TITLE OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT:

MOVIES AND VISUAL MEDIA

TOPIC-GROUP NUMBER: A
PROJECT-TOPIC NUMBER: 5

LAW AND LANGUAGE (ENGLISH I)

NITESH MISHRA
43 BALLB 17
CLASS: B.A., LL.B. (HONS.), FIRST YEAR,
FIRST SEMESTER

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. (DR.)

PRASANNANSHU

2017
NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, DELHI
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. CHAPTER PAGE
NO.
1 Acknowledgements 3

2 Introduction 4

3 Methodology 6

4 Observation table 8

5 Analysis & results 23

6 Discussion 26

7 Conclusions 27

8 References 29

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude towards Prof. (Dr.) Prasannanshu, who has been
a guiding light and a beacon throughout the course of this project. The pro active steps he has
taken, in regards to our project, cannot be thanked enough for. This project wouldn’t have
seen the light of day had it need been for his constant guidance and in-depth description of
the various nuances involved in this project. I would also like to thank him for letting us
choose a topic which is inherently interesting and exciting to work on.
The teaching assistants of Prof. (Dr.) Prasannanshu, Sannutha Shetty and Namita Elizabeth
Varghese, have played a paramount role in how this project has shaped up. They were the
true saviours, every time we found ourselves at sea with the project. The suggestions pitched
in by them have indeed been quite valuable and have immensely contributed to this project.
Next, I would like thank my seniors who have guided me with this project. The insights
provided by you were truly helpful in shaping up this project.
Last, but not the least, I would express my gratitude towards my colleagues and friends, with
whom I could discuss my ideas and the spirit which we showed in helping each other with the
projects is truly remarkable.

-Nitesh Mishra
National Law University, Delhi
October, 2017

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 INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND
The topic that I have taken up for my project involves in-depth scrutiny of courtroom scenes
from movies or any other form of visual media and making comments on the mannerism,
language used, professional ethics and etiquettes.
This topic gives us the liberty of choosing from varied range of visual media and come up
with a critical analysis, which could be indeed heartfelt and genuine. In an age where visual
and print media, have an inherent capacity to shape up our thought processes and views about
varied topics, this topic of research seems to be quite relevant and exciting to work upon.
Movies have always been a showcase of the societal conditions prevailing during different
periods of time. The makers, knowingly or unknowingly, capture the essence of the prevalent
customs and practices in the art they bring to their audience. Thus, analysing courtroom
scenes of a movie, which happens to be a legal drama, provides us with an opportunity to
dwell deeper into the past and compare its relevance with today’s practices. One of lines in
one of my all time favourite movies, Amistad, says that the ‘Past’ is always a reflection of the
‘Present’ and is never actually dead, which seems to be so true.
While taking up this project, I had an aim to explore the manners and etiquettes of the legal
professionals and the Judges in the Court of Law. The professional ethics of the Lawyers,
Judges and the Jury was of special interest to me because of the prevalent legal question, “Is
Law and Justice the same thing?” It is indeed quite interesting how the professional ethics are
called upon by Lawyers of repute to sway the Judges and the Jury into their favour. The
change in decision of the Court that comes with the change in time period when the case is
being discussed is also important to notice.
The only resource that I had to use in making this project was the movie, ‘The Ghosts of
Mississippi’, by Rob Reiner. This project primarily involves the researcher’s comments and
analysis of the prevalent practices in the courtroom; hence, there is not much literature to be
reviewed per se.
This movie was released in 1996 and is set against a back drop of the racial discrimination,
which was quite prevalent during those times. It is based on a true story, as was stated in the
beginning of the movie itself. It portrays the dominant segregation movements that were
prevalent in United States of America in the 1960s and also portrays the counter to those
movements by Civil Rights Activists. Mender Evers, a Civil Rights Leader of the ‘Black’
people and a member of the NAACP, was shot dead on his driveway, by a ‘White’ racist, by

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the name of Byron De La Beckwith. He had been acquitted by two all-White Juries in two
trials. 25 years after the murder, the case was reopened by the District Attorney’s office in
Mississippi. The story revolves around the struggles of the lawyer, Bobby DeLaughter, in
making up a viable case against Beckwith and the personal prices he has to pay in going
against the racial discrimination which prevailed and was deeply entrenched within the
society. Another major theme that was portrayed in the movie was to show that the State may
make laws, for or against some policies, but, the people to truly accept those laws on a
personal level, is a whole different thing. There were policies against racial discrimination in
the 1990s, but the people hadn’t truly imbibed them into their personal lives and the bias was
still fresh in their minds.
The State of Mississippi has had a long history of racism. A blog, vernonjohns, describes the
place as:
“Mississippi was a terrible place where there was vigorous cooperation between the
racist law enforcement officials, the racist politicians, and the K.K.K., as well as any
other racist organization in Mississippi who wanted the latest information on the
movements of civil rights workers in the state for the purposes of harassment and
even murder. The unanimity of racism in Mississippi made brutal murders of Civil
Rights workers a badge of honour among white Mississippians.   Therefore, it should
come as no surprise that the murderer of N.A.A.C.P. organizer Medgar Evers was not
brought to justice for many, many years.”

