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Spring 1999 Still in the Dark: Disappointing Images of Women Lawyers in the Movies Stacy Caplow Brooklyn Law School, [email protected]
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Recommended Citation 20 Women's Rts. L. Rep. 55 (1998-1999)
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of BrooklynWorks. Still in the Dark: Disappointing Images of Women Lawyers in the Movies
STACY CAPLOW*
For many of us, Atticus Finch, the princi- During the more than thirty years that At- pled hero of the movie To Kill a Mockingbird,1 ticus Finch reigned as a leading-man legal role was our first positive legal role model. We may model, he had no female counterparts for the have heard of Clarence Darrow or known that many women who became lawyers in the period Abraham Lincoln was a country lawyer before beginning in the early 1970s when women first becoming president, and we may have even trickled into, then flooded, the legal profession. read Harper Lee's unforgettable book,2 but it There was no female cinematic equivalent to was the dignified, sagacious, and unquestiona- Atticus Finch to emulate or admire, a deficiency bly humane Gregory Peck on the screen, who that was all the more aggravating in light of the educated us about what a lawyer was supposed lack of real-life role models for this generation to be. Atticus Finch braved the censure of his of aspiring lawyers. Although in the 1970s and small southern town, represented a poor black early 1980s the number of women graduating farmer against the accusation of sexual assault from law school increased dramatically,4 these by a white woman in the racist south of the lawyers, often one of only a few women in their 1930s, artfully used his advocate's skills in court, practice settings, had no reassuring or inspira- all the while retaining the affection of his white tional film characters that reflected this growth. neighbors, the respect of the black community, By 1990, when women represented between 20 and the unqualified love of his children. After and 24% of the profession,5 we still lacked au- seeing the movie, we wanted to go to law school thentic cinematic role models who could be and become a lawyer just like him.3 seen struggling with the everyday issues of blending career and home responsibilities,
*Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Legal 4. In 1980, 8.1% of the lawyer population was female. See Education, Brooklyn Law School. With much appreciation, BARBARA A. CURRAN ET AL., THE LAWYER STATISTICAL the author thanks Susan Herman, Nan Hunter, Minna REPORT: A STATISTICAL PROFILE OF THE U.S. LEGAL PRO- Kotkin, Liz Schneider, and Spencer Waller. FESSION IN THE 1980s 10 (1985). In 1983, 33.6% of all newly 1. To KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Universal Pictures 1962). admitted attorneys were women, see id. at 58, so that by 1985, 2. See HARPER LEE, To KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (J.P. Lip- the overall number of women lawyers had risen to 13.1%. pencott 1960). See BARBARA A. CURRAN ET AL., SUPPLEMENT TO THE LAW- 3. The book, the movie, and the character of Atticus Finch YER STATISTICAL REPORT: THE U.S. LEGAL PROFESSION IN have been the subject of many articles, see, e.g., Michael 1985 3 (1986). Asimov, When Lawyers Were Heroes, 30 U.S.F. L. REv. 1131 5. According to the 1990 U.S. Census, women accounted (1996); John Jay Osborne, Jr., Atticus Finch - The End of for 24% of the total of 799,471 lawyers and judges. See Honor: A Discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird, 30 U.S.F. L. AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION COMMISSION ON WOMEN IN REV. 1139 (1996); and even a law review symposium, see THE PROFESSION, WOMEN IN THE LAW: A LOOK AT THE Symposium, To Kill a Mockingbird, 45 ALA. L. REV. 389 NUMBERS 3 (1995). The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported (1994). that 21% of employed lawyers and judges, a slightly lower
[Women's Rights Law Reporter, Volume 20, Number 2/3, Spring/Summer 1999] © 1999 by Women's Rights Law Reporter, Rutgers-The State University 0085-8269/80/0908 WOMEN'S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER [Vol. 20:55 1999]
"glass ceiling" strictures, sexual harassment, Rebecca deMornay in Guilty as Sin, 16 and Bon- gender stereotyping, or unequal compensation.6 nie Bedelia in Judicial Consent.17 Historians Even today, despite some depictions of women seeking to date the end of this trend need look lawyers on the big screen, a trend that flowered no further than 1995, with the casting of Cindy in the mid-1980s, then withered within a ten- Crawford in Fair Game,'8 in which the super- year period, Hollywood has been unkind and model demonstrated her meager legal prowess unsympathetic to and, in many cases exploitive for about two minutes at the beginning of a of, women lawyers.7 The movie industry caught movie which then required her to be decorative up with this demographic shift in the late 1980s for its duration. and early 1990s when a spate of movies were However hopeful woman lawyer movie- released with women lawyer protagonists. This goers may have been as a result of this phenom- flurry presumably signaled Hollywood's belated enon, our expectations were invariably disap- recognition of the dramatic potential of the in- pointed. A glance at this undistinguished roster flux of women into the legal workplace. Begin- of largely forgettable movies in which the fea- ning in 1985 with Jagged Edge,8 the profusion of tured female compromised herself both person- movies featuring women lawyers suggested that ally and professionally by either having sex with the r6sum6 of every major actress required a an inappropriate character (adversary, boss, cli- lady lawyer entry in order to be competitive. In ent) or placing herself in physical or psychologi- short order, moviegoers were able to see with cal danger, or both, suggests that film makers regularity movies in which women lawyers prac- have not allowed women lawyer characters to ticed their profession, such as Debra Winger in achieve even the degree of professional success Legal Eagles,9 Ellen Barkin in The Big Easy,' and esteem that they may have in real life. Theresa Russell in PhysicalEvidence," Barbara With few exceptions, cinematic women lawyers Hershey in Defenseless,'2 Penelope Ann Miller have been depicted in patriarchal roles, depen- in Other People's Money,13 Sean Young in Love dent for their success, approval or self-protec- Crimes,'4 Demi Moore in A Few Good Men,"5 tion on male colleagues, mentors, or father total amount, were women. See id. The American Bar Foun- Law to Ally McBeal, television has taken more risks, permit- dation reported that of the 805,872 licensed lawyers, whether ted characters to develop and change over several seasons, or not employed, 20% were women. See id. In each of these introduced new characters, and allowed women lawyers a surveys, the total number of women attorneys as of 1990 was greater diversity of personality, style (both professional and between 157,000 and 190,145. See id. at 4. personal), legal specialty, and even appearance. Although 6. The progress and pitfalls of women in the legal profes- this essay is limited to films, several other commentators of- sion have been chronicled and charted in many sources, and fer thoughtful and comprehensive insights about women law- from many perspectives. Some recent books and articles that yers in television series. See, e.g., Diane Klein, Ally McBeal have focused on this era include: THE WOMAN ADVOCATE and Her Sisters: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of (Jean Maclean Snyder & Andra Barmash Greene eds., 1996); Representations of Women Lawyers on Prime-Time Televi- Cynthia Fuchs Epstein et al., Glass Ceilings and Open Doors: sion, 18 Loy. L.A. ENT. L.J. 259 (1998); Christine Alice Women's Advancement in the Legal Profession, 64 FORD- Corcos, Women Lawyers, in PRIME TIME LAW: FICTIONAL HAM. L. REV. 291 (1995); CYNTHIA FUCHS EPSTEIN, WOMEN TELEVISION As LEGAL NARRATIVE 219 (Robert M. Jarvis & IN LAW (2d ed. 1993); MONA HARRINGTON, WOMEN LAW- Paul R. Joseph eds., 1998); Ric Sheffield, On Film: A Social YERS: REWRITING THE RULES (1994); Stacy Caplow & Shira History of Women Lawyers in Popular Culture 1930-1990, 14 A. Scheindlin, "Portraitof a Lady": The Woman Lawyer in Loy. L.A. ENT. L.J. 73, 96-106 (1993); Diane M. Glass, Portia the 1980s, 35 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 391 (1990). The topic has in Primetime: Women Lawyers, Television and L.A. Law, 2 been studied in other countries also. See, e.g., WOMEN IN YALE J.L. & FEMINISM 371 (1990). LAW (Shimon Shetreet ed., 1998) (commenting on the exper- 8. JAGGED EDGE (Columbia Pictures 1985). iences of women lawyers in U.S. and Israel); MARGARET 9. LEGAL EAGLES (Universal Pictures 1986). THORNTON, DISSONANCE AND DISTRUST: WOMEN IN THE 10. THE BIG EASY (Kings Road Entertainment 1987). LEGAL PROFESSION (1996) (discussing women lawyers in 11. