Explore every episode of the podcast Law on Film
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| One Person, One Vote? (2024) (Guests: Paul Finkelman & Maximina Juson) (episode 65) | 27 Oct 2026 | 01:05:41 | |
The Electoral College is one of the most consequential—and perhaps least understood—features of the American constitutional system. Americans often think of themselves as voting for president, but technically they vote for electors, through a system created at the founding that was deeply intertwined with slavery and that continues to shape where candidates campaign, whose votes matter most, and even whether the candidate who receives the most votes becomes president. Those questions became especially pressing after the elections of 2000 and 2016 and, in a very different way, in 2020, when the machinery of electors and congressional certification became central to an effort to overturn the election. This episode we discuss the 2024 documentary One Person, One Vote?, which aired on PBS’s Independent Lens and which explores the electoral college through its history and through the experiences of four actual electors during the 2020 election. Joining me are Professor Paul Finkelman, one of the film’s main expert historians, and Maximina Juson, the film’s director. Time stamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:45 The origins of the Electoral College 7:12 Telling the story of how the Electoral College works 10:32 Past controversies over the Electoral College 21:53 Slavery, race, and the Electoral College 27:58 What makes the Electoral College such an anomaly 33:36 The 2020 election 43:12 The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact 52:46 Why Electoral College reform should be nonpartisan issue 56:53 Looking ahead to 2028
Further reading: Cohen, Alex, The National Popular Vote, Explained (Brennan Center for Justice, 2020) Finkelman, Paul, “The Proslavery Origins of the Electoral College,” 23 Cardozo L. Rev. 1145 (2002) Edwards, George C. III, Why Is the Electoral College is Bad for America (4th ed., Cambridge Univ. Press, 2024) Juson, Maximina, Director’s Statement: One Person, One Vote? Keyssar, Alexander, Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? (Harvard Univ. Press, 2020) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Souleymane's Story (L'Histoire de Souleymane) (2024) (Guest: Sharon Weill) (episode 64) | 06 Oct 2026 | 00:46:19 | |
Souleymane's Story (L’Histoire de Souleymane), directed by Boris Lojkine, is anchored by the powerful performance of Abou Sangaré as a delivery worker from Guinea who is seeking asylum in France. What begins as a story of daily survival becomes a story about the legal and administrative processes governing asylum and the often fragile line between recognition and rejection. The film foregrounds questions of identity, performance, and translation, as Souleymane must shape his story to fit the expectations of the asylum system. More broadly, the film invites reflection on the gap between lived experience and legal categories—as well as what gets lost when human stories are filtered through bureaucratic judgment. The guest for this episode is Sharon Weill, who serves as Professor of International Law at the American University of Paris and teaches at Sciences Po in Paris. Time stamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:26 An urban story of 48 hours in a migrant’s life 9:45 Migrant housing 12:47 Separation from home 14:38 The legal categories of asylum 20:38 The asylum hearing 25:10 Souleymane tells his story and closes the door 29:32 Enforcement of immigration law 34:37 Abou Sangaré: the actor who plays Souleymane 37:08 The appeals process and limits on asylum 44:15 Giving a human face to migration Further reading: Akoka, Karen, Asylum and Exile: A History of the Refugee/Migrant Distinction (Éditions La Découverte, 2020) Carpentier, Laurent, "Cannes 2024: Life imitates art for the star of ''L'Histoire de Souleymane,'" The Guardian (May 16, 2024) Chang, Justin, "The Piercing Immigrant Drama of 'Souleymane's Story,'" The New Yorker (Aug. 6, 2025) Dezalay, Sara & Weill, Sharon, Asylum Justice: Between Crisis and Crisis Routine: An Ethnography of the National Court of Asylum Law (June 17, 2026) Kobelinsky, Carolina, The Reception of Asylum Seekers: An Ethnography of Waiting (Éditions du Cygne, 2010) Lemercier, Fabian, "Interview with Boris Lojkine, Director of 'Souleymane's Story,'" Cineuropa (May 21, 2024) Weill, Sharon et al., Terror on Trial: An Ethnography of French Courts (2026) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Alabama Solution (2025) (Guest: Joseph Margulies) (episode 63) | 15 Sep 2026 | 00:44:15 | |
The Alabama Solution is a searing documentary about Alabama’s prison system and the broader crisis of mass incarceration. Directed by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, the film draws on years of secretly recorded cell phone footage made by incarcerated people, offering an unusually intimate and unfiltered account of violence, isolation, resistance, and survival inside one of the harshest prison systems in the United States. The film shows how contraband cell phones transform incarcerated people from subjects of documentation into documentarians themselves, while prisoners’ families emerge as advocates, investigators, and conduits to the outside world. Time stamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:48 Not an innocence movie 6:43 The cell phone footage 10:15 A system of dehumanization 17:37 The Free Alabama Movement 22:09 The declining federal presence and state prisons 25:48 "The Alabama Solution” 31:45 A legacy of slavery 38:30 The challenges of investigating abuses in prisons 42:26 The moral obligation of prison reform Further reading: Alexander, Michelle, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010) Foreman, James, Jr., Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (2017) Lewis, Nicole, “‘The Alabama Solution’: A Humanitarian Crisis in Grainy Detail,” The Marshall Project (2025) Margulies, Joseph, Cast Out: A Call for a Forgiving Society in an Age of Incarceration (2026) Parker, Anabelle, “‘Let’s just shut down’: an interview with Spokesperson Ray of the Free Alabama Movement,” San Francisco Bay View (Dec. 2, 2014) Stevenson, Bryan, Just Mercy (2014) U.S. Dep’t of Justice Civil Rights Division, Investigation of Alabama’s State Prison for Men (July 23, 2020) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Shadow of a Doubt (1943) (Guest: Daniel Ortiz) (episode 62) | 04 Aug 2026 | 01:00:17 | |
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1943 film, Shadow of a Doubt (1943), sets a murder story inside what seems the safest place imaginable: an ordinary American family in an ordinary American town. But as suspicion gathers around Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton), the film slowly exposes something more unsettling than a single killer on the run. It reveals how charm, respectability, and social status can insulate wrongdoing from scrutiny — and how communities prefer comforting narratives to disruptive truths. The police investigate, but they move hesitantly; the town remains confident in its own innocence. The real drama unfolds not in the courtroom, but at the dinner table. The film explores law’s capacity — and its limits. How does misogyny operate not just as motive but as ideology? What happens when loyalty to family collides with loyalty to justice? And in a film released at the height of World War II, is Hitchcock warning that the most dangerous threats to democracy are not always foreign invaders, but may also be charismatic figures embedded within everyday life? Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:13 Teaching law students through film 5:54 Shadow of a Doubt and law’s inadequacies 11:11 The film’s setting and Santa Rosa, CA 14:54 Imagining the perfect crime 21:21 Misogyny in Shadow of a Doubt 27:48 Playing with crime genres and narrative structures 32:58 Hitchcock’s cameo 35:16 Doubling and other filmic techniques 48:19 Complicity in covering up the evil 51:11 A critique of wartime idealism and the narrative of the enemy within 56:17 Questioning American institutions Further reading: Eggert, Brian, Shadow of a Doubt, Deep Focus Review (Mar. 2, 2013) Hughes, Rowland, “Shadows and Doubts: Hitchcock, Genre, and Villainy,” in The Devil Himself: Villainy in Detective Fiction and Film (Stacy Gillis & Philippa Gates eds. 2001) Modleski, Tania, The Women Who Knew Too Much (1988) Scovell, Adam, “Why the sinister Shadow of a Doubt was Hitchcock’s Favourite,” The Telegraph (Feb. 7, 2023) Truffaut, Francois, Hitchcock (Simon & Schuster, 1985) Wood, Robin, Hitchcock’s Films Revisited (2002) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Blade Runner & Blade Runner 2049 (episode 61) | 14 Jul 2026 | 00:59:49 | |
This episode we look at Blade Runner (1982) (dir. Ridley Scott) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017) (dir. Denis Villeneuve), two films that imagine a world where the line between human and machine, creation and creator, has all but vanished. Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic depicted a rain-soaked dystopia where “replicants”—bio-engineered beings—fight for recognition, identity, and life itself. Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 sequel deepens that vision. Law operates in the shadows across both films: as surveillance, classification, and control. The “blade runners” themselves enforce a form of administrative violence that exposes the limits of legal personhood. What does it mean to have rights without recognition, or to be alive without legal existence? And conversely, what are the implications of recognizing rights and legal personhood in robots? In this episode, we’ll examine these and other themes around artificial intelligence, migration, colonization, and bioethics as well as the way films themselves can contribute to and shape public perceptions about these issues. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:45 Emotion and memory in robots 8:08 Slave labor and robot rebellion 9:54 Generative AI and other changes since the first Blade Runner 15:16 Robots giving birth 20:19 Robot rights 24:17 A new category of companion 32:56 Filmic depictions of AI 38:01 “Time to Die” 43:21 The political economy of AI development 47:22 A dystopian vision of data and surveillance 52:18 A positive post-human future? 57:58 Concepts of immortality Further reading: Almog, Shulamit, “When a Robot Can Love – Blade Runner as a Cautionary Tale on Law and Technology,” in Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice (Jan. 1, 2013) Birhane, Abeba, van Dijk Jelle, and Pasquale, Frank, “Debunking Robot Rights Metaphysically, Ethically, and Legally,” 29(4) First Monday (2024) Darling, Kate, The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots (2021) Dick, Philip K., Do Androids Dream of Sheep (1968) Lewis, C.S., Abolition of Man (1943) Oliver, Kendra H., Higgs, Oliver S., and Clayton, J., “The End of Genetic Privacy in the Blade Runner Canon,” 14 (1/2) Journal of Literature and Science 108 (Dec. 2022) Pasquale, Frank, “Cultural Foundations for Conserving Human Capacities Amidst Generative Artificial Intelligence: Toward a Philosophico-Literary Critique of Simulation,” in Being Human (B. Roessler & V. Steeves, eds, 2024)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Erin Brockovich (2000) (Guest: Dror Ladin) (episode 60) | 23 Jun 2026 | 00:47:16 | |
