Movies About White Collar Crime: The Firm

Let's start the new year right with another post about some of our favorite movies about white collar crime!  Today, I want to nominate, as one of my "best pictures of the year," the 1993 Tom Cruise film, The Firm.  In this Sydney Pollack-directed movie, Cruise plays a young lawyer, Mitch McDeere, who must choose between cooperating with the feds and staying loyal to his Memphis law firm, which is under investigation for laundering money for the mob.  Hopefully, as a criminal defense attorney in Augusta, Georgia, I will never be faced with such a conflict!  I suspect that most of you have seen this movie, but, if you haven't, I believe it would make a good Netflix or cable t.v. selection on a dull Friday night!

I would also recommend the John Grisham book, on which the movie is based, to any lovers of the true crime genre out there, (even though this book is obviously fiction).  Of all the Grisham books which were turned into movies, The Firm is my favorite.

Did you like this movie?  What are your favorite movies about white collar crime?

Movies About White Collar Crime: "The Sting"

How about a little change of pace?! Let's talk about another one of our favorite movies involving white collar crime! One of my "top 100" favorite movies is "The Sting." This 1973 film starred actors Paul Newman and Robert Redford as grifters who pulled off a big sting against a Chicago mobster, played by Robert Shaw.

The movie was reportedly based on the true life escapades of con artists Fred and Charles Gondorff. Of course, one of the best parts of the movie is the music! The movie's well known score and other pieces are the work of famous ragtime musician Scott Joplin, as adapted for the movie by Marvin Hamlisch.

What are some of your favorite movies about white collar crime?

"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"

As a former federal prosecutor, and currently, as a criminal defense lawyer, and quite simply, as a movie fan, I am really looking forward to the premiere today of the "Wall Street" sequel!

Who can forget the famous, provocative line spoken by Michael Douglas' character in the first movie: "Greed is good!" In the sequel, he adds that, now, "greed is legal!" Of course, since the first movie, we have all seen a lot of greed on the real Wall Street, haven't we? And sometimes, it seems that greed must be "legal," because there haven't been a lot of prosecutions since the 2008 Wall Street debacle. Maybe some U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors will see the movie, and get fired up to do their jobs!

Have any of you seen the old movie? Have you seen the sequel yet? Am I the only one excited about it!? What is your opinion of either movie?

What are some other good movies about white collar crime which you have seen?

White Collar Crime Movies: A Civil Action

After several serious posts, let's have a little fun! We are introducing a new category: "White Collar Crime Movies." "A Civil Action" is the first movie we will discuss.

As outlined in Wikipedia, this movie is based upon a true story, (and book by the same name, by Jonathan Harr), about a lawyer's battle against a big company located in Woburn, Massachusetts. The company had allegedly committed environmental crimes and polluted the community's water supply, thus allegedly causing an alarming number of leukemia cases among local children.

The movie reveals the difficulties which plaintiffs' lawyers face in bringing class action lawsuits against big companies, along with the difficulties inherent in proving environmental crimes. The movie stars John Travolta and two of my favorite actors: Robert Duvall and William H. Macy. Although this is not a movie critic's blog, I would suggest you check out this movie!

Have any of you seen the movie? What did you think?