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE (Columbia Pictures 1988). Australia); JOHN HAGAN & FIONA KAY, GENDER IN PRAC- 12. DEFENSELESS (New Visions Cinema 1990). TICE (1995) (discussing women lawyers in Canada). There 13. OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY (Warner Brothers 1991). are also some interesting works that provide a historical per- 14. LOVE CRIMES (Miramax Films 1991). spective on the progress of women attorneys. See, e.g., VIR- 15. A FEW GOOD MEN (Columbia Pictures 1992). GINIA G. DRACHMAN, SISTERS IN LAW: WOMEN LAWYERS IN 16. GUILTY AS SIN (Hollywood Pictures 1993). MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY (1998); WOMEN IN LAW: A 17. JUDICIAL CONSENT (Rysher Entertainment 1994). BIo-BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOURCEBOOK (Rebecca Mae Salokar 18. FAIR GAME (Warner Brothers 1995). & Mary L. Volcansek eds., 1996). 7. Interestingly, television shows have created much more nuanced and diverse female lawyer characters. From L.A. Caplow/STILL IN THE DARK figures. Moreover, they have been portrayed as As an avid cinephile, without much taste or immoral by society's standards, and unethical discretion, and apparently a lot of disposable according to professional norms.1 9 Even those time, I saw almost all of these movies and then movies that initially seemed to showcase the realized, in about 1992, that a phenomenon was skills and successes of a woman attorney favora- taking place. At that time, I gave a speech at a bly, were quickly stripped of this pretense of re- law school function which argued that, despite a spect as the plot degenerated into a trite pot- fair amount of on-screen exposure, women boiler in which the woman's downfall is due to were not faring well in popular culture. Since either absurd professional miscalculations, seri- then, the screen depiction of women lawyers ous emotional problems, sexual transgressions, has been the subject of several articles, catching or all of the above. the imagination of feminist critics, all of whom In this batch of mediocre films there were a express degrees of disappointment and discour- 27 few of better quality that are worth examining agement. for their more serious portrayal of women law- This essay updates my earlier conclusion. yers in their professional milieu.2" This essay In the intervening years since my original obser- will examine six of the best known of these vations, and despite the almost universal criti- films, each of which pass, at least initially, a ba- cism of the treatment of women lawyers in film, sic critical minimum standard. Four of them, no apparent progress has occurred. Indeed, the Jagged Edge,21 Suspect,22 The Music Box, 23 and most noticeable change is the declining pres- Class Action,24 follow a familiar formula in ence of women lawyers in recent movies, partic- which a reasonably successful, somewhat frus- ularly in a central role. Women have been rele- trated, or disappointed woman lawyer takes on gated to supporting characters, such as the 28 a big case with either temporary or long-term prosecutor in Primal Fear and the window- 29 disastrous consequences. The fifth, The Ac- dressing advocate in Philadelphia. They are 3 ° cused,25 manages to avoid these melodramatic law students in A Time to Kill or Reversal of pitfalls, but still portrays its featured attorney as Fortune,31 cultural oddities like the Chinese de- 32 a flawed heroine, and, because of its subject fense attorney in Red Corner, or anonymous matter-a rape prosecution-still suffers from judges and briefcase toting extras in courthouse 26 some objectionable stereotyping. The Client, hallways and elevators. Hollywood seems to the last chronologically, offers a more sympa- have lost interest in the travails of the woman thetic, humane, and likeable portrait of its law- attorney. yer protagonist who, largely by supplementing her legal judgment with maternal impulses, achieves both a legal advantage for her client and a large measure of personal gratification.
19. See PAUL BERGMAN & MICHAEL AsIMov, REEL JUS- ley & Donna C. Hale eds., 1998); Miller, supra note 20; TICE: THE COURTROOM GOES TO THE MOVIES 90-93 (1996). Graham & Maschio, supra note 20; Carole Shapiro, Women 20. There is, of course, room to differ with my estimation Lawyers in Celluloid: Why Hollywood Skirts the Truth, 25 U. of these movies! Several other authors also have identified TOL. L. REV. 955 (1995); Sheffield, supra note 7; Cynthia these movies as worthy of analysis. See, e.g., Louise Everett Lucia, Women on Trial: The Female Lawyer in the Court- Graham & Geraldine Maschio, A False Public Sentiment: room, 29 CINEASTE 32 (1992); Terry Kay Diggs, No Way to Narrative and Visual Images of Women Lawyers in Film, 84 Treat a Lawyer, CAL. LAWYER 48 (1992). See also, Christine Ky. L.J. 1027, 1040-61 (1995-96); Carolyn Lisa Miller, "What Corcos, Portia and Her Partners in Popular Culture: A Bibli- a Waste: Beautiful, Sexy Gal, Hell of a Lawyer": Film and the ography, 22 LEGAL STUD. F. 269 (1998); Christine Corcos, Female Lawyer, 4 COLUM. J. GENDER & L. 203, 207-27 Bad Girls: Women Lawyers on Film and Television: A Se- (1994). lected Bibliography (Apr. 8, 1999)
WOMEN LAWYERS IN Portrayals of women in the movies presum- POPULAR CULTURE ably attempt to mirror the authentic ambiva- lence of real-life women lawyers about whether An examination of the depiction of law and and how their sex influences the law and its lawyers in popular media is most useful as a practice, and reflects and reinforces the skepti- measurement of the general public perception cism of lay people about the relative abilities of the law and the legal profession. Forms of and competence of women attorneys. These popular culture can chart the impact of law on fictional characterizations and their accompany- society as its creator has understood, processed, ing conflicts, dilemmas, and choices not surpris- and then communicated the phenomena, as- ingly suggest that media portraits of lawyers suming that the creator is observant and per- perpetuate the stereotypes as well as the actual ceptive. Looking at images of law and lawyers differences between women and men in the in popular culture permits us to view a version legal culture, registering an outsider's perspec- of the real social impact of legal ideas as seen tive that those of us on the inside may have through the eyes of a creative interpreter and as overlooked, ignored, or even rejected. We, processed by a lay audience. Popular legal cul- therefore, should be able to gauge the perceived ture bears some responsibility for creating the status of women in the legal profession since public's understanding of the law since many the credibility of plot and character depend to people derive all of their information about the some degree on the authenticity of the depic- meaning of legal events through the lens of tion of the woman lawyer in her professional popular media.33 role. Examining images of women lawyers thus permits us to question the status that women THE LEGAL GENRE FILM seem to have attained in the legal profession, and the personal, moral, or emotional adjust- A genre film is characterized by a particu- ments they have been required to make in or- lar style, form, or content. A particular genre der to participate in that world, as conceived on can be identified by familiar conventions and film. We can also ask how the public is likely to formulas that are plot rather than character perceive women lawyers as a result of these images.