Erin Brockovich (2000) (directed by Steven Soderbergh) is based on the true story of Erin Brockovich, a legal assistant without formal training, who uncovers one of the most significant environmental lawsuits in U.S. history: the case against Pacific Gas and Electric for contaminating groundwater in Hinkley, California. The film, which features an Oscar-winning performance by Julia Roberts in the title role, explores the role of lawsuits in exposing truth and gaining compensation for victims, the gendered dynamics of legal advocacy, and the challenges of taking on entrenched power structures in society. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 1:59 Who is Erin Brockovich? 3:11 Obstacles to holding corporations accountable 5:49 How Erin Brockovich overcomes those obstacles 8:10 Imbalance of power and resources 14:40 Hinkley, California 18:00 Accessing records 21:16 Tort reform, punitive damages, and proportionality 27:10 States and environmental regulation 32:22 Causation and attribution science 37:30 Whistleblowers 41:17 Finding the “smoking gun” 42:53 The practice of law and parenting Further reading: Banks, Sedina “The ‘Erin Brockovich Effect’: How Media Shapes Toxics Policy,” 26 Environs Env’t L. Poly’ J. 219 (2003) Brockovich, Erin and Eliot, Marc, Take It from Me: Life’s a Struggle but You Can Win (2002) Chen, Sarah Small, “Toxic Film: Analyzing the Impact of Films Depicting Major Contamination Events on the Regulation of Toxic Chemicals,” 35 Georgetown Env’t L. Rev. 561 (2023) "'Erin Brockovich’ Made their Town Famous: They Still Don’t Have Clean Water,” Wash. Post (Dec. 27, 2024) Martens, Daniel L. “Chromium, Cancer, and Causation: Has a Death-Blow Been Dealt Chromium Cases in California?” 16 Natural Resources & Env’t 264 (2002) McCann, Michael McCann & Haltom, William, “Ordinary Heroes vs. Failed Lawyers – Public Interest Litigation in Erin Brockovich and Other Contemporary Films,” 33 Law & Soc. Inquiry 1045 (2008) “Still Toxic After All These Years,” Grist (Jan. 29, 2019) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Monster (2003) (Guest: Mara Malagodi) (episode 59) | 02 Jun 2026 | 00:49:27 | |
This episode examines a case that sits at the uneasy boundary between criminal adjudication, media power, and moral authority: the prosecution and execution of Aileen Wuornos, labeled the “first female serial killer. We look at two documentaries by Nick Broomfield—Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992) and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)—alongside the feature film Monster (2003), written and directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Charlize Theron in an Oscar-winning role. Broomfield’s documentaries are less about guilt or innocence than about process: who controls the narrative, how legal representation operates, and what happens when a defendant’s life becomes an object of transaction, between lawyers, media, and the public. The films also penetrate the issues around the application of the death penalty in the United States, and the problems that arise when the state seeks to executive individuals who are themselves victims and suffer from severe mental illness. Monster approaches the same facts through dramatization. It also raises important questions, including how far context should matter in judging criminal responsibility and construction of narratives around crimes. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:58 Capturing law on film 5:24 The two Nick Broomfield documentaries 11:16 Addressing Aileen Wuornos’s murders 14:04 The flawed defense strategy 18:47 The depiction of Tyria Moore (Aileen Wuornos’s girlfriend 20:55 Selling the Aileen Wuornos story 23:09 The theme of the “monster” 28:29 Themes of betrayal and self-defense 31:53 Nick Broomfield and an outsider view of the American legal system 34:56 Mental illness and the death penalty 37:39 Media coverage of sensational murders 39:22 Failures of the legal process 44:26 A critique of the death penalty 47:00 Exoticization in the films Further Reading: Cavanaugh, L. Sheila, “‘White Trash:’ Abject Skin in Film Reviews of ‘Monster’,” in Skin, Culture, and Pscyhoanalysis (Cavanaugh, L. Sheila et al. eds.) (2013) Dargis, Manohla, “Life and Death Issues,” Los Angeles Times (Jan. 9. 2004) Diamond, Suzanna, “‘A Flower in a Hard Rain’: Melodramatic Storytelling by, and About, Aileen Wuornos,” Anthurium, vol. 15(2) (2019) Horeck, Tanya, “From Documentary to Drama: Capturing Aileen Wuornos,” Screen, vol. 48(2), pp. 141-59 (Summer 2007) Pearson, Kyra, “The Trouble with Aileen Wuornos, Feminism’s ‘First Serial Killer,’” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, vol. 4(3), pp. 256-75 (Sept. 2007 Smith, Abbe, “The ‘Monster’ in All of Us: When Victims Become Perpetrators,” 38 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 367 (2005) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow (2024) (Russian) (Guests: Rachel Denber & Anna Nemzer) (episode 58) | 12 May 2026 | 01:06:26 | |
My Undesirable Friends: Part I—Last Air in Moscow (2024) is Russian-language American documentary film written and directed by Julia Loktev (with co-director Anna Nemzer). The film describes the effort to maintain press freedoms in Putin’s Russia in the period leading up to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The documentary provides an intimate portrait of independent Russian journalists—mainly young women—who risk everything to pursue truth and accountability amidst escalating repression under the Putin regime. Filmed in late 2021 and early 2022, the documentary captures how the legal machinery of censorship, surveillance, and state-harassment converged to crush internal dissent and incapacitate civil society. It not only provides a profoundly disturbing account of what has occurred in Russia but also serves as a broader warning about the fragility of press freedoms and in a time of rising authoritarianism worldwide. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:45 How the film came about 5:25 A primer on Russian censorship and repression 15:15 “Foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations” 23:32 Social marginalization through the creation of an enemies list 28:46 State persecution of TV Rain and other independent media 32:45 The manipulation of language 36:30 Identifying the pivotal moment 43:36 How the film captures the elimination of press freedoms 48:26 Courts and lawyers 53:27 The Kremlin’s public mobilization to support the war in Ukraine 58:53 Independent journalism in exile 1:02:17 Parallels to the United States under Trump Further reading: Chang, Justin, “‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I’ Is a Staggering Portrait of Russian Journalists in Dissent,” New Yorker (Aug. 14, 2025) Edel, Anastasia, “Putin vs. the Press,” Foreign Policy (Oct. 3, 2025) Human Rights Watch, Russia’s Legislative Minefield: Tripwires for Civil Society Since 2020 (2024) Human Rights Watch, Disrupted, Throttled, and Blocked State Censorship, Control, and Increasing Isolation of Internet Users in Russia (2025) Krupskiy, Maxim, “The Impact of Russia’s ‘Foreign Agents’ Legislation on Civil Society,” Fletcher Russia & Eurasia Program (2023) Troinovski, Anton & Safronova, Valeriya, “Russia Takes Censorship to New Extremes, Stifling War Coverage,” New York Times (May 18, 2022) Yablokov, Ilya & Gatov, Vasily, “Broadcasting through the (New) Iron Curtain: Practices, Challenges, and Legacies of Russia's Independent Media in Exile,” Journalism Studies (Feb. 11, 2025) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Small Things Like These (2024) (Guest: Sean Patrick Donlan) (episode 57) | 21 Apr 2026 | 00:42:28 | |
Small Things Like These (2024), adapted by Edna Walsh from Claire Keegan’s 2021 novel, tells the story of how coal merchant Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) uncovers disturbing secrets in a small Irish town in the mid-1980s. While going about his job delivering coal, Furlong discovers the truth about the Magdalene laundries—the abusive asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions from the 1820s until 1996. During this period, thousands of girls and women were imprisoned, forced to carry out unpaid labor and subjected to severe psychological and physical maltreatment. Furlong’s discovery about the local convent in his town parallels the story of his remembering and having to come to terms with his own traumatic childhood. The film provides a powerful and moving depiction life in a small Irish town, the role of the Magdalene laundries, and the power of the Roman Catholic Church to enforce a code of silence about the abuses taking place within a community. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:14 The Magdalene laundries 6:39 Laundries in a broader social context 13:02 The convent’s power and secrecy 17:18 The absence of guilty men 18:31 The banality of evil 20:34 Why the laundries lasted so long 24:00 How they ended 26:02 Inquiries and accountability 28:16 Focus on the laundries in films and popular culture 30:38 The Bill Furlong character 36:20 Ireland in the 1980s
Seán Patrick Donlan, “Screening for Help – Irish Care and Confinement," Film Ireland (Nov. 21, 2025) Keegan, Claire, Small Things Like These (Faber & Faber 2021) McGourty, Courtney, “Not Merely a Shameful Past: The Case for State Responsibility in the Magdalene Laundries,” Opinio Juris (Aug 11, 2023) Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to Establish the Facts of State Involvement with the Magdalene Laundries (2013) Smith, James M., Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment (Univ. Notre Dame Press 2007) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Syriana (2005): Special Commentary (Guest: Peggy McGuiness) | 02 Apr 2026 | 00:22:12 | |
We return to Syriana, a film we discussed previously in Episode 40, but one that feels newly urgent in light of the current war with Iran. When it was released in 2005, the film offered a dense, unsettling portrait of a post-9/11 world shaped by oil, covert operations, and overlapping networks of state and corporate power. Today, Syriana reads less as a product of its time and more as a reflection of a sharp turn in U.S. foreign policy, shaped by the erosion of institutional guardrails and a naked military imperialism—with the current reality even more dystopian than the one depicted in the film. 0:00 Introduction 1:15 Why Syriana is so relevant to the U.S. military action in Iran 3:20 "The Committee for the Liberation of Iran” 6:47 Syriana as Dubai 9:15 Corruption moves from sidelines to the cabinet under Trump 12:06 The continued vulnerability of migrant workers 14:03 The loss of U.S. omnipotence on drone warfare 16:29 The involvement of Israel 18:33 The authoritarian turn in U.S. foreign policy 21:20 Syriana: a must watch now Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Lives of Others (2006) (Guests: Mark Drumbl & Barbora Hola) (episode 56) | 31 Mar 2026 | 01:05:47 | |
This episode looks at The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s haunting exploration of surveillance, complicity, and the brittle architecture of authoritarian legality in the final years of the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany). The critically acclaimed 2006 film examines how law can be co-opted into an instrument of domination, how bureaucratic routines of “security” normalize repression, and how small acts of resistance acquire profound moral weight under systems built on fear and an extensive system of informers. The Lives of Others raises enduring questions about the ethics of observing and informing in Cold War Eastern Europe. To help unpack these themes, I’m joined by Mark Drumbl and Barbara Holá, whose recent book Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague (Oxford Univ. Press) offers a deeply researched, empirically grounded look at informers within repressive regimes and transitional justice processes. Timestamps: 4:23 East Germany in 1984 6:32. The timelessness of informing 7:35. The surveillance state in the Eastern bloc 13:27 Informers and informing 19:36. Informing's afterlife 23:26 The book’s methodology and illustrative cases 33:26 The corrosive impact on social relations 35:02 Who becomes an informant and why 38:22 Informers and transitional justice 44:57 The opening of the secret files 50:39 Informers and agents 55:54 Resistance and historical revisionism 1:00:46 How the book came about Ash, Timothy Garton, The File (1997) Burkhard, Bilger, “Piecing Together the Secrets of the Stasi,” The New Yorker (May 27, 2024) Cords, Suzzane, “Stasi: How the GDR kept its citizens under surveillance,” DW (Aug. 1, 2025) Drumbl, Mark A. & Holá, Barbora, Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague (2024) Alford, C. Fred, Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power (2001) Lindenberger, Thomas, “Stasiploitation: Why Not? The Scriptwriter’s Historical Creativity in ‘The Lives of Others,’” 31 (3) German Studies Review 557 (2008) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Killing Fields (1984) (Guest: Alexandra Meise) (episode 55) | 10 Mar 2026 | 01:03:40 | |
