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From On the Basis of Sex to the Trial of the Chicago 7: Resistance in Courtroom Dramas
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2022
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5/19/2022
Abstract
Courtroom dramas are a familiar film genre for American audiences, where lawyers argue cases to demonstrate the legal system's ongoing tension between law and justice. Films from the late 2010's, namely On the Basis of Sex and The Trial of the Chicago 7, demonstrate how courtroom dramas capture social justice issues of today and shed light on history's continous fight for social justice. On the Basis of Sex represents resistance and the search for justice in a more traditional manner, where a central lawyer hero achieves institutional recognition that the law is wrong and works from within that system to change it. The Trial of the Chicago 7, however, breaks down the familiar elements of the courtroom drama to demonstrate resistance by pointing out the absurdism the system and creating its own meaning of justice through the importance of the act of resistance itself. Ultimately, both films advocate to audience memebers that though resistance can take different forms, they must take it upon themselves to evaluate the legal system and the struggle between law and justice for themselves.
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English