You might not believe it, but I have seen more clips from this movie during law school than ever before. Apparently it’s a great educational tool. The first time the movie was used to teach me something, I was at a weekend workshop/training for the Prison Legal Assistance Project. This particular part of the workshop was on how to cross-examine a witness. Of course the movie isn’t a perfect example of how to conduct a cross examination but the ideas they were trying to get us to understand were highlighted by Joe Pesce’s dramatic, and might I add hilarious, portrayal of how a defense attorney should cross-examine a witness. Pesce’s character really drove home our trainer’s point that questions should be made in such a way that the witness can really only say yes or no. That is, almost every question should end with, “isn’t that right,” or “didn’t you.” After the PLAP training session I had to see the entire movie so I watched it on Netflix and laughed the whole way through. I now know that although I appreciated the movie for its comedic value, I wasn’t far enough into law school at the time to fully appreciate the lessons it could teach me.
My most recent encounter with the film is ongoing. I am taking Evidence during J-term this year. My professor admitted to us on the first day that he thinks My Cousin Vinny is the best movie ever made. At first I thought that was the only reason he was going to show it to us. I underestimated him. The movie serves several purposes. First, after about an hour and half into our three-hour class he uses the movie to give us a 10-minute break. Second, he recaptures our attention post-movie by talking about it. Third, he uses the scenes to teach us about courtroom procedure and admissibility of evidence on a daily basis. It almost feels like I’m watching the movie for the first time or at least like I’ve got 3-D glasses on or something. Issues are jumping out at me and I may even be laughing harder because of it.
I’m glad this class has turned out to be so good. I was doubtful going into it that I would enjoy it at all. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Every class so far, we have gone through the Federal Rules of Evidence in detail and had class discussions about why hypothetical pieces of evidence should be admissible. I am actually forced to think things through in class in a way that I haven’t done before. During our next class we will be going over the arguments in a case that is currently before the Supreme Court on the Confrontation Clause of the Constitution and we’ll get another segment of My Cousin Vinny…
– Elizabeth