The Killing Fields (1984), directed by Roland Joffe, depicts the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia and the genocide that followed, which resulted in the death of approximately 2-3 million people. The film is based on the experiences of New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterson) and Cambodian journalist Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor). It provides a haunting depiction of mass violence as well as a moving story about these two colleagues and friends. In the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia, it is worth revisiting a film that is as powerful and relevant today as when it was released. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:16 The Khmer Rouge and Year Zero 6:04 The U.S. contribution to the Cambodian genocide 8:14 The role of journalists in Cambodia and conflict zones 17:34 The treatment of journalists under international law 18:46 The killing fields and the film’s impact 24:08 Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran, and journalistic ethics 34:10 The ECCC and transitional justice in Cambodia 42:44 Journalists and international criminal proceedings 47:50 Haing Ngor and his tragic fate 53:26 Civil society endeavors to bring history to life 55:21 The fall of Phnom Penh 59:03 The failed attempt to get Dith Pran out 1:00:15 The risks facing journalists today
Further reading: Becker, Elizabeth, When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution (1988) Brown, Mark, “Genocide Films, Public Criminology, Collective Memory,” 53 (6) The British Journal of Criminology (2013) Chandler, David P., The Pol Pot Regime (1991) Kiernan, Ben, Genocide in Cambodia (Revised ed. 2008) Ngor, Haing (with Warner, Roger), Survival in the Killing Fields (1987) Nunn, Nora, "Rose-Colored Genocide: Hollywood, Harmonizing Narratives, and the Cinematic Legacy,” 14(2) Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 65 (2020) Schanberg, Sydney H., The Death and Life of Dith Pran (1985) Shawcross, William, Sideshow (1979)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Conclave (2024) (Guest: Monsignor Raymond Kupke) (episode 54) | 10 Feb 2026 | 00:49:47 | |
In Conclave (2024), Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) organizes a conclave to elect a new pope. Key candidates and factions vie with one another as the process plays out until finally a new pope is elected. The film was directed by Edward Berger from a script by Peter Straughan (based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris), and features an all-star cast including Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini. The film provides a window into the process for electing a new pope, along with the legal, historical, and political forces that have shaped it. Timestamps: 0.00 Introduction 2:32 The origins of the conclave 5:29 Electing a new pope 8:03 The College of Cardinals 10:23 The Apostolic Constitutions 14:46 The contentious conclave in the film 21:05 Naming a new cardinal in pectore 24:51 Leo XIV, the new pope 26:58 The Roman Curia 26:38 The nuns in the film 30:05 Symbol and ritual: the smoke from the chimney 32:17 The custom of a new pope choosing a name 36:55 Struggles over different visions of the church 40:58 How accurate was the film in capturing a conclave? 42:39 How the conclave has changed 45:04 Possible future changes to the papal selection process Further reading: Allen, John L. Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election (2002) Baumgartner, Frederic J., Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections (2003) Harris, Robert, Conclave (2016) Povoledo, Elisabetta, “A Papal Primer That’s Fiction, but Also Rings True,” N.Y. Times (Mar. 2, 2025) West, Morris, L., The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Inglourious Basterds (2009) (Guest Renana Keydar) (episode 53) | 20 Jan 2026 | 00:48:29 | |
Inglourious Basterds (2009), written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, revolves around two plots to assassinate Nazi leaders during the closing years of World War II. One plot centers on a secret band of Jewish-American soldiers under the command of Ltn. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt)—the “Basterds”—who terrorize Nazis. The other involves Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman who narrowly escapes death at the hands of notorious “Jew hunter” Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and flees to Paris where she runs a cinema under a false identity. The plot lines converge at the Paris cinema where the Basterds and Shosanna are each separately plotting to kill Hitler and other Nazi leaders while they are attending the premiere of a German propaganda film. The film utilizes alternate history to explore themes surrounding the pursuit of justice against the perpetrators of mass atrocities and the complex relationship between law and vengeance. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:37 Reimagining the arc of justice 8:00 Alternatives to the progress narrative 16:51 The power of violence and revenge 21:56 Counterfactuals and alternative histories 27:03 The limits of legalistic responses to atrocities 32:24 The role of cinema in Nazi Germany 39:00 Narratives of progress 44:10 Ending with a primal moment of revenge Further reading: Hussain, Nadine, “‘Inglorious Basterds’: A Satirical Criticism of WWII Cinema and the Myth of the American War Hero,” 13(2) Inquiries Journal 1 (2021) Jackson, Robert H., Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson Center (Nov. 21, 1945) James, Caryn, “Why Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece,” BBC (Aug. 16, 2019) Keydar, Renana, “‘Lessons in Humanity’: Re-evaluating International Criminal Law’s Narrative of Progress in the Post 9/11 Era,” 17 (2) J. Int’l Criminal Justice 229 (2019) Kligerman, Eric. “Reels of Justice: Inglourious Basterds, The Sorrow and the Pity, and Jewish Revenge Fantasies,” in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: A Manipulation of Metacinema (Robert Dassanowsky ed., 2012) Tekay, Baran “Transforming Cultural Memory: ‘Inglourious Basterds’”, 48(1) Film Criticism (2024) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| I'm Still Here (Brazil) (2024) (Guest: Isabela Amaral) (episode 52) | 16 Dec 2025 | 00:55:28 | |
I’m Still Here (dir. Walter Salles, 2024) is based on the true story of the enforced disappearance and murder of former congressman Rubens Paiva by the military dictatorship in Brazil. The film opens in Rio de Janeiro in 1970, where Rubens lives with his wife, Eunice, and their five children. Their lives are forever altered when the military government arrests and disappears Rubens. The film describes Eunice’s attempt to find out what happened to Rubens and to rebuild her life and raise her family in his absence. The film is based on the memoir of their son, Marcelo Rubens Paiva, who was a young boy when Rubens was disappeared. I’m Still Here provides a harrowing account of Brazil's military dictatorship and a moving story of a woman’s struggle to overcome adversity and obtain justice. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:16 The military dictatorship in Brazil 4:38 Living amid contradictions 6:52 The kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador 8:33 Rubens’ arrest and disappearance 12:38 Authoritarian legality 14:18 The arrest and mistreatment of family members 17:16 Covering up state crimes 19:29 Exile as another tool of repression 23:08 Enforced disappearances 27:18 Leveraging international pressure 29:08 Eunice Paiva’s struggle and success 33:15 Support for the military dictatorship 36:01 Finally obtaining Rubens’ death certificate 25 years later 40:10 Brazil’s National Truth Commission 48:39 Authoritarian threats to democracy today Further reading: Atencio, Rebecca J., Memory’s Turn: Reckoning with Dictatorship in Brazil (2014) Filho, Paulo Coehlo, “Truth Commission in Brazil: Individualizing Amnesty, Revealing the Truth,” The Yale Review of International Studies (Feb. 29, 2012) Lima, Ana Gabriela Oliveira, “Corrected death certificates for Herzog, Rubens Paiva,and one hundred others are celebrated in a ceremony,” Folha de S. Paulo (Oct. 8, 2025) Paiva, Marcelo Rubens, I’m Still Here (2025) Pitts, Bryan, Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship (2023) Weinberg, Eyal, “Transitional Justice in Brazil, 1970s–2010s,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia (2022)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| An Officer and a Spy (2019) (Guest: William Schabas) (episode 51) | 25 Nov 2025 | 00:49:21 | |
This episode explores An Officer and a Spy (J’accuse in French), Roman Polanski’s 2019 film about the Dreyfus Affair in France. The Dreyfus Affair is one of most significant events in late 19th/early 20th century, an event whose implications reverberated for decades in France and around the world. The Dreyfus Affair centered around the military trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus on charges of treason. Wrongly convicted based on secret evidence and false information, Dreyfus’s case would become a cause célèbres and synonymous with a miscarriage of justice. It also exposed and exacerbated tensions within French society while underscoring deep and pervasive levels of antisemitism. Based on Robert Harris's 2013 novel of the same name, An Officer and a Spy focuses on the role of George Picquart, the military officer who helps uncover the truth behind Dreyfus’s wrongful conviction, and Picquart’s complex relationship with Dreyfus himself. Hewing closely to historical fact, the film highlights critical issues around law, truth, and justice, at the heart of the Dreyfus affair and why it remains so relevant today. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:02 An overview of the Dreyfus case and key players 5:54. Georges Picquart 13:14. The struggle to overturn Dreyfus’s conviction 17:54 Tensions over the Dreyfus affair and a lack of accountability 20:48 The “evidence” in the Dreyfus case 25:38 How the Dreyfus affair divided French society 30:16 Other films about the Dreyfus affair 33:54 The controversy around Roman Polanski as director 39:21 Legacies of the Dreyfus affair 45:13 The role of Colonel Henry Further reading: Begley, Louis, Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters (2009) Bredin, Jean‑Denis, The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus (1986) Doherty, Thomas, “From Méliès to Polanski: The Dreyfus Affair on Film,” Cineaste (2020) Harris, Robert, An Officer and a Spy (2013) Read, Piers Paul, The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal That Tore France in Two (2013) Samuels, Maurice, Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair (2024) Zola, Émile, The Dreyfus Affair: J’Accuse and Other Writings (1998)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Juror #2 (2024) (Guest: Frank Wohl) (episode 50) | 04 Nov 2025 | 00:47:30 | |
