The Firm [VHS] [1993]

Some would call that a legal thriller but that would be reducing it too much because there is little court action, in fact there is no court action. It is all about how you can fool the FBI, get your feet out of the rich mud in which they are and at the same time remain absolutely true to your oath as a lawyer when you were registered, sworn in to be more precise, to the local bar, here Memphis, Tennessee. But it is a very good film on one legal loophole in our society. A lawyer knows about the crimes of his clients and if these clients are criminals what can the lawyer do when he is under the menace of being killed if he stops doing his good job. That's the first interest of the film. Lawyers cannot because of their oath do anything and yet it is their legal duty to do something. So it will have to be like for Al Capone, a collateral problem that has nothing to do with the business of the client. That's the real loophole of our legal system. Everyone has the absolute legal obligation to report a crime they know about, except lawyers and priests, and that is immoral. A lawyer has to defend his client. An accused criminal has to be defended in court the best way possible. But hiding the crime you know about is not defending, it is concealing. Our society has some kind of a flaw there, and it goes back a long way. Is our justice really equal for all and just for all, victims and criminals alike? The second interest of the film is the super exploitation young lawyers can be the target or the victim of. They are bought by some legal firms with millions of money and merchandize just to be over exploited for a certain amount of time, for doing what they are asked to do, for keeping their mouth shut, including inside the firm, for being subservient servile servants of their older partners. The wives are demanded to be their wives and that's all, and that's hard enough, waiting for them at night when they work late, worrying, but not too much when there is something strange, caressing and cajoling the Dearies when they go through a difficult period, etc. This profession in this society is essentially misogynistic. What about women lawyers today? Then the film shows how the famous Cayman Islands were used in those days as a haven for business, crime, tax evasion, speculation, prostitution and many other options in evil doing. Finally it also shows how justice can be short-circuited by the simple system of "parole" and turned into a means to pressurize one person by paroling or not paroling another. The film is well built, full of resources, action too, and rather moral in the end, even if the main criminals will go on running, in that case the mafia and their lawyers. Our society is so hypocritical. Shedding crocodile tears all the time on the poor little poor people who suffer so much. Let me give you twenty euros or twenty dollars for you to go to the restaurant and forget about your misery.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

I know I'm sad - but I like this film, it has a bit of everything in it. The story is quite different from the book - am I allowed to suggest I prefer the film version? - coupled with a great cast - Gene Hackham & Tom Cruise are both on top form.

John Grisham's legal-tinged novels may not be known for their depth, but their page-turning plots attract film makes by the dozen, and 'The Firm', directed by Sydney Pollack, is a typical example. The start of the story, of a hotshot young lawyer (Tom Cruise) who finds himself caught up in dodgy dealings, is a fast-paced, yuppie nightmare that unfolds with some skill. But when the brilliant Cruise decides to turn the tables on his employers, the mob, and the F.B.I. and starts to play his own game, the film descends into predictable, though unlikely, cliché. 'The Firm' remains watchable throughout, thanks to the complexities of the storyline, but in spite of a top-drawer cast that also includes Gene Hackman, it never transcends its genre. This is a solid film, but also an ordinary one.