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Inglourious Basterds (2009), written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, revolves around two plots to assassinate Nazi leaders during the closing years of World War II. One plot centers on a secret band of Jewish-American soldiers under the command of Ltn. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt)—the “Basterds”—who terrorize Nazis. The other involves Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman who narrowly escapes death at the hands of notorious “Jew hunter” Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and flees to Paris where she runs a cinema under a false identity. The plot lines converge at the Paris cinema where the Basterds and Shosanna are each separately plotting to kill Hitler and other Nazi leaders while they are attending the premiere of a German propaganda film. The film utilizes alternate history to explore themes surrounding the pursuit of justice against the perpetrators of mass atrocities and the complex relationship between law and vengeance. Timestamps: 0:00    Introduction 2:37     Reimagining the arc of justice 8:00     Alternatives to the progress narrative 16:51     The power of violence and revenge 21:56     Counterfactuals and alternative histories 27:03     The limits of legalistic responses to atrocities 32:24     The role of cinema in Nazi Germany 39:00     Narratives of progress 44:10     Ending with a primal moment of revenge   Further reading: Hussain, Nadine, “‘Inglorious Basterds’: A Satirical Criticism of WWII Cinema and the Myth of the American War Hero,” 13(2) Inquiries Journal 1 (2021) Jackson, Robert H., Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson Center (Nov. 21, 1945) James, Caryn, “Why Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece,” BBC (Aug. 16, 2019) Keydar, Renana, “‘Lessons in Humanity’: Re-evaluating International Criminal Law’s Narrative of Progress in the Post 9/11 Era,” 17 (2) J. Int’l Criminal Justice 229 (2019) Kligerman, Eric. “Reels of Justice: Inglourious Basterds, The Sorrow and the Pity, and Jewish Revenge Fantasies,” in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: A Manipulation of Metacinema (Robert Dassanowsky ed., 2012) Tekay, Baran “Transforming Cultural Memory: ‘Inglourious Basterds’”, 48(1) Film Criticism (2024) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

I’m Still Here (dir. Walter Salles, 2024) is based on the true story of the enforced disappearance and murder of former congressman Rubens Paiva by the military dictatorship in Brazil. The film opens in Rio de Janeiro in 1970, where Rubens lives with his wife, Eunice, and their five children. Their lives are forever altered when the military government arrests and disappears Rubens. The film describes Eunice’s attempt to find out what happened to Rubens and to rebuild her life and raise her family in his absence. The film is based on the memoir of their son, Marcelo Rubens Paiva, who was a young boy when Rubens was disappeared. I’m Still Here provides a harrowing account of Brazil's military dictatorship and a moving story of a woman’s struggle to overcome adversity and obtain justice. Timestamps: 0:00    Introduction 2:16     The military dictatorship in Brazil 4:38     Living amid contradictions 6:52     The kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador 8:33     Rubens’ arrest and disappearance 12:38   Authoritarian legality 14:18    The arrest and mistreatment of family members 17:16    Covering up state crimes 19:29    Exile as another tool of repression 23:08   Enforced disappearances 27:18     Leveraging international pressure 29:08   Eunice Paiva’s struggle and success 33:15    Support for the military dictatorship 36:01   Finally obtaining Rubens’ death certificate 25 years later 40:10   Brazil’s National Truth Commission 48:39   Authoritarian threats to democracy today Further reading: Atencio, Rebecca J., Memory’s Turn: Reckoning with Dictatorship in Brazil (2014) Filho, Paulo Coehlo, “Truth Commission in Brazil: Individualizing Amnesty, Revealing the Truth,” The Yale Review of International Studies (Feb. 29, 2012) Lima, Ana Gabriela Oliveira, “Corrected death certificates for Herzog, Rubens Paiva,and one hundred others are celebrated in a ceremony,” Folha de S. Paulo (Oct. 8, 2025) Paiva, Marcelo Rubens, I’m Still Here (2025) Pitts, Bryan, Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship (2023) Weinberg, Eyal, “Transitional Justice in Brazil, 1970s–2010s,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia (2022)   Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