33. Examining images of lawyers in popular culture is an has suggested that "[A]n immensely popular contemporary enterprise that is just beginning to achieve scholarly legiti- novel about the law may... afford a better glimpse of how macy. Recently, articles about the representation of law in lay people regard law than any public opinion poll would popular culture have appeared in legal periodicals. See, e.g., do." Richard A. Posner, The Depiction of Law in The Bon- Anthony Chase, Lawyers and Popular Culture: A Review of fire of the Vanities, 98 YALE L.J. 1652, 1655 (1989). His re- Mass Media Portrayals of American Attorneys, 1986 AM. B. marks apply to the movies as well. There are growing num- FOUND. RES. J. 281 (1986); Anthony Chase, Toward a Legal bers of examples of serious attempts to look at film as a text Theory of Popular Culture, 1986 Wis. L. Rev. 527 (1986); that enhances our understanding of law. See, e.g., LEGAL Lawrence M. Friedman, Law, Lawyers, and Popular Culture, REELISM: MOVIES As LEGAL TEXT (John Denvir ed., 1996); 98 YALE L.J. 1578 (1989); Stephen Gillers, Taking L.A. Law Symposium, PicturingJustice: Images of Law and Lawyers in More Seriously, 98 YALE L.J. 1607 (1989); David A. Harris, the Visual Media, 30 U.S.F. L. REV. 891 (1996); Symposium, The Appearance of Justice: Court TV, Conventional Televi- Legal Reelism: The Hollywood Film as Legal Text, 25 LEGAL sion, and Public Understanding of the Criminal Justice Sys- STUD. F. 199 (1993); Rennard Strickland, The Cinematic tem, 35 ARIZ. L. REV. 785 (1993); Stewart Macaulay, Images Lawyer: The Magic Mirror and the Silver Screen, 22 OKLA. of Law in Everyday Life: The Lessons of School, Entertain- CIrY U. L. REV. 13 (1997). ment and Spectator Sports, 21 LAw & Soc'v REV. 185 (1987); The study of the relationship of law and popular culture Robert C. Post, On the Popular Image of the Lawyer: Reflec- has even seeped into the law school curriculum. See, e.g., tions in a Dark Glass, 75 CAL. L. REV. 379 (1987). Popular Anthony Chase, On Teaching Law and Popular Culture, 3 legal culture has also been the topic of symposia. See, e.g., Focus ON L. STUD. 1 (1988); Philip N. Meyer, Visual Literacy THE LAWYER AND POPULAR CULTURE: PROCEEDINGS OF A and the Legal Culture: Reading Film as Text in the Law CONFERENCE, JANUARY 7-8, 1992 (David Gunn ed., 1993). School Setting, 17 LEGAL STUD. F. 73 (1993); Steven Green- Thanks to the law and literature movement, now even the field & Guy Osborn, The Empowerment of Students: The lower brows among us who admit to curling up with John Case for Popular Film in Legal Studies, 10 Focus ON L. Grisham or Scott Throw, instead of Billy Budd, The STUD. 6 (1995); Philip N. Meyer, Law Students Go to the Merchant of Venice, Bleak House, or Antigone, have texts Movies, 24 CONN. L. REV. 893 (1992); Norman Rosenberg, A and a growing claim for the legitimacy of referring to popular Word is Just a Word: Bringing ClassicalHollywood Films into culture to address the relationship of the law to public atti- Legal Studies Classes, 7 Focus ON L. STUD. 2 (1992). tudes and images of lawyers. Even Judge Richard Posner, Caplow/STILL IN THE DARK centered.34 Films about the law and lawyers solve the conflicts they create by solving the have always been a popular genre, although mystery, rendering a verdict, or contriving a arguably these movies really are trans-genre. confession, thereby leaving the viewer satisfied They can be about gangsters, prisons, the wild with the kind of tidy resolution that rarely oc- west, class distinctions, femmes fatales, social curs in real life. causes, historical events, biography, law school, Since most movies about lawyers and the and even the military. They can be dramas, law pose questions in moral hyperboles and melodramas, or even screwball comedies. have larger than life plots, celluloid advocates Moreover, the typical legal narrative contains on behalf of these positions tend to be por- the same basic ingredients as the classic trayed at one extreme or the other of the vil- Hollywood narrative, a form based on cause lainy-virtue continuum without much explora- and effect relationships between characters that tion of intermediate subtleties. When a good establish conflict, and then advance3 5 the conflict lawyer is corrupted or an evil lawyer redeemed, toward resolution and climax. this transformation is usually the metaphor for Legal issues are inherently dramatic since a larger moral message. No movie ever depicts they generally arise out of opposition and con- the work-a-day grind of the typical lawyer of flict, and are often, at least in the mind of the average looks and normal abilities who is too public, resolved in a courtroom, the modern busy juggling the demands of clients, bosses, gladiatorial forum. The courtroom generally judges, adversaries, errands, and family to allow and, even more so, the inevitable climactic trial for much dalliance and distraction. scene are excellent stages for the resolution of Movies featuring lawyers have been popu- such global questions as guilt or innocence, lar for a long time.37 In many, particularly those good or evil, right or wrong.36 Summations pro- in the 1930s and 1940s, the lawyer was corrupt, vide an excellent soapbox for pontification, or depraved, or degenerate. In these so-called an opportunity for revelation; direct examina- "shysters and mouthpieces" movies, the lawyers tion involves a moment of dramatic accusation; are alcoholics, murderers, evidence or jury tam- cross-examination allows the witness to expiate perers, and perjurers, among other unattractive or the lawyer to vilify. Some of the complexi- types.3 8 They are susceptible to seduction in the ties of difficult social issues such as abortion or form of power, money, or sex. They are almost the death penalty can be exposed to the public exclusively men. through the medium of legal conflict, yet the in- Even in more recent films, lawyers have dividual does not have to take sides while sit- not made much progress beyond the shyster ting in the theater. Viewers expect judges and clich6. For example, Walter Matthau's ambu- juries to make decisions and these cinematic de- lance chaser in The Fortune Cookie39 persuades his friend cision makers rarely disappoint. Perhaps mov- to fake injuries for a negligence suit40 ies even relieve the public of the responsibility after a very minor accident. In The Verdict, of taking a position. Finally, most movies re- Paul Newman, a burnt-out alcoholic attorney,
34. See generally FILM GENRE READER (Barry Grant Keith 37. For an anthology of movies about law and lawyers, see ed., 1986). See also Chase, Toward a Legal Theory of Popu- Paul J. Mastrangelo, Lawyers and the Law: A Filmography, 3 lar Culture, supra note 33, at 563-67. LEGAL REFERENCE SERVICE Q. 31 (Winter 1983); Paul J. 35. See DAVID BORDWELL & KRISTIN THOMPSON, FILM Mastrangelo, Lawyers and the Law: A Filmography II, 5 ART: AN INTRODUCTION 108-10 (5th ed. 1996). LEGAL REFERENCE SERVICE Q. 5 (Winter 1985-86). 36. The courtroom trial has been called an "American cul- 38. See, e.g., ROGER DOOLEY, Around the Law in Eighty tural convention." David Ray Papke, The Courtroom Trial Ways: Shysters, Mouthpieces and Ambulance Chasers,in FROM as American Cultural Convention, in THE LAWYER AND POP- SCARFACE TO SCARLETT: AMERICAN FILMS IN THE 1930s ULAR CULTURE: PROCEEDINGS OF A CONFERENCE, supra 310-27 (1981). These movies are too numerous to list individ- note 33, 103, 106-107. The august, wood-paneled setting rep- ually. For a very thorough listing of movies involving law resents solidity and dignity. The stock characters (venerable and lawyers through the mid-1980s, see Mastrangelo, Law- judge, dignified and formal lawyer, anxious lay person, atten- yers and the Law: A Filmography, supra note 37; see also tive juror) each telegraph meaning derived from their respec- Mastrangelo, Lawyers and the Law: A FilmographyII, supra tive roles. The courtroom dialogue is engaging, full of clever note 37. cross-examination, resounding objections, and theatrical mo- 39. THE FORTUNE COOKIE (United Artists 1966). ments. The denouement is dramatic as the verdict is read 40. THE VERDICT (Twentieth Century Fox 1982). and the characters respond. The trial is a ceremony whose meaning most Americans understand. WOMEN'S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER [Vol. 20:55 1999] resorts to questionable ethics while represent- Any critique of women lawyer movies must ing a particularly sympathetic client against a acknowledge that usually the sex of the protag- powerful adversary. The real-world sport of onist does matter. The Hollywood technique of lawyer bashing is recreated on the screen by varying a genre film by writing a male role as portraying celluloid lawyers in an unfavorable female simply does not work since it is usually light. impossible to divorce a protagonist's sex from Occasionally, a film does offer a counter- the plot. Thus, a movie about legal conventions point to this relentless negative imagery. Such featuring a female attorney incorporates the movies include Young Mister Lincoln,4' Anat- woman's movie conventions, and the latter omy of a Murder,42 To Kill a Mockingbird,43 genre actually may dominate. We are left with Cape Fear,44 and Judgment at Nuremburg,45 both a more complex portrait of our lawyer her- starring respectively such jut-jawed defenders oines than the more monochromatic picture of justice as Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Greg- which shyster films painted, adding elements of ory Peck (twice), and Spencer Tracy. These family, emotion, and conscience that derive positive images are few and far between and from gender rather than profession. may only be credible because of the charisma of the featured actor. THE WOMAN'S FILM By most accounts, lawyers are flawed cine- In From Reverence to Rape,47 the film matic heroes, and now that women make up a critic, Molly Haskell, identifies the "woman's significant percentage of the legal population, it movie" as genre unto itself.48 Although the is not surprising that movies treat women very idea of a separate category featuring exclu- lawyers with equal disdain and distrust. This sively women may seem denigrating, Haskell's treatment is consistent with the highly dubious description of