Having recommended a book, I come to the more important question: What film would I recommend to entering law students? It’s more important because films can be so much more vivid.
My choice is easy: Man for All Seasons. In addition to being a great film, it teaches law students two great lessons:
The rule of law:
This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down. . . do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
But to say that the devil should get the benefit of law is not to say he is not the devil. So we come to the importance of integrity, and that most famous line of the film, More’s withering rebuke to Richard Rich:
Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?
I think of this line all the time when I hear of successful people, often professionals, cutting an ethical corner for a few dollars or points.
I am active in our local St. Thomas More Society, and it so happens that the play is being shown in the upcoming season of the DuPont Theatre.
Posted by: Francis Pileggi | July 10, 2005 at 04:23 PM