This episode explores An Officer and a Spy (J’accuse in French), Roman Polanski’s 2019 film about the Dreyfus Affair in France. The Dreyfus Affair is one of most significant events in late 19th/early 20th century, an event whose implications reverberated for decades in France and around the world. The Dreyfus Affair centered around the military trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus on charges of treason. Wrongly convicted based on secret evidence and false information, Dreyfus’s case would become a cause célèbres and synonymous with a miscarriage of justice. It also exposed and exacerbated tensions within French society while underscoring deep and pervasive levels of antisemitism.  Based on Robert Harris's 2013 novel of the same name, An Officer and a Spy focuses on the role of George Picquart, the military officer who helps uncover the truth behind Dreyfus’s wrongful conviction, and Picquart’s complex relationship with Dreyfus himself. Hewing closely to historical fact, the film highlights critical issues around law, truth, and justice, at the heart of the Dreyfus affair and why it remains so relevant today.  Timestamps: 0:00     Introduction  3:02      An overview of the Dreyfus case and key players  5:54.     Georges Picquart  13:14.    The struggle to overturn Dreyfus’s conviction  17:54     Tensions over the Dreyfus affair and a lack of accountability  20:48    The “evidence” in the Dreyfus case  25:38     How the Dreyfus affair divided French society  30:16     Other films about the Dreyfus affair  33:54     The controversy around Roman Polanski as director  39:21      Legacies of the Dreyfus affair  45:13      The role of Colonel Henry  Further reading:  Begley, Louis, Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters (2009)  Bredin, Jean‑Denis, The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus (1986)  Doherty, Thomas, “From Méliès to Polanski: The Dreyfus Affair on Film,” Cineaste (2020)  Harris, Robert, An Officer and a Spy (2013)  Read, Piers Paul, The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal That Tore France in Two (2013)  Samuels, Maurice, Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair (2024)  Zola, Émile, The Dreyfus Affair: J’Accuse and Other Writings (1998)    Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

This episode examines Juror #2, Clint Eastwood’s most recent—and perhaps final—film. Juror #2 centers around the trial of a man accused of murdering his girlfriend after a fight at a bar, leaving her in a ditch by the side of a road. The twist comes early: Justin Kemp a/k/a Juror #2 (played by Nicholas Hoult) soon realizes that the wrong man is on trial—as he hears the evidence, Kemp figures out that he, and not the defendant, killed the victim. Kemp realizes that he accidentally hit the defendant’s girlfriend with his car while she was walking along the side of a road on a dark and rainy night—thinking at the time, that he had hit a deer. Kemp, otherwise portrayed as a good man—a loving husband with a baby on the way—must navigate the moral dilemma as he serves on a jury that seems prepared to condemn an innocent man. Eastwood’s first courtroom drama in a long and legendary career, Juror #2 explores themes of justice, morality, and the imperfections of the legal system.  Timestamps: 0:00      Introduction 2:46       A flawed process 7:05       The ex-police detective on the jury and the motion for a mistrial 15:40     The lawyer’s problematic advice 23:16     A prosecutor who eventually does the right thing 27:17      The public defender 31:28      A good person caught in terrible circumstances? 40:40    Missing scenes in the legal narrative 44:46     A dark picture of the U.S. criminal justice system Further reading: “A Forensic Review of ‘Juror #2,’” J. American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, vol. 53(1) (2025)   Banner, Adam, “Honesty in jury pool examined in ‘Juror #2,’” ABA Bar Journal (Jan. 28, 2025) Brody, Richard, “In ‘Juror #2,’ Clint Eastwood Judges the System Harshly,” New Yorker (Oct 30, 2024) Melonic, Emina, “The Storytelling of Clint Eastwood,” Law & Liberty (Jan. 10, 2025) Upendra, Chidella, “The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood,” Journal of Religion & Film, vol. 17(2) (Oct. 2013) Zagha, Muriel, “Clint Eastwood’s Puritan Morality Tale,” Engelsberg Ideas (Dec. 2, 2024)    Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Vindication Swim (2024) tells the story of Mercedes Gleitze, the first British woman to swim the English Channel in 1927. This major accomplishment, however, was soon called into question when another swimmer made a dubious claim to the same feat. To defend her integrity and her legacy, Gleitze (Kirsten Callaghan) attempted what she called her “vindication swim” — a second crossing of the English Channel intended to silence her critics and restore her reputation. Vindication Swim is about more than an athletic feat. It also raises timeless questions of proof, reputation, and justice, while providing a window into the barriers imposed by gender and class in early 20th-century England.  Timestamps: 0:00    Introduction 2:14     Who was Mercedes Gleitz? 