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DVD
Publisher: Camel's Back Films
Format: NTSC
Actors: Alan Dershowitz, Vernon Jordan, Robert Shapiro, Nancy Grace, Catherine Crier
A Lawyer Walks Into A Bar is a lurid tale of lawyers and lawsuits and America's fascination with both. To sue or not to sue, that is the question. The documentary explores the influence of the law and its practitioners on American culture, while following six characters as they do whatever it takes to become lawyers themselves.This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
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| Not what I expected |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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I also took the July 2006 California bar exam, so I was really looking forward to a documentary that brought to light the challenges and experiences involved in preparing for this exam. The documentary instead focused on the increasing abundance of lawyers and lawsuits over the past decade and only superficially touched on the subject of bar exam preparation.
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| Hilarious frolic through a hellish exam |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I just took (and hopefully passed) the bar exam in another state, and absolutely loved this movie. For people not in the legal field, it's a pretty good introduction to the horror that is the bar exam, bar exam preparation, and some aspects of the way our legal system works. For people already in law school or practicing law, it's just hilarious.
WARNING: This film is NOT suitable for people about to take a bar exam! It would have made me completely crazy a week or two ago. (Besides, what are you doing watching a movie when you're supposed to be studying for the bar?)
As other reviewers have pointed out, it's impossible to capture in two hours or less the months of terrified preparation, three days of pure hell, and months of grade-awaiting purgatory that is a modern bar exam. But, this film comes pretty close. Everyone who has been through it or spent much time with somebody going through it can identify with the entire range of emotions shown in the film, from manic caffeine-fueled fits of laughter and intense late-night workouts to the hours of grueling boredom, and from moments of confident euphoria to moments of utter terror and despair.
This film is a must-see, whether you want to be a better lawyer or just tell better jokes about them. Watch it.
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| Lawyers have always had a terrible image... |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Or so says famous defense attorney Alan Dershowitz in this fascinating documentary.
America now has more than 800,000 lawyers. That's four times the numbers of lawyers in the WHOLE WORLD. And 130,000 more lawyers graduate each year from our law schools. That's just one of the facts in "A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar."
The only downside to this fun and fact-filled documentary is when it focuses on one of the annoyingly whiny "this-is-so-hard" law students who, after being involved in a very minor fender bender, calls her attorney FIRST and expresses her desire to initiate litigation for her "pain and suffering." When she appeared on screen, I wanted to *mute* the tv rather than listen to her self-serving diatribe and inane ramblings.
Fortunately, that was a small part of the overall picture.
The story is focused on law students in Los Angeles and makes the point that law school tuition runs $30,000 to $40,000 per year, leaving these students with few choices but to start making $75,000 a year right off the bat. Those with high ideals and hopes to make America a better place for the poor and needy, really don't have many options, because of the high debts and student loans.
My husband is a trial attorney and when I first met him (thanks to Match.com), I wasn't sure if I wanted to pursue a relationship with a trial attorney. Yeah, he was a better than the vinyl-siding salesman (whom I ditched during the first phone call), but a trial attorney? Yikes. But he made the point (as does Nancy Grace in this film) that when you're under attack in the courtroom, you need a smart-cookie attorney defending you and pleading your case and/or your cause.
It's a good film and it's kind to attorneys and yet, one of the best parts is the "bonus" feature that shows scum-sucking bottom dwellers chasing ambulances in hopes of making a few fast bucks. I recommend this documentary. Very interesting.
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| Well done! |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I took and passed the same exam as the one documented in the film (July 2006 California bar), so I know exactly what those people went through. A friend told me (and now I know it is not much of an exagggeration) that studying for this bar exam is like trying to memorize a phone book. Overall, I thought it was very well done. but for me, it failed to really show the absolute hell that is studying for and taking the exam. However, I really don't think that this is possible--one would have to show a day-by-day account of the process which would be horribly boring. I am sure there were constraints on the filmmakers, such as the limited coverage of the ridiculousness of the Barbri course. Neither could they show what the California exam-taking process was like; one just has to experience that to believe it. You are fingerprinted, scowled at by surly proctors, surrounded by unfriendly people (other recent law school grads),and this happens for three days in a row. By the third day, you are frazzled.
What I really enjoyed about the film were the different personalities and experiences of the wannabe attorneys. If you know a lawyer or want to be one, I highly recommend this film.
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| Interesting and Hilarious |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Loved this documentary. Saw it at SXSW and the audience roared. The characters they elected to follow were perfect and the celebrity comments were right on target.
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