Editing Legal drama (section)

== History ==
Legal drama in American film has an extensive history stemming from as early as the 1908 film, ''Falsely Accused!''<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7153e82e|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028225936/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7153e82e|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 28, 2018|title=Falsely Accused! (1908)|work=BFI|access-date=2018-07-01|language=en}}</ref> The 1950s and 1960s presented a number of legal drama films including, [[12 Angry Men (1957 film)|''12 Angry Men'']] (1957), [[Witness for the Prosecution (1957 film)|''Witness for the Prosecution'']] (1957), ''[[I Want to Live!]]'' (1958), ''[[Anatomy of a Murder]]'' (1959), ''[[The Young Philadelphians]]'' (1959), [[Compulsion (1959 film)|''Compulsion'']] (1959), [[Inherit the Wind (1960 film)|''Inherit the Wind'']] (1960), ''[[Judgment at Nuremberg]]'' (1961), and [[To Kill a Mockingbird (film)|''To Kill a Mockingbird'']] (1962). Arguably, ''12 Angry Men'' and ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' stand as the cornerstones of early legal dramas, garnering extensive acclaim, recognition, and awards. Despite underwhelming box office performance, ''12 Angry Men'' was nominated in three different categories at the [[30th Academy Awards]] and appears on half of the [[AFI 100 Years... series]] lists of films, which celebrate the greatest films in American cinema. Likewise, ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' received even more acclaim, garnering three academy awards out of eight total nominations at the [[35th Academy Awards]], appears on seven of the AFI's ten lists celebrating the greatest films, including ranking as the best courtroom drama, and selected for preservation United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".  Other countries also premiered legal dramas or courtrooms dramas in the early 1900s, such as the French silent film ''[[The Passion of Joan of Arc]]'' (1928).<ref>{{Citation|last=Dreyer|first=Carl Theodor|title=The Passion of Joan of Arc|date=1928-10-25|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019254/|others=Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley|access-date=2018-07-16}}</ref>

Other legal drama films have not focused on even the practice of law, such as [[The Paper Chase (film)|''Paper Chase'']], a film presenting the difficulty and anxiety of entering law school.<ref>{{Citation|last=Bridges|first=James|title=The Paper Chase|date=1973-10-16|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070509/|others=Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman|access-date=2018-07-16}}</ref>