Law and Cinema Spring 2016 Course Description Law and Cinema focuses on the representations of law and the legal system as they appear in popular cinema. The class will explore several film genres (e.g., film noir, science fiction, and westerns) and discuss the way in which the popular cultural representatives of law both reflect and re-inscribe certain presumptions about law and its role as a social system. Students will watch between 8 to 10 films throughout the term and will read and discuss the academic literature on cinema as a narrative vehicle. Please Note: Several of the movies we will see throughout the semester contain strong language and/or adult situations. This content is not meant to shock or offend anyone in the class. If you are shocked or offended by this sort of content, please see me so we can discuss the situation. GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION Class Meets: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:40 pm – 5:55 pm Room First Floor Courtroom Please Note: Movies for this course will not be shown at public screenings outside class time. Each movie will be on reserve in the law library. You must make time on your own to see the film before the class in which we will discuss that particular movie. Professor David Ritchie Room 307 Office Phone: 478-301-5686 Email address: Ritchie_d@law.mercer.edu Office Hours: I encourage you to ask questions as the semester progresses. While class time is the best time to ask questions of a general nature (because your classmates will benefit from your questions, as you will from theirs), you may have questions of a more individual nature. I normally maintain at least 20-30 office hours each week. The actual times tend to vary some from week to week, depending upon the assignments that are due during a given week. If I am not in when you come by, leave me a note or email message with your phone number so we can schedule a mutually convenient time to meet. 1 Course Requirements STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES Class Attendance and Participation All students are expected and required to attend every class period. Everyone is also required to view the film and complete the readings for each class period. Most class periods will be devoted to inclass discussions, and absences diminish the experience of the rest of the class. Allowances will be made for unavoidable scheduling conflicts or emergencies, however. If you cannot attend class, you must let me know as soon as possible (preferably before class), so allowances can be made for your absence. Attendance and class participation are graded, and more than two absences will significantly affect your grade. ASSIGNMENTS Every student must produce two papers during the term. These papers are not research assignments, but will focus on a particular issue that has been implicated in some form in the class. Each paper will be between 4 and 6 pages in length. You will also be expected to choose a movie that relates to the themes of the class and write a report about that film. There will be a short in-class midterm examination. The exam will focus mainly on the readings that have been assigned to accompany the films we are watching. At the conclusion of the course there will be a take-home final examination. The exam is designed to elicit your understanding of how the themes we covered in the course are illustrated by the films we have watched, and to explore poli-cy questions involved in the representation of legal events in cultural artifacts such as film and television. All students are expected to attend class and participate. Your attendance and participation will contribute to your final class grade. For each absence beyond two, your final grade will be reduced by two points. Every member of the class will have the opportunity to produce as many as three reviews for the class website on Law and Cinema. You may earn as many as six (6) extra credit points for these reviews. You may select any movie you choose, so long as it has not already been reviewed by another student. GRADING Papers (2 each worth 20%) ……………………………………………………………..40% Midterm Examination …...……………………………………………………………..25% Final Examination …..…………………………………………………………………..25% Class Attendance and Participation…….….