5:14     Training to play Mercedes Gleitz 6:14     Gleitz’s 1927 English Channel swim is called into question 8:58     A key event for women in open water swimming 11:22     The intersection of gender, class, and nationality 16:02   An impetus for regulating open water swimming 17:46    The vindication swim 20:49   The challenges in filming the swim 24:35:   Raising awareness about a historical injustice 29:08   Restoring Mercedes Gleitz to prominence Further Reading: “Mercedes Gleitze and the Vindication Swim,” LoneSwimmer (Oct. 18, 2013) Pember, Doloranda, In the Wake of Mercedes Gleitze: Open Water Swimming Pioneer (2019) Thorpe, Vanessa, “‘No stunt doubles for me,’ says actor who braved Channel to recreate epic swim,” The Guardian (Mar. 2, 2024)   Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Based on Mario Puzo’s best-selling 1969 novel, The Godfather depicts the rise and legacy of the Corleone family, a fictional Italian-American organized crime family led by Vito Corleone and the transformation of his son Michael from a reluctant outsider to a ruthless mafia boss. The film, which features an ensemble cast of American film icons, including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duval, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and John Cazale, explores themes of family, power, and the American Dream. It also provides a window into the relationship between law and culture while offering complex perspectives on the meaning of justice.  Timestamps:  0:00     Introduction  3:08     “I believe in America”  12:27    Business and the personal  14:07    Competing views of law and justice in America  16:57    The legitimate and illegitimate, the sacred and the profane 20:52   Narratives about the mafia  26:59   The consigliere  33:59   Tensions between tradition and modernity  39:37    Ritual 44:41    Performance and power  49:11     Retribution  55:18     The mafia and The Godfather  56:48    Codes of loyalty  102:39   The immigrant experience  Further reading:  Barber, Nicholas, “The Godfather: Have we misunderstood America's greatest film?”, BBC (Mar. 13, 2022)  Coppola, Francis Ford, The Godfather Notebook (2016)  Denvir, John, “The Slotting Function: How Movies Influence Political Decision,” 28 Vermont L. Rev. 799 (2003-04)  Gambrell, Brian C., “Leave the Representation, Take the Cannoli: The Crime Fraud Exception to the Attorney-Client Privilege and ‘The Godfather,’” 23 South Carolina Lawyer (2011-12)  Papke, David, “Myth and Meaning: Francis Ford Coppola and Popular Response to The Godfather Trilogy,” in Legal Reelism: Movies as Legal Text (John Denvir ed., 1996)  Puzo, Mario, The Godfather (1969)  Seal, Mark, Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather (2021)  Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

No Other Land (2024) is the Oscar-winning documentary that shows the brutal destruction of a Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank. Recorded between 2019 to 2023, the film tells the story of Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist, who has been protesting the Israeli army’s destruction of homes and eviction of villagers. Adra is assisted by Yuval Abraham, a Jewish Israeli journalist. (They are also two of the film’s four directors). To Adra and other Palestinians, the Israeli army is destroying their homeland. The Israeli army, however, maintains that the inhabitants are on land that the military needs for live-fire military training and that the evictions have been duly authorized by Israeli courts. The situation turns violent—Adra’s cousin is shot by Israeli soldiers in the days after the Oct 7 attacks—and Adra himself is endangered by his efforts to record the evictions and protests. The film provides a penetrating look not only at a Palestinian community in the West Bank but also at the plight of those being forced off their land--with literally nowhere else to go. [Editor's Note: Since the recording of this episode, Odeh Hathalin, a Palestinian activist and contributor to the film, was shot and killed in a village in Masafer Yatta by an Israeli settler.] Timestamps: 0:00     Introduction 3:42      Masafar Yatta and the Occupied West Bank 7:43      The legal apparatus of illegal occupation 13:14    The “Gazafication” of the West Bank 20:08   The meaning of “No Other Land” 23:21    Israel and the international community 31:24    The crackdown on free speech in the United States and in Israel 34:41    A complex story of an Israeli-Palestinian friendship 41:18     The power of images 43:07    Growing Israeli indifference to Gaza and the West Bank after Oct. 7 48:30    The film’s reception in Israel  49:53    Law-based criticism of Israel and antisemitism   Further reading: Bartov, Omer, “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It,” New York Times (July 15, 