this genre resonates and reminds approach of varying a convention by putting a us of many dark movie theaters in which we woman in a traditional male role or situation. never had enough kleenex. According to Has- Their sex supposedly is irrelevant, but, of kell, the main themes of the woman's movie are course, it always does matter. As much as sacrifice, choice, affliction, or competition.49 Hollywood might try to cause women to forfeit Prime examples, among the numerous possibili- their sexual identities, these efforts usually ties, are Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce5" (sac- fail-or at least result in inauthentic, unsatisfy- rifice), Bette Davis in such films as Now Voy- ing films.46 ager51 (choice), Dark Victory52 (affliction), and Whether or not the media's villainous por- All About Eve53 (competition). Even when the trayal of lawyers is fair to the profession, there featured woman was a professional, she would is no particular reason to exempt women law- have to sacrifice her career for her marriage, yers from this censure or to portray them as any choose between her career or her children, less greedy, devious, amoral, or evil, let alone compete with another woman for a man's love, more virtuous than male attorneys. Neverthe- or die on the heels of a professional triumph. less, it is ironic that the women attorneys de- Haskell discusses some of the hypocrisy picted in recent films have not suffered from the perpetrated by popular films about women.54 moral and ethical lapses usually ascribed to She reminds us that the worst examples of a male lawyers, but rather have imperfections man's flaws, such as crime or espionage, are that are more traditionally identified with their viewed with less animosity than those of a striv- sex. ing woman with executive power, or artistic, lit- erary, or professional aspirations.55 She points
41. YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (Twentieth Century Fox 1939). See id. at 153. 42. ANATOMY OF A MURDER (Columbia Pictures 1958). See id. at 163-64. 43. To KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, supra note 1. MILDRED PIERCE (Warner Brothers 1945). 44. CAPE FEAR (Universal Pictures 1962). Now VOYAGER (Warner Brothers 1942). 45. JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (United Artists 1961). 46. See JEANINE BASINGER, A WOMAN'S VIEW: How DARK VICTORY (Warner Brothers 1939). HOLLYWOOD SPOKE TO WOMEN 1930-1960, 448-85 (1993). ALL ABOUT EVE (Twentieth Century Fox 1950). 47. MOLLY HASKELL, FROM REVERENCE To RAPE: THE See HASKELL, supra note 47, at 15. TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN THE MOVIES (1973). See id. CaplowISTILL IN THE DARK out the irony that often situations in movies are other woman accused of murdering her father characterized as "problems" and "conflicts" when he tried to attack her. It turns out that simply because they are happening to a woman, her client is the lawyer's long-lost daughter. In when, if the sexes were reversed, there would Ann Carver's Profession,6" the heroine-attorney be no problem at all.56 For example, if an older earns more than her architect husband. Despite woman is having a romance with a younger his competitiveness, when he is tried for mur- man, the affair is viewed romantically as a com- der, she successfully defends him and, at the ing of age experience from the boy's viewpoint. end of the trial, gives up her career to save her If the story is the woman's, however, the rela- marriage. This sacrifice movie was even tionship between an older woman and a remade into The Lady Objects,61 in which, dur- younger man is an act of desperation or seduc- ing her summation, the heroine argues for her tion. The same affair would be charming for the husband's acquittal by blaming his predicament man and corrupt for the woman. The double on the marital turmoil caused by her ambi- standard applies to work as well as to sex. A tions." man is expected to work without jeopardizing Other movies echo these melodramatic his personal life, whereas a woman who has themes of sacrifice and choice. The Defense chosen a career takes a detour from conven- Rests63 concerns a successful lawyer for organ- tional behavior and risks personal unhappiness. ized crime and a young female law school grad- Surprisingly, there were a notable number uate who attempts to expose him. The Law in of movies made during the 1930s and 1940s that Her Hands64 tells the story of a woman lawyer featured women lawyers.57 One film historian newly admitted to the bar who becomes quickly found that when women had careers in the films disillusioned and eventually becomes the under- of that era, they were more frequently lawyers world's leading mouthpiece, thus combining the than other professionals.58 These were largely shyster and woman's genres. In Career Wo- woman's movies in a legal setting with sacrifice men,65 again the young woman lawyer defends a themes that frequently highlighted their hero- girl accused of murdering her father. In Portia ines' flaws, moral lapses, or failures as women, on Trial 66 a female lawyer defends a woman but not necessarily as lawyers. Indeed, more charged with murder. often than not, the women were quite compe- These movies are all so obscure that they tent as lawyers, judging largely by their results require a visit to a film library not a video store, rather than any portrayal of competent profes- yet they all send the same basic message: wo- sional skills. Their occupation seemed inciden- men do not really belong in the legal profession. tal, relevant only to provide a context for the Even if she is spunky and good at her work, a sacrifice and the courtroom's dramatic setting. woman lawyer is riddled with either self-hatred Typically, the women lawyers were forced to or self-righteousness. She induces jealousy, en- admit their hubris for wanting it all at the ex- gages in self-sacrifice, and simply cannot have pense of their more feminine duties of wife or both professional and personal identities. mother. Like other women's films of that time Moreover, she is either suckered by some shy- period, they were melodramas. ster or in love with the prosecutor, and in any Quick plot summaries easily convey the event, cannot truly succeed without the help of flavor of these movies. In the earliest of them, a man. Scarlet Pages,59 a woman attorney defends an-
56. See id. 60. ANN CARVER'S PROFESSION (Columbia Pictures 1933). 57. "There were probably more women lawyers on the 61. THE LADY OBJECTS (Columbia Pictures 1938). screen in the thirties than there were in the courtroom. And 62. Apparently on the promotional lobby card the lawyer/ yet, the portrayal was tragically stereotypical." Rennard wife is exclaiming, "Gentlemen of the Jury, if my husband Strickland, Bringing Bogie Out of the Courtroom Closet: Law murdered this other woman, I am to blame. I have been a and Lawyers in Film, 20 Wisc. L. SCH. F. 43 (1990). See also successful lawyer but a failure as a wife." Strickland, supra Sheffield, supra note 7, at 74-89. note 57, at 49. 58. There were twelve movies about women lawyers in 63. THE DEFENSE RESTS (Columbia Pictures 1934). contrast to eight about women doctors. See DOOLEY, supra 64. THE LAW IN HER HANDS (Warner Brothers 1936). note 38, at 317. 65. CAREER WOMAN (TWentieth Century Fox 1936). 59. SCARLET PAGES (First National Pictures 1930). 66. PORTIA ON TRIAL (Republic Pictures 1937). WOMEN'S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER [Vol. 20:55 1999]
Real women lawyers were scarce at this a would-be federal judge and her recently di- time and their screen counterparts were rele- vorced lawyer husband. Myrna Loy's judge in gated to playing melodramatic roles that em- The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer7 ° falls for phasized their emotional weaknesses, their in- Cary Grant. In these comedies, the female law- ability to combine career, love, and parenting yer and the legal setting are vehicles for ro- and their dependence on men. If they were suc- mance and sparring instead of heartbreak and cessful on the professional level, they had to sacrifice. pay a personal price of guilt and self-abnega- Probably no comedy about the law will tion, but usually only after they had achieved ever surpass the charm and genius of the classic justice for their clients or had elevated them- Adam's Rib.7 Katherine Hepburn, a solo prac- selves to the moral high ground. Another re- titioner, defends a woman accused of assault currence in four of these early women lawyer and attempted murder after she shoots her hus- films is the eventual marriage of the women at- band while he was in the arms of his lover. torneys to the prosecutors who opposed them at Hepburn's husband, Spencer Tracy, is prosecut- trial. Even if she is a successful litigator, the ing. Despite a few disturbing unexplained de- celluloid female attorney must be domesticated. tails such as Hepburn's client list (she seems to These movies also highlight their heroines' have only one client at a time), the source of tendency to take on unpopular causes, fre- wealth that enables the couple to own a farm in quently the defense of other women, often at the country and a duplex Manhattan apartment considerable personal cost. Most involve wo- (that any New Yorker familiar with the housing men either defending or coming to the rescue of market would envy), or the lack of concern their husband or child, or other women charged about this incredible conflict of interest, this with committing crimes. For example, in Scarlet film artfully and engagingly portrays the legal Pages, Portiaon Trial, and Career Women, a wo- and marital skirmishes of this professional man attorney takes the case of a young girl who couple. The charm of this movie owes a lot to has retaliated against male abuse. In The Wo- the Hepburn-Tracy chemistry while its portrayal man is the Judge,67 the judge's first case is the of two complementary yet equally capable pro- murder trial of her long-lost daughter. She re- fessionals and its explicit advocacy of women's signs her judgeship, and then argues a success- equality are its real attractions. ful defense theory that she is to blame for her Despite its comedic format, the movie daughter's act because she neglected her. sends a serious message about equality for wo- Some very traditional messages are sent by men eloquently delivered by Hepburn both in these films. Women lawyers who try to be in- and out of court. Basically, Hepburn argues dependent or champion the cause of other wo- against an antiquated version of justification men screw up their personal lives, and when that would deny the defense to women. Hep- they realize this, sacrifice their careers for mar- burn is offended that a woman would be consid- riage or family. On the other hand, women law- ered culpable or even lunatic when a man yers in this era of predominantly shyster and would be considered justified under the same mouthpiece films, scored much higher on the circumstances. An egalitarian, she declaims, moral Richter Scale than their male counter- "We don't want any advantages or prejudices." parts, including the often ruthless adversaries While her domestic side is somewhat flut- they faced. tery and flirtatious, in court, Hepburn's affect is In the 1940s, the tone changed from turgid confident and independent. She strides to the to light. The few women lawyers in films were jury box and the bench with self-assurance. found in comedies rather than melodramas. Others, however, are less convinced of her posi- Rosalind Russell, the archetypal career woman, tion. Her client, a working-class mother of was cast as a judge twice, once in Design for three, so obviously dissimilar from the Yale Scandal68 and then in Tell it to the Judge69 about Law School graduate, does not really under-