This episode examines Juror #2, Clint Eastwood’s most recent—and perhaps final—film. Juror #2 centers around the trial of a man accused of murdering his girlfriend after a fight at a bar, leaving her in a ditch by the side of a road. The twist comes early: Justin Kemp a/k/a Juror #2 (played by Nicholas Hoult) soon realizes that the wrong man is on trial—as he hears the evidence, Kemp figures out that he, and not the defendant, killed the victim. Kemp realizes that he accidentally hit the defendant’s girlfriend with his car while she was walking along the side of a road on a dark and rainy night—thinking at the time, that he had hit a deer. Kemp, otherwise portrayed as a good man—a loving husband with a baby on the way—must navigate the moral dilemma as he serves on a jury that seems prepared to condemn an innocent man. Eastwood’s first courtroom drama in a long and legendary career, Juror #2 explores themes of justice, morality, and the imperfections of the legal system. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:46 A flawed process 7:05 The ex-police detective on the jury and the motion for a mistrial 15:40 The lawyer’s problematic advice 23:16 A prosecutor who eventually does the right thing 27:17 The public defender 31:28 A good person caught in terrible circumstances? 40:40 Missing scenes in the legal narrative 44:46 A dark picture of the U.S. criminal justice system Further reading: “A Forensic Review of ‘Juror #2,’” J. American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, vol. 53(1) (2025) Banner, Adam, “Honesty in jury pool examined in ‘Juror #2,’” ABA Bar Journal (Jan. 28, 2025) Brody, Richard, “In ‘Juror #2,’ Clint Eastwood Judges the System Harshly,” New Yorker (Oct 30, 2024) Melonic, Emina, “The Storytelling of Clint Eastwood,” Law & Liberty (Jan. 10, 2025) Upendra, Chidella, “The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood,” Journal of Religion & Film, vol. 17(2) (Oct. 2013) Zagha, Muriel, “Clint Eastwood’s Puritan Morality Tale,” Engelsberg Ideas (Dec. 2, 2024) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Vindication Swim (2024) (Guest: Elliot Hasler) (episode 49) | 13 Oct 2025 | 00:31:01 | |
Vindication Swim (2024) tells the story of Mercedes Gleitze, the first British woman to swim the English Channel in 1927. This major accomplishment, however, was soon called into question when another swimmer made a dubious claim to the same feat. To defend her integrity and her legacy, Gleitze (Kirsten Callaghan) attempted what she called her “vindication swim” — a second crossing of the English Channel intended to silence her critics and restore her reputation. Vindication Swim is about more than an athletic feat. It also raises timeless questions of proof, reputation, and justice, while providing a window into the barriers imposed by gender and class in early 20th-century England. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:14 Who was Mercedes Gleitz? 5:14 Training to play Mercedes Gleitz 6:14 Gleitz’s 1927 English Channel swim is called into question 8:58 A key event for women in open water swimming 11:22 The intersection of gender, class, and nationality 16:02 An impetus for regulating open water swimming 17:46 The vindication swim 20:49 The challenges in filming the swim 24:35: Raising awareness about a historical injustice 29:08 Restoring Mercedes Gleitz to prominence Further Reading: “Mercedes Gleitze and the Vindication Swim,” LoneSwimmer (Oct. 18, 2013) Pember, Doloranda, In the Wake of Mercedes Gleitze: Open Water Swimming Pioneer (2019) Thorpe, Vanessa, “‘No stunt doubles for me,’ says actor who braved Channel to recreate epic swim,” The Guardian (Mar. 2, 2024)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Godfather (1972) (Guest: Steve Koh) (episode 48) | 16 Sep 2025 | 01:08:01 | |
Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Based on Mario Puzo’s best-selling 1969 novel, The Godfather depicts the rise and legacy of the Corleone family, a fictional Italian-American organized crime family led by Vito Corleone and the transformation of his son Michael from a reluctant outsider to a ruthless mafia boss. The film, which features an ensemble cast of American film icons, including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duval, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and John Cazale, explores themes of family, power, and the American Dream. It also provides a window into the relationship between law and culture while offering complex perspectives on the meaning of justice. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:08 “I believe in America” 12:27 Business and the personal 14:07 Competing views of law and justice in America 16:57 The legitimate and illegitimate, the sacred and the profane 20:52 Narratives about the mafia 26:59 The consigliere 33:59 Tensions between tradition and modernity 39:37 Ritual 44:41 Performance and power 49:11 Retribution 55:18 The mafia and The Godfather 56:48 Codes of loyalty 102:39 The immigrant experience Further reading: Barber, Nicholas, “The Godfather: Have we misunderstood America's greatest film?”, BBC (Mar. 13, 2022) Coppola, Francis Ford, The Godfather Notebook (2016) Denvir, John, “The Slotting Function: How Movies Influence Political Decision,” 28 Vermont L. Rev. 799 (2003-04) Gambrell, Brian C., “Leave the Representation, Take the Cannoli: The Crime Fraud Exception to the Attorney-Client Privilege and ‘The Godfather,’” 23 South Carolina Lawyer (2011-12) Papke, David, “Myth and Meaning: Francis Ford Coppola and Popular Response to The Godfather Trilogy,” in Legal Reelism: Movies as Legal Text (John Denvir ed., 1996) Puzo, Mario, The Godfather (1969) Seal, Mark, Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather (2021) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| No Other Land (2024) (Palestinian-Israeli) (Guests: Omer Bartov & Lisa Hajjar) (episode 47) | 12 Aug 2025 | 00:51:47 | |
No Other Land (2024) is the Oscar-winning documentary that shows the brutal destruction of a Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank. Recorded between 2019 to 2023, the film tells the story of Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist, who has been protesting the Israeli army’s destruction of homes and eviction of villagers. Adra is assisted by Yuval Abraham, a Jewish Israeli journalist. (They are also two of the film’s four directors). To Adra and other Palestinians, the Israeli army is destroying their homeland. The Israeli army, however, maintains that the inhabitants are on land that the military needs for live-fire military training and that the evictions have been duly authorized by Israeli courts. The situation turns violent—Adra’s cousin is shot by Israeli soldiers in the days after the Oct 7 attacks—and Adra himself is endangered by his efforts to record the evictions and protests. The film provides a penetrating look not only at a Palestinian community in the West Bank but also at the plight of those being forced off their land--with literally nowhere else to go. [Editor's Note: Since the recording of this episode, Odeh Hathalin, a Palestinian activist and contributor to the film, was shot and killed in a village in Masafer Yatta by an Israeli settler.] Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:42 Masafar Yatta and the Occupied West Bank 7:43 The legal apparatus of illegal occupation 13:14 The “Gazafication” of the West Bank 20:08 The meaning of “No Other Land” 23:21 Israel and the international community 31:24 The crackdown on free speech in the United States and in Israel 34:41 A complex story of an Israeli-Palestinian friendship 41:18 The power of images 43:07 Growing Israeli indifference to Gaza and the West Bank after Oct. 7 48:30 The film’s reception in Israel 49:53 Law-based criticism of Israel and antisemitism
Further reading: Bartov, Omer, “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It,” New York Times (July 15, 2025) Beinart, Peter, Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (2025) Caplan, Neil, The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories (2010) Hajjar, Lisa, “International Humanitarian Law and ‘Wars on Terror’: A Comparative Analysis of Israeli and American Doctrines and Policies,” 36 Journal of Palestine Studies 36 (Autumn 2006) Kaufman, Anthony, "No Other Distribution: How Film Industry Economics and Politics Are Suppressing Docs Sympathetic to Palestine and Critical of Israel," Int’l Documentary Ass’n (Jan 15, 2025) Khalidi, Rashid, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 (2020) Lukenville, Mackenzie, “The Only Path Forward: ‘No Other Land,’” Int’l Documentary Ass’n (Dec. 5, 2024) Sfard, Michael, Occupation from Within: A Journey to the Roots of the Constitutional Coup (2025) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Return of Martin Guerre (1982) (France) (Guest: Joseph Dellapenna) (episode 46) | 22 Jul 2025 | 00:37:44 | |
The Return of Martin Guerre is a 1982 French historical drama directed by Daniel Vigne and staring Gerard Depardieu. The film describes the historical case of Martin Guerre who leaves his young wife Bertrande (Nathalie Baye) in the small French village of Artigat to fight in a war and travel. Around eight years later, the false Martin (played by Depardieu) returns to the village to resume his life. The false Martin (whose real name is Arnaud du Tilh) persuades the people in the village that he is in fact Martin Guerre. This includes Bertrande, who goes on to have two children with the false Martin and who seems happy to finally have a husband who loves her, as opposed to the real Martin, with whom she was trapped in an arranged and loveless marriage. But when the imposter Martin presses his uncle for the money he is owed for his land, the uncle denounces him as a fraud. An investigation and trial follow to determine if the Depardieu character is the real Martin. The imposter Martin is on the verge of winning until the real Martin shows up at the last minute, exposing the imposter Martin, who then confesses. The imposter (i.e., Arnaud) is then led to the gallows and hanged, and the real Martin resumes his place in the village. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:56 Teaching comparative law through film 4:18 A quick primer on French legal history 7:33 Jean de Coras and the Parliament of Toulouse 11:28 How the false Martin Guerre becomes Martin Guerre 16:12 The allegations against Martin and Bertrande 21:01 The trial of Martin Guerre 25:16 How the false Martin almost pulls it off 27:26 The execution 31:29 Religious conflict in 16th century Europe 34:59 The difficulty of proving identity at the time
Further reading: Bienen, Leigh Buchanan, Book Review, “The Law as Storyteller,” 98 Harv. L. Rev. 494 (1984) Davis, Natalie Zemon, The Return of Martin Guerre (1983) Dellapenna, Joseph, “Peasants, Tanners, and Psychiatrists: Using Films to Teach Comparative Law,” 36 (1) Int’l J. Legal Information 156 (2008) Finlay, Robert, “The Refashioning of Martin Guerre,” 93(3) Am. Hist. Rev. 553 (1988) Hall, Phyllis A., “Teaching Analytical Thinking through the AHR Forum and ‘The Return of Martin Guerre’” Perspectives on History (Jan. 1, 1990) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Conformist (1970) (Guest: Aziz Huq) (episode 45) | 01 Jul 2025 | 01:00:06 | |