2025) Beinart, Peter, Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (2025) Caplan, Neil, The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories (2010) Hajjar, Lisa, “International Humanitarian Law and ‘Wars on Terror’: A Comparative Analysis of Israeli and American Doctrines and Policies,” 36 Journal of Palestine Studies 36 (Autumn 2006) Kaufman, Anthony, "No Other Distribution: How Film Industry Economics and Politics Are Suppressing Docs Sympathetic to Palestine and Critical of Israel," Int’l Documentary Ass’n (Jan 15, 2025) Khalidi, Rashid, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 (2020) Lukenville, Mackenzie, “The Only Path Forward: ‘No Other Land,’” Int’l Documentary Ass’n (Dec. 5, 2024) Sfard, Michael, Occupation from Within: A Journey to the Roots of the Constitutional Coup (2025) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

The Return of Martin Guerre is a 1982 French historical drama directed by Daniel Vigne and staring Gerard Depardieu. The film describes the historical case of Martin Guerre who leaves his young wife Bertrande (Nathalie Baye) in the small French village of Artigat to fight in a war and travel. Around eight years later, the false Martin (played by Depardieu) returns to the village to resume his life. The false Martin (whose real name is Arnaud du Tilh) persuades the people in the village that he is in fact Martin Guerre. This includes Bertrande, who goes on to have two children with the false Martin and who seems happy to finally have a husband who loves her, as opposed to the real Martin, with whom she was trapped in an arranged and loveless marriage. But when the imposter Martin presses his uncle for the money he is owed for his land, the uncle denounces him as a fraud. An investigation and trial follow to determine if the Depardieu character is the real Martin. The imposter Martin is on the verge of winning until the real Martin shows up at the last minute, exposing the imposter Martin, who then confesses. The imposter (i.e., Arnaud) is then led to the gallows and hanged, and the real Martin resumes his place in the village. Timestamps: 0:00     Introduction 2:56      Teaching comparative law through film 4:18       A quick primer on French legal history 7:33       Jean de Coras and the Parliament of Toulouse 11:28      How the false Martin Guerre becomes Martin Guerre 16:12      The allegations against Martin and Bertrande 21:01      The trial of Martin Guerre 25:16      How the false Martin almost pulls it off 27:26     The execution 31:29      Religious conflict in 16th century Europe 34:59     The difficulty of proving identity at the time   Further reading: Bienen, Leigh Buchanan, Book Review, “The Law as Storyteller,” 98 Harv. L. Rev. 494 (1984) Davis, Natalie Zemon, The Return of Martin Guerre (1983) Dellapenna, Joseph, “Peasants, Tanners, and Psychiatrists: Using Films to Teach Comparative Law,” 36 (1) Int’l J. Legal Information 156 (2008) Finlay, Robert, “The Refashioning of Martin Guerre,” 93(3) Am. Hist. Rev. 553 (1988) Hall, Phyllis A., “Teaching Analytical Thinking through the AHR Forum and ‘The Return of Martin Guerre’” Perspectives on History (Jan. 1, 1990) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

This episode examines The Conformist, Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1970 political drama set in 1930s Italy. The film centers on Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a mid-level Fascist functionary who is ordered to assassinate his former professor, an anti-fascist dissident living in Paris. The film, which includes many flashbacks to Clerici’s early life and decision to join the secret police, provides powerful and chilling insights into the psychology of conformism and fascism The film, widely considered one of the greatest ever made, not only features outstanding performances but also superb production design (Fernando Scarfiotti) and cinematography (Vittorio Storaro) that helps capture Italy under Mussolini. The film is as timely today as it was when it was released, as the world witnesses a resurgence of authoritarianism in the United States and Europe. Timestamps: 0:00      Introduction 3:45       Fascist Italy under Mussolini 7:58       Why Clerici joins the fascists 12:39     Repression of sexual orientation and the desire to belong 14:10      Why people are vulnerable to fascism 18:56      Manganiello and the fascist enforcer 23:43     Perspectives on normalcy and the scenes in Paris 31:56      How the film speaks to the Trump era 36:40     Architecture in Mussolini’s Italy 39:08     The murder of Quadri and Anna 44:39     After Mussolini falls 50:30     The lack of consequences for going along with fascism  56:04     The Holocaust in Mussolini’s Italy       Further reading: Bosworth, R.J.B., Mussolini’s Italy: Life under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 (2006) Elbiri, Bilge, “It’s Time to See ‘The Conformist’ Again,” Vulture (Jan. 14, 2023) Huq, Aziz, "America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State," The Atlantic (Mar. 23. 