67. THE WOMAN IS THE JUDGE (Columbia Pictures 1939). 70. THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY SOXER (RKO Pic- 68. DESIGN FOR SCANDAL (MGM 1941). tures 1947).' 69. TELL IT TO THE JUDGE (Columbia Pictures 1941). 71. ADAM'S RIB (MGM 1949). CaplowISTILL IN THE DARK
stand the feminist explanation of her conduct the sexes under the law and in marriage, com- that her lawyer is proposing as her defense. bining humor with legitimate legal argument. Nor does Tracy, the male prosecutor for whom Hepburn's client's acquittal is even more the law is the law whether it is good or bad, re- satisfying because she accomplishes this result spect her arguments, and he chides her for hav- without sacrificing either her intelligence, her ing "contempt for the law" because she is ad- principles, her femininity, or her marriage. Her vancing a legal theory that essentially calls for client's sympathetic plight allows the viewer to jury nullification. feel without reservation that justice has been Once their battleground has been staked done. She really was innocent under the ver- out, Tracy and Hepburn are worthy adversaries sion of law propounded by Hepburn, as op- whose out-of-court wrangling mirrors their in- posed to simply not guilty because of the ma- court arguments. Although Tracy, married to a nipulative skills of her lawyer or some legal lawyer, presumably believes the notions of technicality that allows guilty people to be ac- equality that Hepburn espouses, he opposes her quitted. legal theory at home and in court. The viewer Adam's Rib is so pleasing and enduring be- is infatuated with Hepburn's style, wit, verbal cause of its winning portrait of a woman lawyer dexterity, and ambition. She is the iconoclast, and because it advances a substantive legal is- while Tracy is the plodding, stolid gentlemanly sue of significance to women independent of lawyer. She breaks the mold of existing law us- the personal life of the protagonist. Even ing bold trial techniques, while he defends the though Hepburn's intransigence angers and status quo and plays by the rules, which, after alienates Tracy and she comes close to the prec- all, are his rules until she undermines them. ipice of sacrifice and choice when their relation- ship is threatened by the case, she never really By using the courtroom as her stage and has to choose between him, her client, or her the trial as an instrument to expose her ideas beliefs. While these tensions challenge their re- and to accomplish change, she obtains an ac- lationship, when the trial is over they eventually quittal for her client and educates the public return to their former marital harmony. More- about the law's inequity to women. She is a cre- over, the viewer never doubts for a minute that ative trial advocate, resorting to unconventional the couple will survive this test. This generous courtroom techniques as she summons a series denouement makes Adam's Rib unusual and of successful women as testament to the equal- takes it out of the stereotypical woman's movie ity of the sexes. She is gutsy, risking the cen- genre. Hepburn makes her point and has her sure of the judge and the ire of her husband, as husband, too. she has a woman weightlifter preposterously hoist Tracy high into the air in open court to prove her point about female competency. Her THE MODERN WOMAN LAWYER instrumental view of the law, her non-conform- IN FILM ity, energy, dedication, and gumption resemble As women graduated in record numbers the tactics and practices of early feminist law- from law school, film makers began to recog- yers. nize the dramatic potential of the introduction This movie is the only intelligent cinematic of women into the workplace, and the challenge representation of a woman lawyer to appear for to traditional patriarchy that women profession- more than thirty-five years and, to this day, re- als pose. Even so, it took Hollywood almost ten mains fresh and contemporary. It is decidedly years to catch up with the feminization of the neither a woman's movie, a shyster film, or a legal profession. In about 1985, when women worshipful portrait of a legal hero. It is an as- lawyer movies began to proliferate, many ques- tute and original exploration of the equality of tions surfaced.72
72. There were a few films before that date in which a wo- Fox 1982), but the infusion of these films began at the height man attorney was the protagonist, see, e.g., FIRST MONDAY of the "backlash" era when women had been in the legal IN OCTOBER (Paramount Pictures 1981) (adapted from a work force in significant numbers for more than ten years. stage play about the first woman Supreme Court Justice), or See Shapiro, supra note 27, at 962-68. a secondary character, see THE VERDICr (TWentieth Century WOMEN'S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER [Vol. 20:55 19991
Now that women lawyers were to have fea- is in her professional role, either arguing in tured roles, what image would be projected? court, interacting with a client or colleague, or Would they be able to break out of the woman's in the context of a complimentary reference to movie genre? If they were permitted to be her abilities by another lawyer. To one extent more than soap opera heroines, would they be or another, the professional skills of these wo- "shysters and mouthpieces" or female Finches? men are showcased as we are treated to their Would this breakthrough also permit them to destructive depositions, cutting cross-examina- resemble their real-life counterparts who have tions, thorough preparation, and aggressive ne- work-home conflicts, experience gender bias, gotiation style. We are meant to be convinced sexual politics and harassment, do not have through these clich6s of masculine lawyer be- time to exercise or get a haircut, and who some- havior that they are successful and accepted. times feel alienated by the professional stan- None of the women lawyers is married, al- dards and norms of an adversarial legal system? lowing them to dedicate long hours to work and Since the reality of most women lawyers- leaving them open to sexual temptation. Three7 5 fraught with tensions about clients and cases, are divorced (Glenn Close in Jagged Edge, family responsibilities, and personal time-is Jessica Lange in Music Box,76 and Susan more than a little boring, Hollywood cannot af- Sarandon in The Client7 ). While the two wo- ford to be true to life. Moreover, there is no men with children (Close and Lange) superfi- reason to expect that the film industry would be cially appear to be good mothers with support- less ambivalent about the presence of powerful ive ex-husbands, they spend little time with accomplished women, in a traditionally male their children and often put their personal and profession, than the rest of the population. It is professional interests ahead of the needs of inevitable, therefore, that most movies about their kids. Three of them are having sexual re- women lawyers are exaggerated and unrealistic, lations with inappropriate men (Close with her indeed even insulting, to the accomplishments client, Mary Elizabeth Mastroantonio in Class of women lawyers. Action78 with a partner in her firm, and Cher in As it turns out, the modern cinematic wo- Suspect79 with a juror). Two are excessively man lawyer has much in common with her emotionally intertwined with their fathers with predecessors from the handkerchief age. Al- disastrous professional consequences (Lange's though our times permit dramas to unfold with father is her client and Mastroantonio's is her a level of sex and violence unknown in earlier adversary). Two are burnt out and frustrated by years, these heroines are plagued by many fa- sexism at their jobs (Cher's public defender in miliar personal conflicts. In keeping with the Suspect and Kelly McGillis's prosecutor in The increased complexity of the times in an era free Accused), while two (Close and Mastroantonio) from the constraints of the Production Code,73 are climbing the partnership ladder. All (ex- their professional lives generally feature ambig- cept Sarandon) have either male mentors or uous ethical and moral dilemmas, as well as, professional father figures and protectors. Sev- sexual, psychological, and physical perils that eral have a male prot6g6 such as the junior as- could never have been developed in the more sociate in Class Action and the paralegal in The one-dimensional woman's movies of the earlier Client. All have male adversaries in court, and, era. with the exception of Lange, who has an Afri- The six better-than-average films that can-American female assistant, all appear to be merit more serious scrutiny74 have much in the only women lawyers, and only professional common in their narrative development, and in women at their respective jobs. the profiles of their heroine's lives. Although Jagged Edge, the first of our modern mov- not every narrative element is the same, typi- ies, is undecided about whether it is a woman's cally the viewer's first glimpse of each heroine movie morality tale, or a murder mystery. A