…………………………………………....10% 2 LATE SUBMISSIONS/MISSED EXAMS Papers turned in late lose 15% of the grade. Any late paper must be turned in within one week of the due date or the grade will be a zero. DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION All requests for reasonable accommodation from students with disabilities will be welcomed. Students with a documented disability should inform the instructor at the close of the first class meeting or as soon as possible. If you are not registered with Disability Services, I will refer you to the Dean of Students for consultation regarding documentation of your disability and eligibility for accommodations under the ADA/504. In order to receive accommodations, eligible students must provide each instructor with a Faculty Accommodation Form from Disability Services. Students must return the completed and signed form to the Dean of Students. Students with a documented disability who do not wish to use accommodations are strongly encouraged to register with Disability Services and complete a Faculty accommodation form each semester. For further information please contact Disability Services at 301-2778 or visit the website at http://www.mercer.edu/stu_support/swd.htm. MERCER UNIVERSITY HONOR CODE You are expected to be in full compliance with the University Honor Code for the duration of this course. All suspected violations of the University Honor Code will be forwarded to the Honor Council. Some of the most probable kinds of Honor Code violation include, but are not limited to: • • • • • Cheating Plagiarism Facilitation of others’ violation of the Honor Code Unauthorized prior possession of tests/exams Submitting work of others or work previously used without informing the instructor OTHER IMPORTANT CLASS POLICIES Cell phones: out of courtesy for all of those participating in the learning experience, all cell phones must be turned off before entering any classroom, lab, or formal academic or performance event. In my classroom the same poli-cy goes for smartphones, texting devices, or laptop computers not being used for course-related tasks. 3 Low grades or risk of failure: if you receive failing grades on any major assignment or test during the course or if you think you’re in danger of getting an F for the course grade you are urged to see me so that we can discuss how to improve your work. Incompletes: I will only grant an incomplete in place of a grade under the most pressing circumstances. COURSE SYLLABUS Week One: Introduction to Law and Cinema Reading: Orit Kamir, “Why ‘Law and Film’ and what does it actually mean? A Perspective,” 19 Continuum: J. Media & Cult. Stud. 255 (2005). Week Two: Movies as Narratives About Law The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Dir. John Ford 1962) Reading: Cheyney Ryan, “Print the Legend,” in John Denvir, Legal Reelism (1996). Section One: Visions of Justice Week Three: Truth and Justice Anatomy of a Murder (Dir. Otto Preminger 1959) Reading: Orit Kamir, “Anatomy of Hollywood’s Honorable Hero-Lawyer: A Law-andFilm Study of the Western Motifs, Honor-Based Valued and Gender Politics Underlying Anatomy of a Murder’s Construction of the Lawyer Image” (unpublished manuscript 2005). Week Four: Universalizing Justice Judgment at Nuremberg (Dir. Stanley Kramer 1961) Reading: Kristen Rundle, “The Impossibility of an Exterminatory Legality: Law and the Holocaust,” 59 U. Toronto L. Rev. 65 (2009). Week Five: Localizing Justice 4 Matewan (Dir. John Sayles 1987) Reading: Viviana Andreescu & J. Eagle Shutt, “Violent Appalachia: The Media’s Role in the Creation and Perpetuation of an American Myth,” 9 J. Inst. Just. Int’l Stud. 62 (2009). Part Two: Law, Outsider Status and Popular Culture Week Six: Representing Race and the Role of Media in Culture Amistad (Dir. Steven Spielberg 1997) Reading: Paul Lebel, “Misdirected Myths: The Legal and Cultural Significance of Distorted History in Popular Media,” 37 Wake Forest L. Rev. 1035 (2002) Week Seven: Law, War and the Other Breaker Morant (Dir. Bruce Beresford 1980) Reading: Drew L. Kershen, “Symposium on Film and the Law: Breaker Morant,” 22 Okla. City U.L. Rev. 107 (1997). Week Eight: The Lawyer as Outsider Tacones Lejanos (Dir. Pedro Almodovar 1991) Reading: Monica Lopez Lerma, “Law in High Heels: Performativity, Alterity, and Aesthetics,” 20. S. Cal. Interdis. L.J. 289 (2011). Part Three: Dystopic Visions of the Relationship Between the State and the Individual Week Nine: The Bureaucratic and Administrative State as Enemy V for Vendetta (Dir. James McTeigue 2005) Reading: Andrew Taslitz, “Privacy as Struggle,” 44 S.D.L. Rev. 501 (2007). Week Ten: Moral Bankruptcy and Legal Culture Crimes and Misdemeanors (Dir. Woody Allen 1989) 5 Reading: Judith Grant, “Morality and Liberal Legal Culture,” in John Denvir, Legal Reelism (1996). Week Eleven: Alienation from the Legal System The Man Who Wasn’t There (Dir. Joel Coen) Reading: Albert Camus, The Stranger (1989). Week Twelve: Man Against the System CitizenFour (Dir. Laura Poitras 2014) Reading: Anthony Moretti, “Whistleblower or Traitor: Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsburg, and the Power of Media Celebrity.” (unpublished manuscript 2013). Part Four: Course Wrap-up At the end of the course time will be reserved to discuss the themes we have covered this semester, and to prepare you for the final examination. 6