2025) Kael, Pauline, “‘The Conformist’: The Poetry of Images,” New Yorker (Mar. 27, 1971)    Moravia, Alberto, The Conformist (1951) Musil, Robert, The Man Without Qualities (1930-43)   Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Dark Waters (2019), directed by Todd Haynes, tells the real-life story of how a lawyer, Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), waged a twenty-year battle to hold the DuPont corporation accountable for contaminating a local water supply with carcinogenic chemicals that poisoned tens of thousands of people. While Bilott is ultimately able to achieve some degree of compensation and justice for the victims, the film shows the challenges of litigating against a powerful company bent on denying responsibility and covering up its misconduct.   Timestamps: 0:00       Introduction 2:35        The origins: a small case for a family friend back home 6:24        Teflon and the “miracle” chemical 10:24      How attorney Rob Bilott uncovers the pollution 13:49      Getting the Taft firm on board 21:50      Addressing the legal challenges in the case  24:30     Medical monitoring and causation in toxic tort cases 28:36      Divisions in the community, financial pressures, and client management 30:30     DuPont’s clout 35:14       Bellwether trials: trying the cases in court 39:44      What the litigation achieved and the continued challenges 46:27      The risks of “forever chemicals” 49:50      Developments since the film was released 55:43      Can the legal system deliver justice? 1:01:53    Some further developments Further reading: Bilott, Robert, Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (Atria Books 2019) Carucci, Rob, “Leadership Lessons from Rob Bilott’s 20 Year Battle for Justice Against DuPont,” Forbes (July 12, 2021) Nevitt, Mark P. & Percival, Robert V., “Can Environmental Law Solve the ‘Forever Chemical’ Problem,” 57 Wake Forest L. Rev. 239 (2022) Rich, Nathaniel, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” N.Y. Times Magazine (Jan. 6, 2016) Small, Sarah Chen, Note, “Toxic Film: Analyzing the Impact of Films Depicting Major Contamination Events on the Regulation of Toxic Chemicals,” 35 Georgetown Env. L. Rev. 561 (2023) Tabuchi, Hiroko, “Trump Administration to Uphold Some PFAS Limits but Eliminate Others,” N.Y. Times (May 14, 2025)   Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

This episode examines I Just Didn’t Do It, a 2007 Japanese film written and directed by Masayuki Suo. In the film, 26-year-old Teppei Kaneko (played by Ryo Kase) is traveling to a job interview on a packed Tokyo commuter train when a 15-year-old school girl, who was standing in front of him on the train and whom Kaneko hardly noticed, wrongly accuses him of groping (chikan). Kaneko is  arrested. He is advised by a lawyer to plead guilty and pay a small fine, after which he will be freed. But Kaneko maintains his innocence and decides to fight the case, even though he is told that nearly everyone who takes their case to trial in Japan is convicted. The film then documents Kaneko’s nightmare odyssey through the Japanese criminal justice system, where he is detained for months and ultimately convicted despite significant problems with the prosecution's case. I Just Didn’t Do It provides important insights into the Japanese criminal justice system and a critique of how it operates, including its treatment of the presumption of innocence. Timestamps:  0:00   Introduction 2:52     Background on the Japanese criminal justice system 5:19      The crime of groping (chikan) in Japan 8:57      The pressure to plead guilty 17:12     The interrogation of suspects 18:46    Criminal defense lawyers in Japan 22:31    Why defendants tend to testify at trial 23:52    The prosecution’s disclosure obligations 28:30    How bail operates in Japan 31:04    The rotation of judges in Japan 34:06    The incentives in favor of conviction 38:44    Finding the defendant guilty despite reasonable doubt 43:20    The lay judge (saiban) system in Japan 46:54    A critique of Japan's treatment of the presumption of innocence Further reading: Aronson, Bruce E. & Johnson, David T., “Comparative Reflections on the Carlos Ghosn Case and Japanese Criminal Justice,” 18 Asia-Pacific Journal 24(2) (Dec. 15, 2020) Doi, Kanae, “Inquiry Needed into Japan’s Flawed Criminal Justice System,” Human Rights Watch (Nov. 4, 2024) Japan Federation of Bar Associations, “The Japanese Judicial System” Keiichi, Muraoka & Toshikuni, Murai, “Citizens on the Bench: Assessing Japan’s Lay Judge System,” Nippon.com (June 26, 2019)  Meehan, Susan, “I Just Didn’t Do It,” The Japan Society Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