73. See Code to Govern the Making of Talking, Synchro- 76. THE Music Box, supra note 23. nized and Silent Motion Pictures,in MOVIES AND MASS CUL- 77. THE CLIENT, supra note 26. TURE 135-45 (John Belton ed., 1996). 78. CLASS ACTION, supra note 24. 74. See earlier discussion at page 57. 79. SUSPEcT, supra note 22. 75. JAGGED EDGE, supra note 8. Caplow/STILL IN THE DARK talented, respected woman attorney, played by same. Her personal lapse has doomed her. We Glenn Close, is a successful litigator who left never find out what happens to her professional the DA's office for a lucrative private practice. life as a consequence of this, so we can only Although we never see Close working on any guess that she was denied her partnership, other case, we accept at face value her compe- forced out of her classy firm, or ceased practic- tence, perhaps because of her fancy office and ing law altogether. stylish clothes, even when she is persuaded, Despite her sexual misadventure, Close is with the inducement of a promise of a partner- not a cardboard clich6 of either a lawyer or a ship, to take on the seamy case of a rich and woman. Rather, the movie offers an equivocal handsome client accused of brutally murdering picture of this career woman. She is a very ef- his wife. Throughout the movie Close is the fective, focused, and proficient trial lawyer, only woman lawyer we see, and she always ap- who, with the aid of a salty male investigator, pears in a room of deferential male colleagues seems to find a smoking gun during her cross- who appear to adore her, but who, everyone examination of every prosecution witness. At with the exception of Close herself understands, the same time, she wears conspicuously tight, are really trying to manipulate her into ac- constricting clothing that unavoidably distracts cepting a client who they think would be best from her professional image. She can barely represented by a woman. walk back to her seat after a stinging cross-ex- In the initial courtroom scenes, Close dem- amination because her skirt is too tight and her onstrates clever and polished trial skills. Her el- heels too high as she walks back and forth to egantly shod feet soon prove to be made of the witness box. The message of her clothing clay, however, when she sleeps with her client visually undermines any image of competence on the eve of his trial.8" Her sexual transgres- and gender-neutral skill. sion is simply the final step in her psychological She is also personally soft and vulnerable, seduction by her client, a process the viewer has clearly meant to appear as a decent person, been witnessing from the outset of their rela- even though she ends up looking foolish. When tionship. Once she has crossed this line of im- it appears that her client is not only guilty but propriety, her legal prowess is tainted by her also has lied to her, she is stung with sexual jeal- emotionality and the viewer is discomforted by ousy and outrage by his betrayal rather than be- her conflation of the personal and the profes- ing concerned for his legal fate. Whatever cred- sional. ibility as an independent professional Close Since her misconduct would be a problem may have had up to this point, is undercut and whether committed by a female or male attor- trivialized by her indiscretion. When she goes ney, at first we are tempted to believe that the to the judge's house in tears, asking to be re- movie escapes some of the stereotypical sexism lieved from the case because of her suspicions of the woman's genre. But the movie has no about her client, he straightens her out in an patience with Close's foolish choice to become avuncular manner that suggests that she really involved with her client, who most of the audi- is not the effective trial lawyer she pretends to ence can tell is a killer. Thus, Close pays for her be, but is, after all, only another emotional wo- mistake when she discovers her client's treach- man. ery and guilt, and faces her complicity in his de- Jagged Edge was a breakthrough movie be- ception. Not only does she feel manipulated cause it was the first to take seriously the possi- and used, but also she places herself in grave bility that a woman could function as a compe- personal danger, finally killing her client-lover, tent professional, respected and admired by her literally destroying the evidence of her stupidity peers, and often brilliant in the courtroom. This and supposedly recapturing some of her previ- portrayal sadly turns out to be illusory as Close ous power. Despite having saved herself from succumbs to sexual temptation, compromises the assassin, we doubt that she will ever be the her professional integrity, and ultimately be-
80. This development is hardly gender specific. Close fol- national Pictures 1947), and William Hurt in BODY HEAT lows in the footsteps of a pre-Atticus Finch Gregory Peck in (Ladd 1981). the Hitchcock film, see THE PARADINE CASE (Selznick Inter- WOMEN'S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER [Vol. 20:55 1999] comes a killer (as if there were no other solu- as less rule-determined than a male counterpart tions to her problems). It is unfortunate that might. She knows how to accept help when it is any subtleties in Close's portrayal are so offered because she is not delusional or con- eclipsed by the enormity of her mistake and the ceited enough to believe that she alone can ob- extremity of her resolution that we are unlikely tain the acquittal. We witness her ambivalence to understand or excuse her. Close's downfall, over the clear professional mandates she is vio- like those of her predecessors in the movies of lating, but can appreciate how her client bene- the 1930s, is attributable to her conceit in think- fits from her lapse. She struggles emotionally ing that she could compete in a man's world. for the fate of her client in a situation in which Indeed, this film owes more to those melodra- she feels powerless to help him unless she mas than to the women's movement. makes some personal compromises. Her choice In Suspect, Cher plays an exhausted, yet is made easier not only because of the strength dedicated, public defender assigned to repre- of the prosecution's case, but also by the pa- sent a deaf homeless man accused of murder tronizing attitudes of the district attorney and Her disillusionment is quite authentic. Equally the judge. At one point, the prosecutor even believable is her initial resignation over her as- frames an objection by asking whether she signment to this thankless, draining case with a thinks the trial is a cooking class. She shoulders pitiable and friendless client. Her frustration the full weight of the judge's condescension, with the difficulties of defending such an in- hostility, and impatience as the case against her defensible person is realistic, yet her reaction to client strengthens in court while she simulta- her client's plight is caring and concerned. Put- neously discovers increasing evidence convinc- ting aside the ludicrous development that the ing her that he may actually be innocent. With- real killer is the presiding judge who has com- out abjuring the rules, she is powerless to help mitted the crime in order to cover up an ancient him. impropriety that would prevent him from being Cher does two remarkable things: she elevated to the appeals court, Cher's portrayal breaks the law to help her client and she puts of a hardworking, somewhat defeated, and his interests above her own. Although she is brow-beaten criminal defense attorney, whose never caught or prosecuted, she endangers her biological clock is ticking, is quite bona fide, professional standing and her freedom for him. down to her frequently inept trial skills and her Rather than play by the rules, however, she obvious awareness of being outflanked in the places herself at risk, both professionally and courtroom. physically, to do the best for her client. Given Her case is hopeless and her resources non- her disillusionment, it is not surprising that her existent when she is offered the opportunity to frustration with the system propels her into re- accept help from one of the jurors in investigat- bellion for the sake of her client. Since the true ing some heretofore uncovered leads. At first, culprit is exposed before Cher's misconduct is Cher's professional ethics hold fast when she re- discovered, she never has to face any conse- buffs his illegal effort to help her. She says, "I quences for her law breaking. The movie, thus, want to win, but I draw the line." As the evi- never addresses the hard issue of whether the dence against her client mounts, she is per- ends justify the means. Perhaps they do, since suaded to let the juror help her. Having taken in the end she gets one really good looking guy the plunge into this misconduct, she almost im- acquitted and gets to date another. mediately compounds her guilt when she lies The next two films, The Music Box and about the situation to the judge without blink- Class Action, depict very different dependency ing an eye, assuring her descent into legal ethics relationships that drive their plots in completely hell. She discards the rules that circumscribe unrealistic directions. In both, the male author- her ability to represent her client effectively in a ity figure is the woman lawyer's father with totally unbalanced case. This situation does not whom she has an infantilizing relationship con- necessarily require a female attorney for the sidering both women are highly competitive ethical conflict to exist. Yet, Cher's capitulation lawyers in the corporate world. Lange is de- has a distinctly female side, growing out of a voted to her father and has complete faith in his willingness to see her role as defense attorney innocence when he is accused of being a war Caplow/STILL IN THE DARK criminal. Mastroantonio is a rebellious child, ation a wiser, more objective (i.e., male) lawyer who repudiates her father for his philandering would have avoided. Since the discovery