This weeks reading explored a different part of the Crime and the Media. Specifically Rafter explored Criminal Law Films placing her focus on lawyers, their role in the media and how the courtroom is portrayed in the media. People have longsince been interested and captivated by the courtroom drama and the battles that are waged in the courts as anywhere else and how the good lawyers fight the odds and triumph over circumstance and the evil lawyers. Ever since the airing of Perry Mason and the writing of the American classic: To Kill A Mockingbird media has found a demand from the public to see shows and stories of the courtroom battles. One thing to address is the funny way in which the normal theme seems to consist of a good citizen as the defendant, wrongly accused by the evil policemen and prosecutors, found helpless until the good defense attorney in shining armor steps up to defend them and get them out of trouble. Rafter would argue however that these courtroom dramas have been inaccurate in their portrayal of current problems and concerns. The trends in today's shows are moving away from lawyer heroes such as Matlock and toward shows that deal a lot with crime yet ignore the lawyers and courtroom battles a bit.
The viewing for the week is the film Presumed Innocent. This was my first time time seeing it and it was pretty damn good. I was impressed, of course it was Harrison Ford so I should've known it would be good. It was a little older of a movie so I found it kinda funny and interesting how they dealt with the DNA evidence. Being made in the 1990's DNA evidence could not quite implicate or exonerate. Harrison Ford despite being the protagonist or main character was not quite view as a "good guy" or a hero, considering how he manipulated the investigation and had an affair.
And...The Black Donnellys has nothing to do with lawyers or the courtrooms
Hi Aaron,
ReplyDeleteYou're slipping a bit behind but overall are doing well. I still think you have a tendency to avoid summarizing the main argument(s) of some of the different essays. Examine, for example, your entry about Rafter on Cop Films. You say that she discusses a film like Dirty Harry but don't actually tell me what she says about Dirty Harry and other cop films.
And on the topic of Dirty Harry...I'm glad you enjoyed the movie, but I'm going to hope that you see some of the problems in using Dirty Harry as a role model when you are yourself a cop. Relying on "instincts" is great in a Hollywood fantasy when you are an over-the-top super-cop, but in real life "instincts" can often be just another way of saying "bias." Plus, crime in real life is never as it is in Dirty Harry, so shoot first and ask questions later might not be the best approach. Which isn't to say that I don't understand the appeal of Harry as a cop who cuts through the bureaucracy and actually catches criminals (or maybe even helps the community) but the film's vision of "good guys" versus "bad guys" is typically just a fantasy when compared to the complex realities of the real world.