Legal Films on Netflix

After a long day of toil, relaxing on the couch, pouring a glass of wine, and tuning into Netflix with the object of your affection can be a very satisfying feeling. Sometimes Netflix gets a bad rap for peddling sub-par films with little to no entertainment value— O contraire! Netflix still rolls out some of the finest films of the 20^th and 21^st century, including American Beauty, Good Will Hunting, and classic courtroom dramas like The Rainmaker, The Accused, and Donnie Brasco.

The Rainmaker

This is a classic movie based off a John Grisham novel, starring Mat Damon as Rudy Baylor, a young lawyer struggling to break out as an attorney. Rudy becomes tangled up in a nasty medical malpractice claim against insurance giant, Great Benefit. Rudy surprisingly wins the case, but the scumbag insurance provider Great Benefit flees the country, declares bankruptcy, and evades paying punitive damages to Baylor’s client. Rudy is upset with how the case unfolded, but he finds a silver lining in the fact that Great Benefit is now out of business. He vows to teach law and encourage all his future students to uphold a solid foundation of ethics.

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This movie actually was nominated for an Oscar. It takes a Joycean approach to film, as it weaves together multiple perspectives into a coherent, logical, narrative whole. The film deals with how a recently implemented policy affects a wide variety of people from all walks of life. Some of the characters woven into the narrative include a Mexican policeman, a drug user, two DEA agents, and a judge.

The Accused

This movie boast Silence of the Lambs star Jody Foster as its heroine. She plays a victim of sexual assault, and the movie actually won her an Oscar for best actress. Her assailant was let go with a slap on the wrist for his first offence, which allowed him to assault Jody’s character a second time. It is a very earnest yet disturbing look at America’s criminal prosecution system.