oc- and his idealism to such an extent that her en- curred outside of the attorney-client relation- tire existence is based on childish opposition. ship, no professional norms bar her disclosure In The Music Box, Jessica Lange plays a of the inculpatory photographs she now pos- criminal lawyer amicably divorced from her sesses. On the personal level, of course, her rich, well-connected husband, who retains a loyalty and love for her father are destroyed. mentor relationship with her former father-in- On the professional level, her satisfaction at law, a patrician lawyer. At her father's request, having won the case is ruined when her sense of she defends him against an accusation that he justice refuses to let well enough alone. was a member of a fascist police force in his na- Ultimately, she sends the photos to news- tive country of Hungary, and that he personally papers and they are published in the morning killed Jews during World War II. Her relation- headlines. In so doing, she denounces her fa- ship with her father is so close that even if she ther, sacrificing him and their relationship, not can see the folly in handling his case, she cannot for her career, but for her own peace of mind. refuse when he insists. Based on what the audience knows about her Throughout the pretrial and trial proceed- values, her decision to reveal the photos seems ings her devotion to her father and her belief in a foregone conclusion, even though the cost is his innocence never wavers, yet she also is hor- enormous. We never see whether she suffers rified by the testimony of his victims. The emo- any professional consequences for her actions tional burden of her father's defense is light- or any personal ostracism by her friends and ened by her professional camouflage. She is colleagues. At the end of the film, she is shot very competitive with the government attorney, from a distance, alone with her son, a lingering gloating when she scores a procedural point. image that prophesies her likely solitary future. She zealously represents her father, even if it Again, the woman lawyer has made a profound, means asking unpleasant questions of highly life-altering decision that sacrifices her personal sympathetic witnesses. She allows herself to be identity and possibly her career to her sense of fully identified with him, despite the damage to justice. The movie clearly suggests that this is a her professional reputation, even as the viewer gendered choice. None of the men in the is increasingly skeptical of his innocence. Fi- film-her father, her brother, her father-in- nally, when Lange herself begins to have law-understand her decision, and clearly none doubts, she becomes even more aggressive and of them would have made the same choice. intense as his advocate. In Class Action, we are treated to an up- Being a strong, effective advocate is not dated shysters and mouthpieces movie leavened enough to win the case, however. In despera- with a little self-sacrifice and revelation. The tion, she secretly turns to her former father-in- film not only pits the little guy against the evil, law to use his CIA connections. Asking for impersonal corporation, it duplicates this theme help is a sign of professional weakness she is re- in the relationship between the heroine and her luctant to display to anyone since women attor- father. The twist here is that it is the father who neys who try to play by the rules of the man's is the compassionate champion of lost causes, game feel they have to prove themselves in while his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Mastroan- male ways. In that world, asking for help is an tonio, is a quintessential yuppie corporate law- admission of failure, or at least weakness, as yer on the partnership track. Again, the incom- anyone who has ever experienced the classic prehensible occurs for the sake of drama: the gender divide over asking for directions on a father and daughter are adversaries on the case. car trip can attest. Yet, she is willing to ask for Mastroantonio has committed just about this assistance because helping her father and every foolish error of judgment a young lawyer winning the case is more important than per- could. She has swallowed whole the myth of sonal or professional pride. big law firm success. She has an intimate rela- After the charges have been dismissed, she tionship with the partner supervising her work discovers her father's true culpability. Her re- even when she knows women in her -position sulting quandary reflects her dual loyalty, a situ- are judged by different standards. She capitu- WOMEN'S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER [Vol. 20:55 1999]
lates easily when asked to conduct a ruthless pudiating the male law firm world, she is re- destructive deposition of the main plaintiff turning to her father's embrace, a regression whose family perished in a flaming car and who that may, in the end, be costly to her indepen- is himself disabled. dence and self-esteem. Again, the audience can Her constant and immature clashes with only speculate that her denouement dance with her father over their conflicting vision of law- Daddy means not only reconciliation, but also yering sabotage her professional credibility. loss of independence. Ironically, it is his version that could be labeled These four movie heroines have much in "feminine" because of his devotion to lost common. In each, the female characters rely on causes and people. She is the tool of the corpo- male authority figures for either professional, rate machine, her gender exploited in order to psychological, or physical support. In each, the serve the client, when, for example, the senior star is the only woman lawyer visible, as if no partner admits that juries accept antagonistic law firm, public defender, or prosecutor's office and destructive witness examinations more could have more than one female attorney. readily from a woman lawyer. Although she They appear to be both the mascot and the to- can be ironic about herself, her introspection ken, petted and trotted out for display and con- rarely seems sincere and she is portrayed as stantly compared to the guys. If and when they weak and unprincipled, particularly in contrast fall short of their expectations, they are co- to her father and his African-American surro- erced, blackmailed, criticized, embarrassed, or gate-son associate. scolded. None of them is simply permitted to After discovering that her client is respon- be a practicing attorney who works with the sible for the accidents in the first place, and also dignity and balance of Atticus Finch. Even that her firm is now covering up both for the though all four initially seem to have broken auto company and for themselves by withhold- free from the stereotypes that define images of ing documents extremely helpful to the plain- professional women, they are not permitted to tiffs, she finally faces the devil. She acknowl- behave like real women. Their sexuality, vul- edges that her blind acceptance of certain legal nerability, and dependency are emphasized, norms and her ambitions have caused her to ig- dominating their images even when they are su- nore the side of herself, as represented by her perficially displayed as competent professionals. creative, mediative mother, that indeed cares They make foolish, emotional choices at great about the plaintiffs' horrible tragedies and de- expense. Close and Cher are almost killed. plores the deception in which she is complicit. Cher and Mastroantonio commit ethical, and She ultimately cannot turn into the bloodless, possibly criminal errors. Lange and Mastro- ruthless lawyer that the male world, with the ex- antonio are dutiful daughters whose paternal ception of her father and his associate, was relationships interfere disastrously with their modeling for her. Together, in an ethically professional lives. In the final analysis, these questionable collaboration of adversaries, they four movies may indeed be nothing more than figure out a way for her to remedy the misdeed slicker versions of the woman's movie, different without jeopardizing her career. Even though a only superficially from their 1930s analogues less generous observer might criticize her inter- because the freer moral climate of the 1980s pretation of ethical mandates, she manages to and 1990s allows for the introduction of more reclaim herself without any harmful profes- explicit sex and violence. sional repercussions. The Accused and The Client do not rely on Mastroantonio finally renounces the values sex, betrayal, violence, or professional miscon- and practices of her law firm where, again, she duct for their drama. Furthermore, they each seems to be the only female attorney, in favor tell a story of professional transformation that of the racial, sexual, and class diversity of her results from a relationship with an individual father's very different legal world. Instead of who forces them to see the law differently. fighting against the caring side of herself, a While their sex is critical to the narrative, in struggle drawn in simplistic parent-child terms, each of these films the heroine's gender permits she accepts it. The sacrifice of her partnership a special relationship to form without sacrificing is really none at all. Ironically, however, in re- her professional identity. They even acquire CaplowISTILL IN THE DARK new and improved skills. For that reason, these even considers that Foster might have an opin- movies have moved beyond the woman's movie ion about this outcome. genre. Crossing an obvious boundary, Foster, en- Although The Accused focuses more on raged and unrestrained by social conventions, the difficulties experienced by Jodie Foster, a invades McGillis's home while she is preparing rape victim, in her effort to achieve vindication a civilized dinner party, to volubly criticize her through the legal system, the prosecutor who handling of the case. McGillis's awakening is helps her, played by Kelly McGillis, is instru- transparent as she realizes that Foster's accusa- mental. Played as a cool, impersonal, competi- tion of lack of empathy is correct, and that her tive professional, McGillis changes profoundly unquestioning acceptance of her prosecutorial as a result of her relationship with