Marlyn Robinson asks: >I'm responding > to a paper on the image of lawyers in film and I need a quick survey. The > writers propose that law is seen "with rose colored glasses" and that > frequently the lawyer is an heroic figure. I think the public is more > likely to view lawyers in a negative light and that film reflects this > attitude. I know hundreds of nasty lawyer movies, but that's because it's > my area. I would like to know, absolutely off the top of your head(s), what > movies come to mind when you think of lawyers? If you had to think > specifically of corrupt, manipulative, sleazy mouthpieces, what would you > come up with? I think that there are, of course, lots of movies that depict individual lawyers as venal or worse, but there are many that depict them as idealistic (Saul in _Married To It_) or shrewd on the side of right (Perry Mason). The _practice_ of law seems generally to be disillusioning and perhaps even corrupting (backstory in _True Believer_) but the _institution_ of the law seems generally to grind fine, slow, and redemptively (_A Few Good Men_). Eric Eric Rabkin [log in to unmask] Department of English [log in to unmask] University of Michigan office : 313-764-2553 Ann Arbor MI 48109-1045 dept : 313-764-6330 deptl fax : 313-763-3128 voice msgs: 313-763-3130