The double pull of a courtroom drama and an education-related theme. Had to pick it.
Specs:
2 hours
Our family's average rating on a scale of 1-10:
6.67
More about the film and our reaction to it:
We knew the famed Scopes "monkey" trial was the inspiration for the film, but we learned later that the film is actually a very accurate portrayal of the real-life events: the clash of famous lawyers, the climatic "placing the prosecuting attorney on the stand as the defense witness" move, the testimony from the bible, the odd twist of verdict and many other features of the film that screamed like cinematic licence to us, were actually real.
One of the pieces of the film that was so frustrating to me as a lawyer is that legal issues never seemed to come out - it all just felt like grandstanding and bluster. A good courtroom drama is hard to pull off. It has to be dramatic; but it should also be rooted in well-reasoned legal issues that carry a certain truth to them. This one didn't cut muster. The idea of a court trial dealing with a teacher who stands up and teaches according to his principals is such a good one for kids, but, truly, we wouldn't recommend this film broadly for families, simply because it does feel very dated and overblown.
We all agreed though that Spencer Tracy is a fabulous actor and we were glad to have another chance to see him in a courtroom drama. Unfortunately though, the last one was Adam's Rib (1949) and I can't say we liked that film any better.
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