This episode looks at On the Waterfront, the celebrated 1954 American film directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. The film stars Marlon Brando as the ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman Terry Malloy. Malloy struggles to stand up to mob-affiliated union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) after Malloy is lured into setting up a fellow dockworker whom Friendly has murdered to prevent him from testifying before the Waterfront Crime Commission about violence and corruption at the docks. The pressure on Malloy rises as he falls in love with Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), the murdered dockworker’s sister, and as Edie, along with local priest Father Pete Barry (Karl Malden), urge Malloy to do the right thing. Malloy ultimately testifies against Friendly and challenges Friendly’s leadership at great personal risk. While the film is about a courageous fight against a corrupt power structure and injustice, it is also influenced by director Elia Kazan’s own controversial decision to act as an informant against fellow directors, writers, and actors during the McCarthy-era Red Scare. Timestamps: 0:00     Introduction 2:20      Corruption on the docks 9:18       Boxing: I could have been a contender 17:07     The priest on the waterfront 23:44    Testifying before waterfront crime commission 32:10     Informants 34:48    Elia Kazan and the House Un-American Activities Committee 47:04    The film’s relevance today 48:39    Some people who stood up to HUAC 50:40   Separating the art and the artist Further reading: Demeri, Michelle J., “The ‘Watchdog’ Agency: Fighting Organized Crime on the Waterfront in New York and New Jersey,” 38 New Eng. J. on Crim. & Civ. Confinement 257 (2012) Murphy, Sean, “An Underworld Syndicate': Malcolm Johnson's ' On the Waterfront' Articles,” The Pulitzer Prizes Archive (1948) Navasky, Victor S., Naming Names (Viking Press 1980) Rebello, Stephen, A City Full of Hawks: On the Waterfront Seventy Years Later—Still the Great American Contender (Rowman & Littlefield 2024) Pjevach, Julia, Note, “A Comparative Look at the Response to Organized Crime in the Ports of New York-New Jersey and Vancouver,” 6 Cardozo Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 283 (2022) Smith, Wendy, “The Director Who Named Names,” The American Scholar (Dec. 10, 2014)                    Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Muhammad Ali is widely recognized as one of the greatest athletes of all-time and one of the most important figures of the 20th century. In addition to his long and celebrated career as a boxer and three-time heavyweight champion of the world, Ali changed the conversation about race, religion, and politics in America. Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the U.S. military during the Vietnam War on religious grounds—a profound act of resistance that resulted not only in Ali’s three-plus-year exile from professional boxing, but also a criminal conviction and five year-prison sentence that Ali almost had to serve until it was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court—represented a pivotal moment of the 1960s. Ali has been the subject of numerous books and documentary films, including the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings (1996) and The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013). He is also the subject of the 2001 Hollywood biopic, Ali (co-written and directed by Michael Mann and starring Will Smith as Ali), which focuses on the ten-year period from Ali’s capture of the heavyweight crown from Sonny Liston in 1964 to Ali’s fight against George Foreman in Zaire in 1974 (the famed “Rumble in the Jungle”). Once a sharply polarizing figure, Ali became one of the most celebrated and eulogized individuals in America, whose rich, if not incomparable, legacy reverberates around the world today.   Timestamps: 0:00    Introduction 2:22      Formative experiences 5:00     From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali 10:26    Opposition to the Vietnam draft 13:16     Ali’s loss of his prime years 15:42     The broader significance of Ali’s opposition to induction  18:08    Ali’s legal challenges and the U.S. Supreme Court 22:48:   The Fight of the Century 24:06    From a symbol of resistance to reconciliation 27:50     Becoming a global icon: The Rumble in the Jungle 35:30    Ali and Howard Cosell  36:57    Ali and Malcolm X 41:08    Some problems of the Ali biopic 44:12     Ali’s post-boxing career 47:53    Sports and resistance: Ali's legacy       Further reading: Hauser, Thomas, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (1991) Kindred, Dave, Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship (2006) Lederman, Marty, “The story of Cassius Clay v. United States,” SCOTUSBlog (June 8, 2016) Lipsyte, Robert, Free to Be Muhammad Ali (1978) Marqusee, Mike, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (2017) Remnick, David, King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero (1998) Zirin, Dave, Muhammad Ali Handbook (2007) Zirin, Dave, The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World (2022) Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Syriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, based loosely on former CIA case officer Robert Baer’s memoir, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism. The film weaves together multiple storylines that involve a CIA agent, a U.S. energy analyst, a major transnational law firm, and an oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom. It tackles complex themes of corruption, power, and terrorism from a distinctly post-9/11 vantage point. The film also suggests how law operates in transnational settings and how it seeks—but often fails—to tame the forces of ambition, greed, and power that drive the oil industry and America’s role in it. Joining me to talk about Syriana is Margaret (Peggy) McGuinness, a professor at St. John’s University School of Law and a leading scholar of international law.    Timestamps:  0:00      Introduction  3:00      The context and setting  5:24      The film’s multiple storylines 8:28      Former CIA agent Robert Baer and the George Clooney character  19:22     Capital markets and energy derivatives 25:26    Big oil in the early 2000s and today  28:28    Big law and the Jeffrey Wright character 33:43   DOJ’s investigation  37:14     The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act  42:40    The illusion of due diligence  47:40    Radicalization  53:06   Gulf monarchs  55:10    Targeted assassinations  1:01:14  The next movie: big tech and AI  1:01:52  The outcome    Further reading:  Alyson, Brusie et al., “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” 61 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 713 (2024)  Baer, Robert, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism (Crown, 2003)  Cohen, Kfir, “Narrating the global: pedagogy and disorientation in ‘Syriana,’” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media  Lewis, R. James & Awan, Akil N. eds. Radicalization: A Global and Comparative Perspective (Oxford Univ. Press, 2024)  Stiglitz, Jospeh E., Globalization and Its Discontents (W. W. Norton & Co. 2002)    Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

The Goldman Case (Le Procès Goldman) (2023), is a French courtroom drama based on the real-life 1976 trial of Pierre Goldman, a far-left Jewish militant who was accused of multiple armed robberies and four murders during a holdup of a pharmacy in Paris. The film, which was directed by Cedric Kahn from screenplay by Kahn and Nathalie Hertzberg, stars Arieh Worthalter as Goldman and Arthur Harari as his lead lawyer, Georges Kiejiman. The film is not only a gripping account of this celebrated trial, but also explores larger themes around individual and collective responsibility, the way courtrooms can become the battleground for contested narratives about the past, and the swirling forces of race, class, and religion in 1970s France. Joining me to talk about The Goldman Case is Fred Davis, an internationally acclaimed trial attorney, expert on French criminal law and procedure, and Lecturer at Columbia Law School, where he teaches about how to examine comparative criminal procedure through film. Timestamps: 0:00     Introduction 2:34      Background for the Pierre Goldman case 5:15       Goldman’s lawyers, Georges Kiejiman and Francis Chouraqui 7:48      Breaking down a French courtroom 9:21       The lawyer for the victims 10:20    Procedural differences between French and American trials 14:47     A window into 1970s France 17:33     The backdrop of the treatment of Jews in Vichy France 23:05    How the Left rallied to Goldman’s side 27:10     Tensions around race and policing in France 29:58    The role of the investigating magistrate in France    32:22    The verdict and aftermath 38:55    French courtroom dramas 40:42    Evolving discussion about France’s history during World War II 43:40   Studying comparative criminal justice through film Further reading: Goldman, Pierre, Dim Memories of a Polish Jew Born in France (1977) Oltermann, Philip, “Tried for double murder and adored by the French left: the violent life and crimes of Pierre Goldman,” The Guardian (Sept. 16, 2024) Paxton, Robert O., Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 (1972) Marrus, Michael, R. & Paxton, Robert O., Vichy France and the Jews (1981) Reid, Donald, “From Souvenirs obscurs to Lieu de mémorie,” French Politics, Culture & Society, vol. 26, no. 2 (Summer 2008) Vincendeau, Ginette, “The Goldman Case: arresting courtroom drama holds its own outside a French context,” Sight and Sound (Sept. 20, 2024)   Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html You can contact him at [email protected] You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast