifying: alter con law in ways that make it more appealing
a. Larry Flynt
III. Bio Pic
A. Larry Flynt
B. True, but changed around for dramatic purposes
1. Althea was cast as the love of Larry’s life because it humanizes him. He’s so
much in love and therefore he’s more appealing.
2. His real attorney had much more experience. The movie makes Larry the
underdog as well as his rookie lawyer and we root for the underdog
C. Law and Legal Proceedings – Flynt collides with the law
1. New porno magazine – you need to have text
2. Hires underage strippers
3. Arrested for pandering pornography
4. News dealers selling the magazine
5. John DeLorean tapes
6. Contempt – throws oranges
D. We think of law as a formal institution and Larry makes a mockery of it. Law is the
antagonist and the mocker is justified.
IV. Family Law
A. Conduct of one family member disrupts the other members but at the end of the
episode, all is back in harmony
B. Concern that family is in jeopardy
C. Family law is not part of the narrative, but enhances it. May be altered/misstated to fit
the plot
D. Films on family law are generally negative. People consider family a safe place.
E. 4 areas of family law
1. Adoption – dramatic tension. Racialized.
2. Marriage – romance. We like romance.
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3. Divorce
a. Wasn’t allowed until 1968 – morality, viewership (movies are dates),
and no good feelings
b. Divorce lawyers – butt of the joke. Conniving, money-hungry, over-
sexed. No respect for marriage
4. Custody
a. Anxiety and uncertainty about having children
b. Home v career balance
F. Big Daddy
1. Law
a. Sonny’s foot run over by cab. Gets $200k and is lazy.
b. Conflicts with Arthur Brooks who just wants to push the case along
c. Witnesses at adoption hearing
2. What it says about the law
a. Law doesn’t tend to the person
b. Law gets in the way with the good things people want to do
c. Law doesn’t lead to justice – Sonny loses out on his adoption petition
and is arrested for kidnapping
d. Sonny’s love interest has to choose between career and family
V. Military Law
A. Pentagon support
1. Using as propaganda
2. Worried about how the Pentagon can use it for military purpose
a. Eisenhower – beware of popular culture and the military
B. Theme in military law: struggle to achieve justice under law against well-established
rank and heirarchy. Law is impeded by rank and heirarchy
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