ANATOMY OF HOLLYWOOD’S HERO-LAWYER: A LAW-AND-FILM STUDY OF THE WESTERN MOTIFS, HONOR-BASED VALUES AND GENDER POLITICS UNDERLYING ANATOMY OF A MURDER

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1059-4337(04)35003-9
• Pages: 67-105
• Date: 21 June 2005
• Published date: 21 June 2005
• Author: Orit Kamir

ANATOMY OF HOLLYWOOD’S

HERO-LAWYER: A LAW-AND-FILM

STUDY OF THE WESTERN MOTIFS,

HONOR-BASED VALUES AND GENDER

POLITICS UNDERLYING ANATOMY OF

A MURDER’S CONSTRUCTION OF THE

LAWYER IMAGE

Orit Kamir

ABSTRACT

Anatomy of a Murder, a beloved, highly influential, seemingly liberal 1959

classic law-film seems to appropriate some of the fading western genre’s

features and social functions, intertwining the professional-plot western

formula with a hero-lawyer variation on the classic western hero character,

America’s 19th century archetypal True Man. In so doing, Anatomy revives

the western genre’s honor code, embracing it into the hero-lawyer law-

film. Concurrently, it accommodates the development of cinematic imagery

of the emerging, professional elite groups, offering the public the notion of

the professional super-lawyer, integrating legal professionalism with natural

justice. In the course of establishing its Herculean lawyer, the film constitutes

Studies in Law, Politics, and Society

Studies in Law, Politics, and Society,Volume 35, 67–105

Copyright © 2005 by Elsevier Ltd.

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 1059-4337/doi:10.1016/S1059-4337(04)35003-9

67

68 ORIT KAMIR

its female protagonist as a potential threat, subjecting her to a cinematic

judgment of her sexual character and reinforcing the honor-based notion of

woman’s sexual-guilt.

INTRODUCTION

Law and Film

While law is a system of organized power, commercial film is constituted by

the economics of pleasure. Nevertheless, law and film are two of contemporary

society’s major discourses, two prominent vehicles for the chorus through

which society tells and creates itself Law and film both create meaning

through storytelling, performance and ritualistic patterning, envisioning and

constructing human subjects and social groups, individuals and worlds. Each is

a dominant social discourse constituting “imagined communities.” Furthermore,

films, much like judicial decisions and legislative rhetoric, can – and do –

constitute communities (of viewers) that are often engaged in judgment, “legal-

like reasoning,” the pursuit of justice, and self-creation – through-judgment-and-

justice. Judgment is often an activity not merely portrayed but actively performed

by films, together with their (constructed and/or actual) viewers; it is often a

function of film’s constitution of a community-of-viewers and its engagement

in social constitution of primary values, institutions and concepts.1

Itthusstandstoreasonthataninterdisciplinaryapproachtothesetwodisciplines

would offer lively and intriguing insights. Indeed, over the last decade, the

combination “law and film” has been increasingly visible in lectures, law-school

course titles, academic conferences and popular culture websites.

“Law-and-film,” a sub-category of the evolving “law-and-culture” perspective,

can be seen as a recent offshoot of more established and familiar interdisciplinary

scholarly genres, particularly “law-and-society” and “law-and-literature.” Still in

its nascent stages of development, law-and-film scholarship eludes precise “scien-

tific”definitionandcannot yet be characterized by a distinct methodology orworld-

view. Law-and-filmscholarship does, however, reflect certain shared fundamental

assumptions regarding the central role of law and film in society.2Theconnections,

similarities, and analogies that can be drawn from these two discourses – and their

respective socio-cultural functions – engender unique insights that can be gained

from an integrated analysis of these two spheres. Writers who explore this new

field emphasize different aspects and interpretations of this common ground.

My own work in the field reflects an understanding of “law-and-film” that

comprises three fundamental premises: that some films’ modes of socio-cultural

Anatomy of Hollywood’s Hero-Lawyer 69

operation parallel that of the law; that some films perform viewer-engaging

judgment; and that some films contain popular jurisprudence. The study of

films’ performance of these functions, is at the heart of my study of law-

and-film. In reference to the three basic premises, law-and-film studies may

sometimes be distinguished on the basis of their primal focus, and labeled

accordingly as examining “film paralleling law,” “film as judgment” and/or “film

as jurisprudence.” Law-films, films that treat legal issues as their subject matter,

often operate in two or three of these dimensions, offering a complex and powerful

combination of these cinematic-legal functions. Their study may often require an

integrated examination of two or all three of their cinematic-legal functions.

These three law-and-film perspectivesare the theoretical framework of the study

presented in this paper. Having presented this framework in detail elsewhere,

here I rely on it, while demonstrating its workings and further exploring it.3My

discussion of Hollywood’s cinematic construction of its hero-lawyer comprises

references to the legal-like socio-cultural operation of the analyzed law-film, to

the popular jurisprudence it offers and to its viewer-engagingjudgment. This paper

demonstrates how, like the legal system, the analyzed film systematically relies

on and reconstruct the intertwined socio-cultural notions of honor, justice, gender-

roles and lawyering. Further, like the legal system, it employs courtroom drama to

promote conservative “family values” and “husbands’ rights.” Concomitantly, it

advocates popular jurisprudence in reference to issues such as the meaning, nature,

functions and desirability of the “unwritten law.” As a means to these ends, but

also as a result of these pursuits, the law-film discussed in this paper engages its

viewers in cinematic judgment.

In this paper, I look at a celebrated and significantly influential Hollywood law-

film, the 1959 courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. An analysis of any single

film cannot, nor is it intended to offer a full account of Hollywood’s construction

of its hero-lawyer, or any other law-and film theme. A close reading of a film,

however,may suggest a valuable perspective on such a theme. Such a perspective’s

insightful contribution to a more comprehensive, systematic account may depend,

to a large extent, on the analyzed film’s status in the relevant context, on its public

impact, influence on other films and complexity as cinematic texts. Anatomy of

a Murder, one of Hollywood’s acclaimed classics, presents what is arguably the

most significant Hollywoodic formulation of its hero-lawyer.This particular film’s

close analysis may, therefore, yield valuable, outreaching insights.

In my close reading of this text I find the cinematic image of the hero-

lawyer to be closely associated with gender politics, fundamental motifs of the

western genre, and society’s adherence to antiquated honor codes. My focus

on these particular underlying themes is, undoubtedly, influenced by subjective

interests and sympathies. All the same, the following discussion demonstrates the