What the Bonfire of the Vanities was to the literary world, The People v. OJ Simpson is -- and a lot more -- to the legal one. As a 25th year lawyer, I watch with scrutiny and unique interest all of the interesting legal flicks. And there have been some great ones: The Paper Chase, The Verdict, A Civil Action, Erin Brockovich, Primal Fear, Michael Clayton and others. These and others adeptly capture the plight and drama of the legal world and certain cases, revealing its best and worst features in a very touching and human way.
But nothing compares to Travolta's OJ. Forget trial of the century; OJ was the trial to mark world history. Start with a real case that will never be matched in terms of its sheer star power, display of raw human appetite, and nuclear collision of political, social, legal and economic superpowers (and superegos). Practically any movie with this much real life content to build on would be great.
But the OJ production/script/research team went even farther than that by capturing the beautiful, tragic and comical moments during the case when the biggest egos get shattered, the worst luck strikes the best people, where the dumbest of events change human history, all of it beautifully contextualized during a story that provides a true education in the tactics of some of the nation's most skilled trial lawyers.
And on top of all that, the acting is first class all the way.
While the aforementioned handful of other law movies are brilliant, and themselves historical in their own right, OJ sits in its own extra galactic league of next level filmography.
But nothing compares to Travolta's OJ. Forget trial of the century; OJ was the trial to mark world history. Start with a real case that will never be matched in terms of its sheer star power, display of raw human appetite, and nuclear collision of political, social, legal and economic superpowers (and superegos). Practically any movie with this much real life content to build on would be great.
But the OJ production/script/research team went even farther than that by capturing the beautiful, tragic and comical moments during the case when the biggest egos get shattered, the worst luck strikes the best people, where the dumbest of events change human history, all of it beautifully contextualized during a story that provides a true education in the tactics of some of the nation's most skilled trial lawyers.
And on top of all that, the acting is first class all the way.
While the aforementioned handful of other law movies are brilliant, and themselves historical in their own right, OJ sits in its own extra galactic league of next level filmography.