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 METHODOLOGY
First of all, I had to go through the summaries of exquisite legal drama movies released over
the years. After going through a considerable number of movies, I decided to work on ‘The
Ghosts of Mississippi’. The story line seemed quite appealing to me and it was even
accounted to be one of the best legal drams.
Having done that, I watched the movie twice. In the first time, I had been concentrating upon
the story line in general and made notes of the general personalities of the characters. I also
took notes of the historical background, on which this movie had been made. The first view
was, basically, to introduce me to the scenes and the characters that I would be analysing in
this project.
Having done that, I proceeded to do some research about the film and the film maker so that I
could better understand his mind and frame of reference he had been using, while making the
film. Doing that research helped me in connecting with the film maker and understanding the
different emotions he wanted to convey and made me truly appreciate the beauty of his subtly
placed charged-up dialogues.
Next, I went on to see the movie once again. This time I made detailed notes of the scenes I
wanted to write about and comments that I wanted to convey. This detailed note-making
process helped me in planning out my project tentatively and gave me an idea of what I
would be trying to convey through my project.
I, then, started off with drafting the project. After having gone through the instructions that
had been provided, I started with typing down the project according to the prescribed format.
The ‘Observation Table’ was quite an interesting part of the drafting process, as I found it to
be an efficient way of organising the huge pile of thoughts and opinions I had in my mind
regarding the various scenes of the movie. I could safely discuss the different parts of the
movie, without having to worry about the reader losing the track of the context that I had
been talking about. I found it to be a truly novel technique of expressing views and opinions.
In filling up the ‘Observation Table’, I first gave the name of the movie and director and the
time stamp of the scene that I had been analysing, in the Source column. Next, I proceeded to
put in a screenshot and a brief description of the scene that I had been intending to analyse, in
the Observation column. Having done that, I went on to give my comments in the Comments
column and ended it with giving a gist of my comments and analysis, in small phrases, in the
Keywords column.

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The analysis part of the project helped me interlink various scenes of the movie and draw
parallels between the scenes. Since this movie has been made in a stretched time frame of
around 30 years, it was of paramount importance to draw the parallels between different
scenes and time periods, and thereby, find a pattern in the scenes and the factors affecting a
case in a Court of Law. The various keywords were represented in a graphical format, which
set up a platform to draw relevant results and generalisation from those results.
In the conclusion, I summarised the whole project and my findings and insights that I gained
during the course of the project. It also provided me with an opportunity to bring about the
importance of research table in the effective noting down of the comments and the graphical
representation of the results in the proper analysis of the results.
After I had been done with the initial drafting, I went on to format the draft accordingly and
did a proof-reading of the document.

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 OBSERVATION TABLE
S.NO SOURCE OBSERVATION COMMENTS KEYWORD
[MOVIE: THE
GHOSTS OF
MISSISSIPPI,
1996.
DIRECTED
BY: ROB
REINER]
This is the first court scene The Court of Law carries Mannered,
1. 8:18 of the movie, where in itself a responsibility respect for
Beckwith is being tried for and calls for a decorum court.
murder of Medgar Evers. to be maintained.
The various people present Whoever violates that
at the court are dressed up decorum can be
and look civilised. punishable by the court
for its contempt. In this
scene, people come to the
court well dressed up and
sit with appropriate
manners, and thereby,
respect the authority of
the court.
In this scene, we see that the Beckwith represented the Disdain of
2. 8:42 accused Beckwith laughs people from powerful powerful
with utter disdain, when his class of the society. They
lawyer makes comment on seemed to be very less
the name of the son of the empathetic towards the
victim. other classes and even
held them in low regard.
The body language and
the manners of Beckwith
show his utter disregard
for the ‘Black’ people.
He’s not even holding
Law in any regard
because despite being an
accused, he doesn’t seem
to be nervous at all and
expresses his disdain
openly in the court.
In this scene, we see that the The Governor coming Power,
3. 8:52 Governor of the State of over to shake hands with deplorable
Mississippi comes over to an accused for murder is societal
Beckwith in the courtroom clearly an open show of conditions
and shakes hands with him. power and influence on

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 the part of Beckwith.
This also speaks volumes
of the deplorable societal
conditions where a
murderer was being, in a
way, protected by the
authorities.
The people present at the The people at the Court Affected by
4. 9:05 court are clearly are visibly affected by gesture
uncomfortable with the this gesture of the
Governor shaking hands Governor. Though they
with Beckwith. They start know that this is
discussing amongst unethical, they can’t do
themselves what could this anything except talking
gesture imply. about it and criticising it.
It makes them doubt the
justice dispensing
mechanism of the court.