This episode examines The Conformist, Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1970 political drama set in 1930s Italy. The film centers on Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a mid-level Fascist functionary who is ordered to assassinate his former professor, an anti-fascist dissident living in Paris. The film, which includes many flashbacks to Clerici’s early life and decision to join the secret police, provides powerful and chilling insights into the psychology of conformism and fascism The film, widely considered one of the greatest ever made, not only features outstanding performances but also superb production design (Fernando Scarfiotti) and cinematography (Vittorio Storaro) that helps capture Italy under Mussolini. The film is as timely today as it was when it was released, as the world witnesses a resurgence of authoritarianism in the United States and Europe. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:45 Fascist Italy under Mussolini 7:58 Why Clerici joins the fascists 12:39 Repression of sexual orientation and the desire to belong 14:10 Why people are vulnerable to fascism 18:56 Manganiello and the fascist enforcer 23:43 Perspectives on normalcy and the scenes in Paris 31:56 How the film speaks to the Trump era 36:40 Architecture in Mussolini’s Italy 39:08 The murder of Quadri and Anna 44:39 After Mussolini falls 50:30 The lack of consequences for going along with fascism 56:04 The Holocaust in Mussolini’s Italy Further reading: Bosworth, R.J.B., Mussolini’s Italy: Life under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 (2006) Elbiri, Bilge, “It’s Time to See ‘The Conformist’ Again,” Vulture (Jan. 14, 2023) Huq, Aziz, "America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State," The Atlantic (Mar. 23. 2025) Kael, Pauline, “‘The Conformist’: The Poetry of Images,” New Yorker (Mar. 27, 1971) Moravia, Alberto, The Conformist (1951) Musil, Robert, The Man Without Qualities (1930-43)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Dark Waters (2019) (Guest: Mark Templeton) (episode 44) | 10 Jun 2025 | 01:19:00 | |
Dark Waters (2019), directed by Todd Haynes, tells the real-life story of how a lawyer, Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), waged a twenty-year battle to hold the DuPont corporation accountable for contaminating a local water supply with carcinogenic chemicals that poisoned tens of thousands of people. While Bilott is ultimately able to achieve some degree of compensation and justice for the victims, the film shows the challenges of litigating against a powerful company bent on denying responsibility and covering up its misconduct. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:35 The origins: a small case for a family friend back home 6:24 Teflon and the “miracle” chemical 10:24 How attorney Rob Bilott uncovers the pollution 13:49 Getting the Taft firm on board 21:50 Addressing the legal challenges in the case 24:30 Medical monitoring and causation in toxic tort cases 28:36 Divisions in the community, financial pressures, and client management 30:30 DuPont’s clout 35:14 Bellwether trials: trying the cases in court 39:44 What the litigation achieved and the continued challenges 46:27 The risks of “forever chemicals” 49:50 Developments since the film was released 55:43 Can the legal system deliver justice? 1:01:53 Some further developments Further reading: Bilott, Robert, Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (Atria Books 2019) Carucci, Rob, “Leadership Lessons from Rob Bilott’s 20 Year Battle for Justice Against DuPont,” Forbes (July 12, 2021) Nevitt, Mark P. & Percival, Robert V., “Can Environmental Law Solve the ‘Forever Chemical’ Problem,” 57 Wake Forest L. Rev. 239 (2022) Rich, Nathaniel, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” N.Y. Times Magazine (Jan. 6, 2016) Small, Sarah Chen, Note, “Toxic Film: Analyzing the Impact of Films Depicting Major Contamination Events on the Regulation of Toxic Chemicals,” 35 Georgetown Env. L. Rev. 561 (2023) Tabuchi, Hiroko, “Trump Administration to Uphold Some PFAS Limits but Eliminate Others,” N.Y. Times (May 14, 2025)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| I Just Didn't Do It (2007) (Guest: Naoko Akimoto) (episode 43) | 20 May 2025 | 00:56:02 | |
This episode examines I Just Didn’t Do It, a 2007 Japanese film written and directed by Masayuki Suo. In the film, 26-year-old Teppei Kaneko (played by Ryo Kase) is traveling to a job interview on a packed Tokyo commuter train when a 15-year-old school girl, who was standing in front of him on the train and whom Kaneko hardly noticed, wrongly accuses him of groping (chikan). Kaneko is arrested. He is advised by a lawyer to plead guilty and pay a small fine, after which he will be freed. But Kaneko maintains his innocence and decides to fight the case, even though he is told that nearly everyone who takes their case to trial in Japan is convicted. The film then documents Kaneko’s nightmare odyssey through the Japanese criminal justice system, where he is detained for months and ultimately convicted despite significant problems with the prosecution's case. I Just Didn’t Do It provides important insights into the Japanese criminal justice system and a critique of how it operates, including its treatment of the presumption of innocence. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:52 Background on the Japanese criminal justice system 5:19 The crime of groping (chikan) in Japan 8:57 The pressure to plead guilty 17:12 The interrogation of suspects 18:46 Criminal defense lawyers in Japan 22:31 Why defendants tend to testify at trial 23:52 The prosecution’s disclosure obligations 28:30 How bail operates in Japan 31:04 The rotation of judges in Japan 34:06 The incentives in favor of conviction 38:44 Finding the defendant guilty despite reasonable doubt 43:20 The lay judge (saiban) system in Japan 46:54 A critique of Japan's treatment of the presumption of innocence Further reading: Aronson, Bruce E. & Johnson, David T., “Comparative Reflections on the Carlos Ghosn Case and Japanese Criminal Justice,” 18 Asia-Pacific Journal 24(2) (Dec. 15, 2020) Doi, Kanae, “Inquiry Needed into Japan’s Flawed Criminal Justice System,” Human Rights Watch (Nov. 4, 2024) Japan Federation of Bar Associations, “The Japanese Judicial System” Keiichi, Muraoka & Toshikuni, Murai, “Citizens on the Bench: Assessing Japan’s Lay Judge System,” Nippon.com (June 26, 2019) Meehan, Susan, “I Just Didn’t Do It,” The Japan Society Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| On the Waterfront (1954) (Guest: Warren Scharf) (episode 42) | 29 Apr 2025 | 00:57:45 | |
This episode looks at On the Waterfront, the celebrated 1954 American film directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. The film stars Marlon Brando as the ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman Terry Malloy. Malloy struggles to stand up to mob-affiliated union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) after Malloy is lured into setting up a fellow dockworker whom Friendly has murdered to prevent him from testifying before the Waterfront Crime Commission about violence and corruption at the docks. The pressure on Malloy rises as he falls in love with Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), the murdered dockworker’s sister, and as Edie, along with local priest Father Pete Barry (Karl Malden), urge Malloy to do the right thing. Malloy ultimately testifies against Friendly and challenges Friendly’s leadership at great personal risk. While the film is about a courageous fight against a corrupt power structure and injustice, it is also influenced by director Elia Kazan’s own controversial decision to act as an informant against fellow directors, writers, and actors during the McCarthy-era Red Scare. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:20 Corruption on the docks 9:18 Boxing: I could have been a contender 17:07 The priest on the waterfront 23:44 Testifying before waterfront crime commission 32:10 Informants 34:48 Elia Kazan and the House Un-American Activities Committee 47:04 The film’s relevance today 48:39 Some people who stood up to HUAC 50:40 Separating the art and the artist Further reading: Demeri, Michelle J., “The ‘Watchdog’ Agency: Fighting Organized Crime on the Waterfront in New York and New Jersey,” 38 New Eng. J. on Crim. & Civ. Confinement 257 (2012) Murphy, Sean, “An Underworld Syndicate': Malcolm Johnson's ' On the Waterfront' Articles,” The Pulitzer Prizes Archive (1948) Navasky, Victor S., Naming Names (Viking Press 1980) Rebello, Stephen, A City Full of Hawks: On the Waterfront Seventy Years Later—Still the Great American Contender (Rowman & Littlefield 2024) Pjevach, Julia, Note, “A Comparative Look at the Response to Organized Crime in the Ports of New York-New Jersey and Vancouver,” 6 Cardozo Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 283 (2022) Smith, Wendy, “The Director Who Named Names,” The American Scholar (Dec. 10, 2014)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Ali (2001) (Guest: Dave Zirin) (episode 41) | 08 Apr 2025 | 00:50:16 | |
Muhammad Ali is widely recognized as one of the greatest athletes of all-time and one of the most important figures of the 20th century. In addition to his long and celebrated career as a boxer and three-time heavyweight champion of the world, Ali changed the conversation about race, religion, and politics in America. Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the U.S. military during the Vietnam War on religious grounds—a profound act of resistance that resulted not only in Ali’s three-plus-year exile from professional boxing, but also a criminal conviction and five year-prison sentence that Ali almost had to serve until it was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court—represented a pivotal moment of the 1960s. Ali has been the subject of numerous books and documentary films, including the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings (1996) and The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013). He is also the subject of the 2001 Hollywood biopic, Ali (co-written and directed by Michael Mann and starring Will Smith as Ali), which focuses on the ten-year period from Ali’s capture of the heavyweight crown from Sonny Liston in 1964 to Ali’s fight against George Foreman in Zaire in 1974 (the famed “Rumble in the Jungle”). Once a sharply polarizing figure, Ali became one of the most celebrated and eulogized individuals in America, whose rich, if not incomparable, legacy reverberates around the world today. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:22 Formative experiences 5:00 From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali 10:26 Opposition to the Vietnam draft 13:16 Ali’s loss of his prime years 15:42 The broader significance of Ali’s opposition to induction 18:08 Ali’s legal challenges and the U.S. Supreme Court 22:48: The Fight of the Century 24:06 From a symbol of resistance to reconciliation 27:50 Becoming a global icon: The Rumble in the Jungle 35:30 Ali and Howard Cosell 36:57 Ali and Malcolm X 41:08 Some problems of the Ali biopic 44:12 Ali’s post-boxing career 47:53 Sports and resistance: Ali's legacy Further reading: Hauser, Thomas, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (1991) Kindred, Dave, Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship (2006) Lederman, Marty, “The story of Cassius Clay v. United States,” SCOTUSBlog (June 8, 2016) Lipsyte, Robert, Free to Be Muhammad Ali (1978) Marqusee, Mike, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (2017) Remnick, David, King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero (1998) Zirin, Dave, Muhammad Ali Handbook (2007) Zirin, Dave, The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World (2022) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Syriana (2005) (Guest: Peggy McGuinness) (episode 40) | 18 Mar 2025 | 01:08:01 | |
Syriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, based loosely on former CIA case officer Robert Baer’s memoir, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism. The film weaves together multiple storylines that involve a CIA agent, a U.S. energy analyst, a major transnational law firm, and an oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom. It tackles complex themes of corruption, power, and terrorism from a distinctly post-9/11 vantage point. The film also suggests how law operates in transnational settings and how it seeks—but often fails—to tame the forces of ambition, greed, and power that drive the oil industry and America’s role in it. Joining me to talk about Syriana is Margaret (Peggy) McGuinness, a professor at St. John’s University School of Law and a leading scholar of international law.
Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:00 The context and setting 5:24 The film’s multiple storylines 8:28 Former CIA agent Robert Baer and the George Clooney character 19:22 Capital markets and energy derivatives 25:26 Big oil in the early 2000s and today 28:28 Big law and the Jeffrey Wright character 33:43 DOJ’s investigation 37:14 The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 42:40 The illusion of due diligence 47:40 Radicalization 53:06 Gulf monarchs 55:10 Targeted assassinations 1:01:14 The next movie: big tech and AI 1:01:52 The outcome
Further reading: Alyson, Brusie et al., “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” 61 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 713 (2024) Baer, Robert, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism (Crown, 2003) Cohen, Kfir, “Narrating the global: pedagogy and disorientation in ‘Syriana,’” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media Lewis, R. James & Awan, Akil N. eds. Radicalization: A Global and Comparative Perspective (Oxford Univ. Press, 2024) Stiglitz, Jospeh E., Globalization and Its Discontents (W. W. Norton & Co. 2002)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Goldman Case (2023) (Guest: Fred Davis) (episode 39) | 25 Feb 2025 | 00:44:50 | |
The Goldman Case (Le Procès Goldman) (2023), is a French courtroom drama based on the real-life 1976 trial of Pierre Goldman, a far-left Jewish militant who was accused of multiple armed robberies and four murders during a holdup of a pharmacy in Paris. The film, which was directed by Cedric Kahn from screenplay by Kahn and Nathalie Hertzberg, stars Arieh Worthalter as Goldman and Arthur Harari as his lead lawyer, Georges Kiejiman. The film is not only a gripping account of this celebrated trial, but also explores larger themes around individual and collective responsibility, the way courtrooms can become the battleground for contested narratives about the past, and the swirling forces of race, class, and religion in 1970s France. Joining me to talk about The Goldman Case is Fred Davis, an internationally acclaimed trial attorney, expert on French criminal law and procedure, and Lecturer at Columbia Law School, where he teaches about how to examine comparative criminal procedure through film.
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Mr. Untouchable (2007) (Guest: Robert B. Fiske) (episode 38) | 04 Feb 2025 | 00:42:28 | |
Mr. Untouchable, a 2007 documentary directed by Marc Levin, describes the rise and fall of former New York City drug kingpin, Leroy (“Nicky”) Barnes. In the early 1970s, Barnes formed “The Council,” an organized crime syndicate that controlled a significant part of the heroin trade in Harlem. Inspired by the Italian-American mafia, Barnes became one of the most powerful and notorious figures in New York City. A flashy and flamboyant fixture on the free-wheeling social scene of the period, Barnes quickly drew the attention of law enforcement. After several unsuccessful state prosecution attempts, Barnes, along with multiple other associates, was indicted by federal prosecutors in New York in 1977. Barnes was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Barnes, however, was released in 1998, in exchange for working as a government informant, and entered the Witness Protection Program, where he remained until his death in 2012. Barnes was also depicted in Ridley Scott’s 2007 film American Gangster, which starred Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas, another notorious drug kingpin from the era. Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed Barnes in that film. Joining me to talk about Mr. Untouchable and the Nicky Barnes case is Robert B. Fiske, Jr., Senior Counsel at Davis Polk in New York, where he previously served as litigation partner for many years. Bob Fiske is one of the most prominent and respected trial lawyers in America. He has been involved in some of the most notable cases of the last half-century, including as special prosecutor in the Whitewater controversy and the death of White House counsel Vince Foster, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, the antitrust suit between the USFL and. NFL, the most contentious America's Cup ever, and the financial swindler Bernie Madoff. Mr. Fiske also served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1976 to 1980, during which time he led the prosecution of Nicky Barnes. 0:00 Introduction Barnes, Leroy & Folsom, Tom, Mr. Untouchable: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Heroin’s Teflon Don (2007) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| First They Killed My Father (2017) and The Gate (2014) (Guest: Melanie O'Brien) (episode 37) | 14 Jan 2025 | 01:18:15 | |
This episode looks at two films about the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s: First They Killed My Father (dir. Angelina Jolie), and The Gate (or Les Temps des Aveux) (dir. Régis Wargnier). First They Killed My Father is based on the memoir of Loung Ung, who was a five-year-old girl when the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975. Loung Ung was forced to flee Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, with her family. Loung Ung’s parents were killed, and Loung Ung was separated from her siblings; after surviving in a forced labor camp, Loung Ung was forced to become a child soldier. The Gate tells the story of acclaimed French anthropologist, Francois Bizot, who was imprisoned and tortured by the Khmer Rouge for three months in 1971 on suspicion of being a CIA spy, and who later became the French embassy’s translator and intermediary with the Khmer Rouge until he was forced to flee the country. The films, which are both based on personal memoirs, provide a harrowing account of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. I'm joined by Dr. Melanie O’Brien, Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia (UWA) Law School and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Dr. O'Brien is a leading expert on genocide and international law, and is the author of acclaimed scholarly books and articles on the subject. 0:00 Introduction Killean, Rachel & Moffett, Luke, “What’s in a Name? ‘Reparations’ at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,” 21(1) Melbourne J. Int'l Law 115 (2020) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Matewan (1989) (Guest: Fred B. Jacob) (episode 36) | 23 Dec 2024 | 01:05:47 | |
Matewan (written and directed by John Sayles) dramatizes the events of the Battle of Matewan, a coal miners’ strike in 1920 in a small town in the hills of West Virginia. In the film, Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper, in his film debut), an ex-Wobbly organizer for the United Mine Workers (also known as the “Wobblies”), arrives in Matewan, to organize miners against the Stone Mountain Coal Company. Kenehan and his supporters must battle the company’s use of scabs and outright violence, resist the complicity of law enforcement in the company’s tactics, and overcome the racism and xenophobia that helps divide the labor movement. Sayles’s film provides a window into the legal and social issues confronting the labor movement in the early twentieth century and into the Great Coalfield War of that period. I’m joined by Fred B. Jacob, Solicitor of the National Labor Relations Board and labor law professor at George Washington University Law School. Fred’s views on this podcast are solely his own and not those of the National Labor Relations Board or the U.S. Government.
Further reading: Hood, Abby Lee, “What Made the Battle of Blair Mountain the Largest Labor Uprising in American History,” Smithsonian Magazine (Aug. 25, 2001) Moore, Roger, “A Masterpiece that reminds us why there is a Labor Day,” Movie Nation (Sept. 2, 2024) Sayles, John, Thinking in Pictures: The Making of the Movie Matewan (1987) Zappia, Charles A., “Labor, Race, and Ethnicity in the West Virginia Mines: 'Matewan,'” 30(4) J. Am. Ethnic History 44 (Summer 2011)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Minamata: The Victims and Their World (1971) & Minamata (2020) (Guest: Darryl Flaherty) (episode 35) | 05 Dec 2024 | 01:07:25 | |
This episode looks at two films that examine the environmental disaster in Minamata, Japan: Noriaki Tsuchimoto’s documentary, Minamata: The Victims and the World (1971), and Andre Levitas’s Minamata (2020), a Hollywood feature film that tells the story through the famous American photographer, W. Eugene Smith. From 1932 to 1968, the Chisso Corporation, a local petrochemical and plastics maker, dumped approximately 27 tons of mercury into Minamata bay, poisoning fish and, ultimately, the people who ate them. Several thousand people died and many more suffered crippling injuries, with often severe mental and physical effects. The corporation’s environmental pollution sparked legal and political battles that would last decades and reverberate throughout Japan. Joining me to discuss the films and the insights they provide into Japanese law and society, is Professor Darryl Flaherty. Darryl is a historian of law and social change in early modern and modern Japan. He has published work on the emergence of Japan's legal profession during the nineteenth century, the Meiji Restoration in world history, and the twentieth century history of the jury in Japan. He is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Delaware, where he teaches courses on Japanese, Asian, and world history. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Black Hawk Down (Guest: Greg Fox) (episode 34) | 12 Nov 2024 | 00:58:57 | |
Black Hawk Down (2001) describes the plight of the U.S. crew of a Black Hawk helicopter that is shot down during the Battle of Mogadishu during the civil war in Somalia in October 1993. The battle resulted in the death of 18 American soldiers and hundreds of Somalis; it also prompted the U.S. withdrawal from Somalia after images of dead U.S. soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by enraged Somalis were broadcast on American television. Directed by Ridley Scott from a book by Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down is a gritty action movie that captures the brutal nature of urban warfare. It also provides a window into a host of complex international legal and political issues surrounding humanitarian intervention in the aftermath of the Cold War. Joining me is Greg Fox, Professor and Director of the Program for International Legal Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit. Professor Fox is a widely cited authority on international law and international organizations and a leader in a variety of academic and professional organizations. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction Further reading: Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| A Separation (Iran) (2011) (Guest: Golbarg Rekabtalaei) (episode 33) | 22 Oct 2024 | 00:51:15 | |
A Separation (2011) is an Iranian drama written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. The film depicts the martial separation between a middle-class couple, Nadar (Peyman Moaadi) and his wife Simin (Leila Hatami). Simin wants the family to leave Iran to make a better life for their 10-year-old daughter Termeh, but Nadar does not want to leave his father who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. So Nadar refuses to go and also refuses to give permission for their daughter to leave. The film also depicts the conflict that results when Nadar allegedly pushes his father’s new, lower-income caregiver, Razieh (Sareh Bayat) down the stairs during an altercation, causing her to miscarry. A Separation centers around the two legal cases: the divorce proceedings between Nadar and Simin; and the criminal proceedings against Nadar. It provides a window not only into law in Iran but also into the complex forces of politics, class, and religion that shape modern Iranian society. To discuss this universally acclaimed and award-winning film, I’m joined by Golbarg Rekabtalaei, a professor of history at Seton Hall University and expert on Iran and Iranian cinema.
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Bridge of Spies (Guests: Lenni Benson & Jeffrey Kahn) (episode 32) | 01 Oct 2024 | 01:22:19 | |
This episode explores Bridge of Spies (2015), the Cold War legal and political thriller directed by Steven Spielberg (and written by Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, and Joel Coen). The film is based on the true story of American attorney James Donovan, who is assigned to represent Soviet spy Rudolf Abel after Abel is arrested in New York and prosecuted for espionage. The story takes a turn when American pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured by the Russians after his plane is shot down over the Soviet Union while conducting a surveillance mission. Donovan is then tasked with negotiating a high-stakes prisoner exchange—Abel for Powers—that culminates in a climactic scene on the Glienicke Bridge connecting Potsdam with Soviet-controlled East Berlin. The film is not only highly entertaining; it also provides a window into important legal issues around national security, criminal, and immigration law that still resonate today. Joining me to talk about Bridge of Spies are Lenni Benson, Distinguished Chair in Immigration and Human Rights Law at New York Law School, one of the nation’s foremost authorities immigration law and a prominent advocate in the field, and Jeffrey Kahn, University Distinguished Professor at SMU Dedman School of Law, a leading scholar on constitutional and counterterrorism law, an expert on Russian law, and the author of a must-read article on the Abel case, published in the Journal of National Security Law and Policy.
