Law and Popular Culture: DVDs Available at Smith Library

Tempers rise as a jury of middle-aged men find themselves unable to sway a single member of their group to the majority opinion. Confronted with a seemingly clear-cut case, bolstered by opinions and assumptions, but with no verdict in sight the group threatens to become deadlocked. Will the 12th juror, stubbornly convinced of a young defendant's innocence, be able to sway the entire group to his viewpoint, or will the group ultimately force the holdout to forgo his concerns, potentially ignoring truth in a rush to judgment?

Adapted from Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the film follows lawyer Atticus Finch in Depression-era Alabama educating his children against prejudice while defending a black man who is falsely charged with the rape of a white woman.

Cruise stars as a brash Navy lawyer who's teamed with a gung-ho litigator (Moore) in a politically-explosive murder case. Charged with defending two Marines accused of killing a fellow soldier, they are confronted with complex issues of loyalty and honor - including its most sacred code and its most formidable warrior (Nicholson).

Michael 'Mick' Haller is a slick, charismatic Los Angeles criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car. Having spent most of his career defending petty, gutter-variety criminals, Mick unexpectedly lands the case of a lifetime. However, what initially appears to be a straightforward case with a big money payoff swiftly develops into a deadly match between two masters of manipulation and a crisis of conscience for Haller.

Michael Clayton is an in-house fixer at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former criminal prosecutor, Clayton takes care of the law firm Kenner, Bach, & Ledeen's dirtiest work at the behest of the firm's co-founder, Marty Bach. Burned out with his job as a fixer, his divorce, a failed business venture, and mounting debt have left Clayton inextricably tied to the firm. At U/North, meanwhile, the career of litigator Karen Crowder rests on the multi-million dollar settlement of a class-action suit that Clayton's firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. But when Kenner Bach's brilliant and guilt-ridden attorney Arthur Edens sabotages the U/North case, Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career and his life.

Erin Brockovich is a young mother who convinces attorney Ed Masry to hire her and promptly stumbles upon a law case against a giant corporation for water pollution. Erin's determined to take on this powerful adversary, even though no law firm has dared to do it before. The two begin a legal fight that will bring a small town to its feet and a huge company to its knees.

A powerful and thought-provoking true story follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley. One of his first and most incendiary cases is that of Walter McMillian.

A small Tennessee town gained national attention in 1925 when a biology schoolteacher was arrested for violating state law and teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in the classroom.

American judge Daniel Haywood presides over the trial of four German jurists accused of "legalizing" Nazi atrocities. But as graphic accounts of sterilization and murder unfold in the courtroom, mounting political pressure for leniency forces Haywood into making the most harrowing and difficult decision of his career.

About a young Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career defining cases.

Inspired by the powerful true story of a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, On the Basis of Sex depicts a then-struggling attorney and new mother facing adversity in her fight for equal rights. When Ruth takes on a ground-breaking case, she knows the outcome could alter the courts' view of gender discrimination. Stronger together, Ruth teams up with her husband, Martin Ginsburg, to fight the case that catapults her into one of the most important public figures of our time.

When a blonde sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend, she decides to follow him to law school to get him back -- what, like it's hard? Once there, she discovers she has more legal acumen than she could have imagined.

Two carefree pals (Macchio and Whitfield) traveling through Alabama are mistakenly arrested, and charged with murder. Fortunately, Vincent Gambini (Pesci) is the cousin of one of them and he is a lawyer. Vinny is a former auto mechanic from Brooklyn who just passed his bar exam after his sixth try and has never been in court. When cousin Vinny arrives with his leather-clad girlfriend (Tomei) to handle his first case, it's a real shock--for both Vinny and the Deep South.

The real Santa is hired by Macy's to play the department store's Santa in the Thanksgiving Day parade, but has to prove in court that he is who he says he is.