by Judah Fuld
On Thanksgiving Eve, I was innocently watching TV and trying to avoid
school work. I view the Thanksgiving break as my last opportunity to
ignore school before the madness of finals takes over my life. I
decided to watch “Flash of Genius” with Gregg Kinnear
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054588/). The movie screamed Law and
Literature themes throughout 119 minutes of the film. I am not going
to spend the remainder of this post describing those themes, as that
would both ruin the movie and the experience of watching a good movie
through a Law and Lit lense.
I would like to, however, introduce one issue for people to think
about as they watch the movie. Gregg Kinnear plays an inventor who
represents himself as a Pro Se litigant. I am not sure that the Law
and Lit class has ever dealt with the relationship between the truth
seeking client who is also the moral attorney. This is an interesting
combination that fuses the two themes of focus in the class. It is
hard to be a plaintiff who is almost psychotically bent on
vindication, yet also posses the Atticus like faith in the system
necessary to choose the courtroom as the venue for this vindication.
If you see or have seen the movie . . . reply and let me know your thoughts!