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Chinatown (1974) (Guest: John Walton) (episode 31) | 10 Sep 2024 | 00:47:00 | |
Chinatown (1974) is a neo-noir crime thriller, directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne. Based loosely on the Owens Valley water wars in Los Angeles from the early twentieth century, the film follows private investigator J.J. (“Jake”) Gittes (Jack Nicholson) as he pursues a series of leads that take him into the dark underbelly of power and corruption in 1930s Los Angeles. A woman claiming to be "Evelyn Mulwray” initially hires Gittes to follow her husband Hollis, whom she suspects of infidelity. Gittes discovers that Noah Cross (John Huston), the father of the real Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), had Hollis, his former business partner and head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, killed. Hollis had learned of Cross’s plan to force famers in the Northwest valley to sell their land by cutting off their irrigating water and purchasing it through dummy syndicates on the cheap with the aim of developing the land into valuable Los Angeles real estate. Gittes also learns that the young woman he falsely suspected Hollis of having an affair with is Evelyn’s sister and daughter—the product of Evelyn’s rape by Cross when she was fifteen. While Gittes ultimately unravels the mystery, he is unable to stop the powerful Cross from achieving his goals or prevent the tragic fate that awaits Evelyn. My guest to talk about this venerated New Hollywood era classic is Emeritus Professor John Walton of the University of California, Davis. Further reading: Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Verdict (1982) (Guest: John "Rusty" Wing) (episode 30) | 06 Aug 2024 | 01:11:47 | |
The Verdict (1982) tells the story of down-on-his-luck Boston lawyer, Frank Galvin (Paul Newman). Galvin had been a rising star until he was framed for jury tampering by a partner at his elite Boston law firm because he planned to expose the firm's illegalities. Galvin left the firm and his marriage and career fell apart. After Galvin hits rock bottom, his former partner and friend Mickey Morrisey (Jack Warden) sends him a medical malpractice case as a favor; the case involves a botched delivery and is expected to settle out of court for a significant sum. But Galvin is moved after visiting the woman in the hospital, where he sees her in a comatose state. Galvin refuses the settlement offer and takes the case to trial, where he confronts the hospital’s high-powered and corrupt attorney Ed Concannon (James Mason) and a hostile judge (Milo O’Shea), Galvin also has a romantic relationship with another attorney, Laura Fischer (Charlotte Rampling) whom he meets in a bar but, unbeknownst to him, is a spy planted by Concannon. Galvin discovers the hospital is covering up its negligence. Although the judge excludes this evidence, Galvin wins a huge damage award as the jury sees the truth. The Verdict was directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet, adapted from Barry Reed’s 1980 novel of the same name. It is a gripping courtroom drama and a moving story of redemption. My guest is John (“Rusty”) Wing, Senior Counsel at Lankler, Siffert & Wohl, and a nationally recognized criminal defense attorney (full bio here) Timestamps: Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) (Guest: Alka Pradhan) (episode 29) | 17 Jul 2024 | 00:51:04 | |
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) centers on the plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England, the arrest and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (Elizabeth’s cousin), and King Phillip II of Spain’s attempt to topple Elizabeth and install a Catholic monarch on the English throne, which culminates in England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The film also portrays the complex emotional triangle involving Elizabeth, the English statemen, soldier, and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, and Elizabeth’s lady-in-waiting, Beth Throckmorton, whom Raleigh marries and has a child with. (The film depicts Elizabeth as enamored with Raleigh). Directed by Shekhar Kapur, from a script by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst, the film is a sequel to Kapur’s Elizabeth (1998). The cast includes Cate Blanchett (Queen Elizabeth I), Clive Owen (Walter Raleigh), Geoffrey Rush (Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham), Samantha Morton (Mary, Queen of Scots); Abbie Cornish (Beth Throckmorton); and Jordi Mollà (Phillip II of Spain). In addition to dramatizing this critical and memorable period of English history (albeit with some notable historical inaccuracies), the film provides a window into important and timely legal issues around torture, trial for matters of state, and piracy in Tudor England. I’m joined by Alka Pradhan, a leading human rights attorney, adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and Tudor history buff. (Alka's full bio is here) Timestamps: 3:38 Queen Elizabeth I and the film’s historical context 9:14 The Babington assassination plot 15:38 Mary’s letters and the evidence of guilt 16:53 Torture and torture warrants during Elizabeth I’s reign 22:51 Walsingham, the spy master 24:08 The trial of Mary Queen of Scots 32:38 The Defeat of the Spanish Armada 36:18 The law of piracy 38:24 Elizabeth, Walter Raleigh, and Beth Throckmorton 44:56 More on depicting torture and trials on film 48:44 What the movie and Tudor history can tell us about contemporary society Lewis, Jayne E., The Trial of Mary Queen of Scots: A Brief History with Documents (1999) Martin, Colin & Parker, Geoffrey, The Spanish Enterprise and England’s Deliverance in 1588 (2023) Webb, Simon, A History of Torture in England (2018) Williams, Kate, Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots (2021) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Sweet Hereafter (1997) (Guest: Seán Patrick Donlan) (episode 28) | 18 Jun 2024 | 00:53:10 | |
This episode explores Atom Egoyan's 1997 film, The Sweet Hereafter, which describes the impact of a tragic school bus accident that caused the death of 14 children on a small Canadian town. The film is based on Russell Banks’ 1991 novel of the same name (which in turn was based on a real-life bus crash in Texas). The film centers on personal injury lawyer Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), who travels to the town after the accident in an attempt to persuade the parents of the children to bring a negligence lawsuit. The controversy generated by the lawsuit ripples through the community and is explored through several characters in the town, including Nicole (Sarah Polley), a teenage girl who is left paralyzed from the waist down by the accident; Dolores Driscoll (Gabrielle Rose), the bus driver on the fateful, day; and various parents who have sharply conflicting views on the lawsuit. The Sweet Hereafter, however, is much more than a story about tort litigation; it explores larger philosophical questions around justice, community norms, and the role of law in addressing life’s most painful tragedies. I am joined by Seán Patrick Donlan, a Professor of Law at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada.
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Absence of Malice (1981) (Guest: Brian Hauss) (episode 27) | 28 May 2024 | 00:56:58 | |
This episode examines Absence of Malice, a 1981 drama directed by Sidney Pollack. After Miami-based newspaper reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) is tipped off by Justice Department organized crime strike force chief Elliot Rosen (Bob Balaban) about a criminal investigation into the disappearance and likely murder of a local union official, her paper runs a sensational front-page story. But the supposed target of the investigation, Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman), the son of an infamous bootlegger, is innocent; Rosen, the strike force chief, has leaked his name to the press to try to squeeze Gallagher for information. Gallagher is incensed and tries to pressure Megan to reveal her source. Megan initially refuses but later relents after her story unexpectedly leads to the tragic death of a friend of Gallagher's. Gallagher and Megan also become romantically involved. Gallagher hatches a plot to get even and get the government off his back. He causes an unsuspecting Megan to write another sensational story, this time implicating the District Attorney in a bribery scheme that Gallagher has invented. When the truth is revealed, both the prosecutors and the newspaper are humiliated, the victims of their own game of leaking information and reporting about it. Absence of Malice provides an insightful, if unflattering, picture of how newspapers operate and some of the ethical and moral complications that can result from the robust protections afforded the press under the First Amendment. I’m joined by Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, who has litigated numerous landmark First Amendment cases.
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Inherit the Wind (1960) (Guest Nell Minow) (episode 26) | 14 May 2024 | 00:40:13 | |
Inherit the Wind (1960) is a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial," where a local teacher is prosecuted for teaching about human evolution in public school in violation of state law. The film was directed by Stanley Kramer and is based on a play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. It stars Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond (patterned after celebrated defense attorney Clarence Darrow), Frederic March as the prosecutor Matthew Harrison Brady (patterned after famous three-time presidential candidate and renowned fundamentalist Christian spokesperson, William Jennings Bryan); Dick York as Bertram T. Cates (patterned after high school science teacher John Scopes), and Gene Kelly as reporter E. K. Hornbeck (patterned after H.L. Mencken). Fans of the TV series M*A*S*H will also enjoy seeing Harry Morgan as the trial judge. The film not only provides a glimpse into the role of religion in public life in American in the 1920s; it also contains important messages about conformism and freedom of thought directed at the McCarthyism of its own era—messages that continue to reverberate today. My guest to talk about Inherit the Wind is film critic Nell Minow (bio here). Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| The Caine Mutiny (1954) & The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023) (Guest: Gene Fidell) (episode 25) | 01 May 2024 | 00:54:50 | |
The Caine Mutiny (1954) is based on Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer, portrays the fictitious events on board the U.S.S. Caine, a Navy destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific during World War II. Lt. Stephen Maryk (Van Johnson) relieves the seemingly unstable Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg, Captain of the USS Caine, of his command after Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) endangers the ship and its crew . The ship returns to the U.S. and Maryk is court-martialed for mutiny. He is represented by Navy lawyer, Lt. Barney Greenwald (José Ferrer), who despite disapproving of Maryk’s actions, believes Maryk was misled by the ship’s communications officer, Lt. Tom Keefer (Fred MacMurray), into believing Queeg was mentally unfit for command. Maryk is acquitted after Greenwald exposes Queeg’s erratic and paranoid behavior. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), directed by the late William Friedkin, is based on Wouk’s adaption of his own 1951 novel for the stage. The cast includes Jake Lacy as Maryk, Jason Clarke as defense attorney Greenwald, Monica Raymund as prosecutor Lt. Commander Katherine Challee, the late Lance Reddick as the presiding judge Captain Luther Blakley, and Kiefer Sutherland in a phenomenal performance as Queeg. The films are not only gripping courtroom dramas, but also explore larger themes around military justice, ethics, and morality. With me to discuss these films is Eugene (Gene) Fidell, a visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and co-founder of the National Institute of Military Justice.
Further reading: Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Miracle on 34th Street and Top Law Movies List (Guest: Ashley Merryman) (episode 24) | 16 Apr 2024 | 00:58:10 | |
This episode looks at “Law Films You Won't Want to Miss,” a recent list of "the most captivating legal themed movies," published in U.S. News and World Report. Which movies are on the list? Which didn't make the cut? And what does the list tell us about “law movies”—and of great law movies? One film on the list may be something of a surprise: Miracle on 34th Street (1947) written and directed by George Seaton, from a story by Valentine Davies. In this Christmas holiday classic, the events director of Macy’s Department Store in NYC, Doris Walker (Maureen O’Hara) hires an old man named Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn, who won an Oscar as best supporting actor) to serve as Macy’s Santa Clause after the prior Santa is fired for being a drunk. Kringle not only closely resembles Santa Clause but believes he is Santa. Kringle is welcomed into Doris’s home and makes a favorable impression on Doris’s daughter Susan (Natalie Wood). Kringle also makes an impression at work. He advises one customer to go to another store when Macy’s can’t fulfill her son’s request for a particular toy instead of trying to sell her something else. This turns out to be a public relations stroke of genius, demonstrating Macy’s concern for and loyalty to its customers. But Kringle’s success at Macy’s doesn’t last. He gets into a dispute with another employee who insists Kringle be fired and put into a mental hospital. A civil commitment hearing takes place, where the question centers on whether Kringle’s belief that he is Santa Clause shows he is insane. Miracle on 34th Street raises timeless questions how law should treat beliefs. I’m joined by Ashley Merryman, the author of the list, “Law Films You Won't Want to Miss.”
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Eight Men Out (1988) (Guests: Robert Boland and Brett Kaufman) (episode 23) | 28 Mar 2024 | 00:57:55 | |
Eight Men Out (1988) is a dramatization of professional baseball’s infamous Black Sox scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. The film, which was directed by John Sayles, is based on Eliot Asinof’s 1963 book, Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series. It recounts how a group of White Sox players conspired with an array of gamblers, including notorious underworld financier Arnold Rothstein (a/k/a “The Big Bankroll”), to throw the series in return for cash. After the Sox, who some consider one of the greatest baseball teams of all time, lose the series, suspicions grow that there had been a fix based on rumors and the nature of some players’ poor performances. Eight players are charged with conspiracy and tried in Chicago in 1921. Although the players are all acquitted, baseball’s new commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banishes them all for life from baseball, a bold move that some believe saved the game of baseball, which was still in its relative infancy, and enabled it to become “America’s pastime.” Debates around the events continue to this day, including over the level of involvement of some players and the draconian nature of the punishment. With me to discuss this movie are Robert Boland and Brett Max Kaufman.
Further reading: Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Anatomy of a Fall (France) (Guests: Fred Davis and Sam Bettwy) (episode 22) | 07 Mar 2024 | 00:54:55 | |
Anatomy of a Fall (2023) is an acclaimed French drama directed by Justine Triet, from a screenplay she co-wrote with her real-life partner, Arthur Harari. The movie centers on the criminal trial of a writer (Sandra Hüeller) who is accused of killing her husband (Samuel Maleski) in a small town in the French Alps. The film operates on multiple levels. On one level, it dissects the circumstances surrounding Samuel’s death. What caused him to fall from the window of their chalet? Was he pushed? Or did he jump? On another level, the film dissects the deteriorating marriage between Sandra and Samuel and the complex family dynamics surrounding their 11-year-old-son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner). The film offers a close look at a French criminal investigation and trial. More broadly, it raises questions about the reliability of human memory, the elusive nature of truth, and the complex relationship between law and justice. My guests to discuss Anatomy of a Fall are Fred Davis and Samuel Bettwy. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:59 Coming up with a defense strategy 9:17 A case about doubt 11:36 Pretrial investigations in France 15:56 Victims’ counsel (partie civile) in France 18:50 The role of the investigating magistrate 22:03 The presiding judge and the other participants at trial 26:39 Unpacking the seeming “chaos” in the courtroom 29:07 Why defendants testify at trial in France 34:06 Liberté de la preuve and the treatment of evidence 39:17 The treatment of juveniles under French law 43:39 Daniel’s pivotal testimony 46:13 Appeals of acquittals by the prosecution 47:15 Influences on the director 50:37 Expert testimony 52:51 The justice system as metaphor
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Killers of the Flower Moon (Guest: Wilson Pipestem) (episode 21) | 29 Feb 2024 | 01:01:17 | |
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) describes the series of murders of members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma in the early 1920s. Because tribal members retained mineral rights on their reservation, they became extraordinarily wealthy after oil was discovered on tribal land. This leads a corrupt local boss, William K. Hale (Robert De Niro), to conspire with others in the community to deprive the Osage of their wealth by murdering them. Directed by Martin Scorsese and based on the 2017 book by David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon focuses on the plot by Hale and his two nephews, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Byron Burkhart (Scott Shepherd), to take the oil rights of one Osage family. Hale's scheme is for Ernest to marry one of the sisters in the family, Mollie (Lily Gladstone), and then kill her other family members before finishing off Mollie herself so that Ernest can inherit Mollie's headrights. Eventually, federal agents come to Oklahoma to investigate the murders and uncover Hale’s plot, saving Molly and uncovering evidence to prosecute Hale and Ernest. But this is only after many Osage are murdered and their wealth stolen in a chilling story of violence, greed, and the racially motivated devastation of the Osage Tribe. I’m joined by Wilson Pipestem, a partner at Pipestem Law and citizen of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe and an Osage headright holder, who has dedicated his career to protecting the rights of tribal governments and American Indians. 0:00 Introduction 4:26 The historical context and Osage tribal rights 14:35 The stereotype of rich Osages 15:25 Legal trusts and exploitation of the guardianship system 22:17 How limits on federal and tribal jurisdiction led to violence and impunity 26:30 Fear and terror in the Osage community 29:48 The federal investigation 32:06 The level of local complicity in the Osage murders 33:55 The treatment of the Osage as “incompetent” under the law 38:33 Capturing Osage tradition and belief on screen 41:27 Mollie and Ernest’s complex relationship 45:50 How the Osage overcame a legacy of violence and impunity 48:50 The role of law and lawyers 51:58 How Martin Scorsese listened to and engaged the Osage people Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Oppenheimer (Guest: Audra Wolfe) (episode 20) | 21 Feb 2024 | 01:07:26 | |
Oppenheimer (2023) stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role as director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II . The film was written and directed by Christopher Nolan, based on the book, American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. The film traces Oppenheimer’s early life, his rise to world prominence through the Manhattan Project, and his subsequent downfall after being stripped of his security clearance in 1954 due to his alleged past communist sympathies and outspoken criticism of the nuclear arms race. The cast includes Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife “Kitty”; Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves, the Manhattan Project's director; Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, chair of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and rival of Oppenheimer; and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s lover and former Communist party member, Jean Tatlock. The film provides a window not only into one of the 20th century’s most iconic figures, but also into the political and social forces that surrounded the birth of the Atomic Age and America’s transition from World War II to the Red Scare and Cold War. My guest is Audra Wolfe, a writer and historian who focuses on the role of science during the Cold War.
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Eye in the Sky (Guest: Craig Martin) (episode 19) | 07 Feb 2024 | 01:06:52 | |
Eye in the Sky (2015), directed by Gavin Hood from a script by Guy Hibbert, depicts the operation of a multinational team aimed at high-level operatives from the Al-Shabaab terrorist group in Nairobi, Kenya. When the British army learns of the location of the suspects, it plans to capture them. But surveillance reveals the suspects are preparing two new recruits to carry out a suicide bombing. British military officials, with their U.S. partner, seek to shift the operation from capture to kill. Officials must decide whether to authorize a lethal drone strike to avoid a possible terrorist attack, despite the possibility of civilian casualties, including of a young girl who is nearby. Eye in the Sky, which stars Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Barkhad Abdi, and Alan Rickman (in his last screen role), depicts the new reality of drone warfare and the complex legal and moral issues it raises. I’m joined by Craig Martin, Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law and the creator and host of the JIB/JAB: The Laws of War Podcast (https://jibjabpodcast.com), which features top and upcoming experts in different aspects of the laws of war. Timestamps: Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| Norma Rae (Guest: Fred B. Jacob) (episode 18) | 31 Jan 2024 | 01:11:15 | |
Norma Rae (1979) describes the struggle of Norma Rae Webster (Sally Field), a factory worker with limited education, to unionize a textile mill in North Carolina. The film was directed by Martin Ritt from a screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., and is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton (as told in the 1975 book Crystal Lee, A Woman of Inheritance by New York Times reporter Henry P. Leifermann). Reuben Warshowsky (Ron Leibman), a union organizer from New York City, persuades Norma to help him organize a union. But Norma and Reuben must overcome a series of obstacles, including pressure and harassment from management as well as internal divisions among the textile workers. Norma, moreover, must navigate issues in her personal life, including with her new husband Sonny (Beau Bridges), who resents Norma’s growing commitment to the union. Ultimately, Norma succeeds as the workers vote to unionize. The film offers a snapshot of the labor movement on the cusp of the Reagan era in American and features a memorable, Oscar-winning performance by Sally Field in the title role. My guest is Fred B. Jacob, Solicitor of the National Labor Relations Board and labor law professor at George Washington University Law School. Fred’s views on this podcast are solely his own and not those of the National Labor Relations Board or the U.S. Government. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||
| A Civil Action (Guest: Jennifer Corinis) (episode 17) | 16 Jan 2024 | 01:10:46 | |
A Civil Action (1998) is based on Jonathan Harr’s critically acclaimed book of the same name. Written and directed by Steve Zaillian, the film starts John Travolta, and features supporting performances by Robert Duvall (who was nominated for an Oscar), William H. Macy, James Gandolfini, John Lithgow, Kathleen Quinlan, and Tony Shalhoub. The film tells the true the story of the court battle over environmental pollution in Woburn, MA, in the 1970s and 1980s, where trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent used in industrial operations, contaminated the local water supply, leading to numerous fatal cases of leukemia (including in small children) and other health problem for Woburn residents. Personal injury lawyer Jan Schlichtmann, brought suit on behalf of a group of victim families against two large corporations, Beatrice Foods and W.R. Grace, to hold them responsible for the pollution (a third company previously settled). But the suit ran into dogged resistance from large and powerful law firms on the other side, including WilmerHale (then Hale and Dorr) and one of its star litigators, Jerome ("Jerry") Facher (Robert Duvall). The film offers a dark view of the U.S. legal system's ability to uncover the truth and provide justice to victims. I'm joined by Jennifer (Jen) Corinis, an attorney at Greenberg Traurig, who has extensive experience litigating cases in the private sector and as an attorney for the U.S. government.
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. | |||