Foster, the role had prevented her from seeing and serving lower class victim. Foster's Oscar winning per- Foster's perfectly legitimate interests. More- formance is so powerful that she overshadows over, she discovers that she had been so con- the more passive, less emotional portrait of the strained by the rigid definitions of their respec- professional who learns a lesson in empathy and tive roles, as well as, their different classes, compassion from her "client." styles, and education, that she did not even think Foster Despite Foster's brutal injuries, McGillis's really had any independent goals worth considering. reaction to Foster when they first meet in the To compensate hospital is dispassionate and detached. In order for her blindness, McGillis to insulate herself from the more emotional stakes out new legal territory in fashioning a novel theory for prosecuting the spectators connection the situation may have required, she of the rape, permitting Foster informs Foster that "I'm not a rape counselor. to tell her story with dignity. To do this, she pays I'm a prosecutor." She retains this role-bound a large cost in her relationship with her boss. To him her insis- aloofness throughout the early phase of the tence on pursuing the second prosecution is ir- prosecution, evaluating the case and the credi- rational, and he threatens to fire her. Yet, with bility of the victim just as insensitively as her the second conviction, she emerges as a valiant, male colleagues. She relates to this rape victim if belated, seeker of justice while the male pros- from an almost adversarial posture, interrogat- ecutors are troglodytes. Although this film is ing her about her sex life in the guise of educat- not perfect in its depiction of the rape victim ing her about her vulnerability under cross-ex- and her struggle for justice,8 its female lawyer's amination. When she discusses the case with professionalism is not undermined by her sex; her male boss at an ice hockey game, she sees on the contrary, because she is a woman she is the case in terms of winning, and thus is a rec- ultimately more empathic. This change re- ognizable and unthreatening figure to her male moves her from the traditional maleness of the colleagues. prosecutor's office, yet it is not depicted as a When McGillis arranges a plea bargain that weakness, but rather an epiphany. Her more convicts Foster's assailants of assault rather gendered instincts fuels the strength that allow than a sex offense, she does not consult with her to fulfill a professional mission. Foster. Although the defendants go to jail, they Her transformation through her increasing never have to admit their guilt for the rape. connection and sensitivity to Foster is visual. Foster is furious at being ignored. McGillis Her appearance loosens up, she dresses more does not see the self-empowerment goals mani- informally, she warms in speech and manner to fested in Foster's need to tell her story publicly Foster. She fights with her boss to bring the so that she might have the satisfaction of, per- novel charges against the spectators to the rape sonally accusing and testifying against her as- and threatens him in order to get her way. She sailants. She also wants them to be convicted of has become more aggressive, but on her own the crime they committed: rape. McGillis never terms, not as a conformist to the norms of her
81. One commentator argues that because the witness bility within the law." Patrice Fleck, The Silencing of Women whose testimony was essential for the conviction was a man, in the Hollywood "Feminist" Film: The Accused, 9 POST "... .[T]he guilty verdict in the end seems to be token gift to SCRIPT 49, 55 (1990). liberal feminism .... [F]emale victims still have no real credi- WOMEN'S RIGHTS LAW REPORTER [Vol. 20:55 1999] office. Her style of lawyering, particularly of films. Moreover, she clearly has not even tried prosecution, a classically old-boys' specialty, has to achieve the familiar indicia of success in the become more compassionate and empathic. legal profession. She is still struggling to find Although even after the eventual convictions, her professional identity, remembering her own Foster and McGillis never become friends or re- victimization at the hands of her husband's di- late as equals, from this relationship, McGillis vorce lawyers, and she visibly wears the insecu- learns to rely more on her instincts about justice rities of her past. She may be a lawyer but her and succeeds in breaking down the barriers that maternal side is so apparent that she does not prevent personal and emotional connections to intimidate the masculine majority. While she Foster. After the trial, she is not just happy to holds her own in each encounter with the prose- have won for herself and her ambitions, but also cutors, they nevertheless patronize her. In ad- to have obtained for Foster the vindication she dition, both she and the audience are aware of craved. how fragile her confidence is. Unlike Jagged Edge and Suspect, which are Sarandon is a mother who turned into a basically murder mysteries, or The Music Box lawyer later in life, so that her ambition and and Class Action, which are suspense films, The professional life followed an earlier existence in Accused is a movie about the relationship of which other values were ascendant. Her young lawyers to the law, and as such is a direct de- client's own mother is so ill-equipped to protect scendent of Adam's Rib. A woman lawyer em- him that Sarandon, having lost custody of her braces issues that concern the treatment of wo- own children, is immediately motherly and shel- men by the legal system. Both Hepburn and tering. In order to gain his trust, she confides McGillis relate the stories of betrayed or victim- her background and her weaknesses, crossing ized women whose voices had been discounted boundaries that few lawyers would find com- or silenced by the system. In the process of this fortable, and most would describe as unprofes- representation, both lawyers are transformed sional. by the very legal theories they advance. Hep- As the narrative continues, Sarandon em- burn and Tracy's relationship is tested and sur- boldens, racing around in her sports car, discov- vive in altered form; McGillis will never be the ering the dead body, running from the murder- same rigid, unfeeling prosecutor again. ers, and finally rescuing her client by making a clever deal with the prosecutors. She earns Of all the woman lawyer movies of this pe- 82 some admiration from her adversary but not so riod, The Client seems to be the best liked. much that he refrains from offering her a job, a Sarandon, Aptly named Reggie Love, Susan supposed compliment but which, in context, plays an older and less glamorous woman who seems more like condescension to a good girl takes the case of a young boy who has knowl- who has done something very clever. Despite edge deemed essential to federal prosecutors. this equivocal triumph, Sarandon succeeds on When they disingenuously try to interrogate the her own terms as a lawyer and as a woman, a in their tracks, con- child, Sarandon stops them combination that distinguishes her from the fronting them with their own duplicity in her other women we have considered. mellifluous voice. Sarandon is the least exper- ienced of her celluloid sisters (only two years CONCLUSION out of law school which she attended after a long-term failed marriage, motherhood, and a Movie buffs will have to keep searching for bout of alcohol dependency). She quickly es- a woman lawyer role model that equals Atticus tablishes her ability to "play with the big boys," Finch. After a decade of mostly negative im- although her adversary tries continually to un- ages, the fad of woman lawyer films seems to dermine her confidence. From the beginning, have died down so the quest will be even more Sarandon, who usually wears jeans, and who difficult. Every so often a strong, competent works in a run-down office with no luxuries, is woman attorney like Sarandon appears, tempt- less threatening than the careerists in the other ing us to believe that finally the stereotypes, the
82. See, Bailey et al., supra note 27, at 192-93; Graham & Maschio, supra note 20, at 1061-66. CaplowISTILL IN THE DARK flirtations, and the seductions are in the past. order to avoid interference with the develop- But those hopes die easily with the more nu- ment of their independent personal and profes- merous portraits of women attorneys whose de- sional credos. Almost in -spite of themselves, ficiencies deny them. audience respect. and certainly in spite of some of their very stu- Despite their imperfections, however, these pid choices, these women emerge as lawyers of modern women lawyers have made some mod- conscience and courage. Some of the plots may est progress beyond both their shyster-mouth- be annoying, frustrating, or even silly, but un- piece and woman's movie ancestors. They pro- derneath a few hopeful signs can be seen. The ject a somewhat more positive image largely ice is broken. Next stage: a woman lawyer prac- because they have conceded professional skills tices her profession without falling prey to the that they know how to use in the male domi- trite traps laid by men (both on the screen and nated legal world. Moreover, they value, or behind the scenes) that sabotage her accom- learn to value, a personal morality that invades plishments and our pride in them. the terrain of professional conduct. At the con- After more than a decade of cinematic wo- clusion of each film, the personal self has men lawyers, we are still waiting in the darkness eroded rigid professional role definitions. To of the movie theatre. All of the women lawyers some, these transgressions are unforgivable re- seeking a celluloid role model with whom they gardless of any benefits that might result. can identify will have to keep paying their Others might view these changes as a positive money in hopes of finding their Atticus Finch. development, allowing strong women to make If we wait long enough, perhaps someday we mistakes and learn. These women lawyers rein- will hear a character saying, "Stand up, Scout, terpret the obligations and regulations of attor- your mother is passing by." neys and the restrictions on their behavior in