In this scene, Beckwith This subtle act of Acquaintance,

5. 9:27 gives his acquaintance with Beckwith might even be showing power
a Mrs. Jefferson Davis, yet another display of his
when he was asked to power and influence. The
introduce himself. woman referred to by
him, is apparently
someone important, and
thus, Beckwith intends to
use her name to influence
the decision of the court.
The newspapers report the The Jury getting hung violative of
6. 10:02 outcome of the trial. It was and the court declaring it professional
declared a mistrial by the mistrial is exactly what ethics
Judge, on account of a hung Beckwith would have
Jury. wanted. By exercising
various means, he does
get the decision which he
had intended to get.
These points to the
inadequacy of the courts
to remain unaffected by
the external power
politics and give an
unbiased decision,
violating their
professional ethics
The newspaper reports the The second trial would Hope for
7. 10:05 second trial which was due have come as a ray of victim’s family
to be held in April, 1964. hope to the ones who had

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 been wronged in the first
trial. They would have
surely expected the
courts to remain unbiased
and give a fairer decree
in the second trial.
The newspaper further The professional ethics Professional
8. 10:11 reports that even the second of the court can further ethics under
trial went in favour of be questioned when scrutiny.
Beckwith. Beckwith walked away
free in the second trial as
well. The court and the
Jury were equally
responsible for this
horrendous breach of
duty.
The assistant District The impactful and well Impactful,
9. 11:13 Attorney, DeLaughter, mannered address of convincing
addresses the Jury over a DeLaughter would address
conviction that he had been certainly go into
seeking. influencing the decision
of the Jury. He remains
respectful and yet,
convincing by his body
language.

There was dead silence in The silence which had Silence and
10. 1:30:14 the court before and afterbeen over looming the tension
the Judge asked for the court acutely described
opening statement of the the tension surrounding
prosecution. this case of ‘hate crime’.
The people at the court
were keenly waiting for
the opening statement of
the prosecution in a 27
years old case.
DeLaughter gives his He calls it a simple case Impactful
11. 1:30:19 opening statement in the and the language he uses language
court, in the retrial of speaks volumes about the
Beckwith. clarity of thought he had
on the case and his
confidence he possessed
in the guilt of Beckwith.

As the prosecution The Jury represents the Responsibility

12. 1:30:32 addresses the Jury, they seriousness of the huge on Jury
seem serious and take notes. responsibility it holds to
The Jury is made up of bring justice to a man

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 Black members as well. who had been murdered
27 years ago. This trial is
different from the
previous trials in terms of
the constituent of the
Jury. There are Black
member son Jury this
time, and that might be
of some hope to the
victim’s cause as it
would lower the chances
of a prejudiced decision.
DeLaughter refers to The prosecution had been Speech
13. 1:30:39 Beckwith as a ‘coward’ and vehemently trying to modulation,
does that with a loud, influence the decision of stressed on the
stressing note. the Jury by using an word ‘coward’
excellent change of voice
and making it a point to
stress on the fact that
Beckwith was a
‘coward’. These speech
modulation techniques
are quite necessary to
have as a lawyer.
Beckwith is getting all The prosecution’s Beckwith’s
14. 1:30:41 expressive with his hands statement was clearly uneasiness, hand
and gestures and dismissing making Beckwith quite gestures of
off the statements made by uneasy and he tried dismiss
the prosecution. This scene countering that using
clearly shows his gestures of dismiss. He is
uneasiness. trying to use his body
language to counter the
statement made by
DeLaughter, clearly
showing that how
expressive one might get,
even without speaking a
word.
In this scene, we again find He ends his opening Conclusive
15. 1:31:01 DeLaughter making a statement with a very remarks,
conclusive statement about conclusive remark about indelible
the guilt of the accused, the guilt of Beckwith and impression,
Beckwith. thereby, tried to show his impactful body
confidence in his cause. language and
All these manners and confidence
body language were used
to convince the Jury of
Beckwith’s guilt and
create an indelible
impression in their
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 minds, which would
eventually turn the case
into his favour.
DeLaughter points out how The utter disregard for Utter disdain for
16. 1:31:08 Beckwith had been bragging Law and Authorities, on Law
about him having killed the part of Beckwith is
Medgar Evers and getting shown in this scene. An
away without being accused bragging about
punished for it. having committed a
murder and having gotten
away with it raises
serious concerns about
the loopholes in the
Justice-dispensing
mechanism.
The Defence counsel The initial appearance of Under confident
17. 1:31:42 introduces itself and the Defence counsel manners, body
proceeds to make an seemed a bit doubtful language
opening statement of behalf and under confident. The
of the accused. initial introduction that
he gave lacked weight
and wasn’t strong
enough. This might hurt
his cause in the long run.

