American film and morality played out in courtrooms

[DotCommunist]

What is it with that? every feelgood american film seems to contain scenes where a wizened and fair judge is swayed by the voice of the people to rule fairly and create the means to happy ending. Miracle on 34th street and a half dozen others. I can't list them as my brain is mush today but it undeniable. The courtroom seems to be the moral arbiter in american lite fictions. Why is this, other than the obvious 'they have no aristocracy/king to make all well again'

There must be more to it than that.

 

[Diamond]

There's certainly an American courtroom genre but I don't think it's much more than that.

Makes for good drama though. Adversarial tension etc...

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Maybe judges are seen as a representation of the President - two of the most widely known and respected law makers in the States are Abraham Lincoln (who was a lawyer I think) and George Washington so maybe a judge represents that 'higher authority' which comes down from that tradition and is embodied in the President iyswim.

Just a thought

 

[Orang Utan]

a time to kill embraces vigilantism and racism. yay!

 

[bhamgeezer]

I think writers just like courtrooms generally because it gives them a way of having characters blurt out large amounts of information without it looking like a 10 year old wrote it.

 

[DotCommunist]

I have this sneaking suspicion that it is because americans as a societal mass see the courtroom as the moral and secular arbiter. Even the fairytales like Miracle on 34th Street are played out so. No not even the american fairytales but precisely those. I think the american psyche sees an american court as some high and unchallengable arbiter of how things should be.

 

[Santino]

I think there are also less of these films than you think there are, and more parodies.

Like when people talk about 'all those films where serial killer is like this' and it turns out to be just the Hannibal Lecter films.