The Defence counsel makes The legal tenet of Convincing

18. 1:31:59 his opening statement and opinions can’t be opinions stated
tells standards for the Court is
the Jury that DeLaughter brought about in this
wants them to convict scene. The Defence
Beckwith just on the basis claims that the
of his opinions. Prosecution has nothing
other than their belief to
prove Beckwith guilty
and hence, the Jury
shouldn’t be swayed. The
Language and
expressions used were
quite convincing.
The Defence uses the legal The phrase ‘beyond legal phrase
19. 1:32:08 phrase ‘beyond reasonable reasonable doubt’ is a used
doubt’ to say that the very important tenet of
Prosecution cannot prove criminal law. The guilt of
Beckwith guilty beyond an accused must be
reasonable doubt. proved beyond
reasonable doubt for him
to be convicted. The
Defence uses this legal
phrase and adds a
substantial amount of
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 weight to his argument.

Myrlie Evers takes a brisk Myrlie Evers brisk walk Confident walk,
20. 1:32:48 walk and is administered an to the witness box speaks respectful
oath by the police official, loads about her belief in
as per the customs of the her cause. It shows her
court. confidence and her body
language might
intimidate the accused.
She respectfully takes the
oath administered and
that gives us an insight of
her etiquettes.
In this scene, we find The uneasiness of Uneasiness,
21. 1:33:20 Beckwith turn away his Beckwith was quite but hiding
head as he finds Myrlie visible in this scene, discomfort
looking at him, as she took where just the name of
the name of Medgar Evers. Medgar Evers and look
of Myrlie Evers could
make him uncomfortable.
His conscience did pinch
him a little as he faced
Myrlie Evers and hence,
he looked away to hide
his discomfort.
As Myrlie narrated the The facial expressions of Emotional
22. 1:33:42 incidents of the night when the members of the Jury narration,
Medgar Evers had been appear to be that of being moved
murdered, the Jury emotionally moved by
apparently was emotionally the narration. This might
moved. have in fact, influenced
their decision in the case.
The emotionally charged
narration made by Myrlie
would have served its
purpose then,
The prosecution lawyer The posture and the Intimidated the
23. 1:36:51 questions the witness manners of the witness
regarding the events of that prosecution lawyer show
night. his superiority in the
court, over the witness.
His body language might
even intimidate the
witness and make her
falter between her
testimonies. Thus, the

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 Lawyers use a kind of
intimidating behaviour to
influence the testimony
of the witnesses.
Beckwith is seen yawning in The defiance of Show of disdain
24. 1:37:41 this scene, as the Beckwith is further
proceedings of the court proved in this scene, with
carry on. him yawing and being
utterly disinterested in
the proceedings when the
testimonies were being
given against him. He
was quite sure of his
power so, he was of the
opinion that the
testimonies of the
witnesses won’t matter.
The witness is being The witness is seen Witness is
25. 1:38:27 questioned by the Defence tapping his fingers and uneasy
counsel in this scene and the that is considered as a
witness seems to be ill-at- sign of uneasiness and
ease. nervousness. The
Defence had come down
to intense cross
examination of the
witness and that made
him quite uneasy.
The witness talks about how The testimony of the Racism, utter
26. 1:39:15 Beckwith used to go about witness shows racism hatred
bragging about him having and race hate at its
killed a ‘Black’ and calling height. Beckwith not
upon others to do so as well, only killed Medgar Evers
but also, goes about
bragging and calling
upon others to do so.
Hence, the language of
hate used by Beckwith
aptly describes societal
conditions which were
prevalent.
The Defence counsel takes a The brisk and confident Confident walk,
27. 1:39:34 brisk walk towards the approach of the Defence mental pressure
witness to cross examine the counsel could instil a bit
Prosecution’s witness. of nervousness in the
witness. Thus, the
Defence counsel creates
a mental pressure over
the witness even before
asking him anything.

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 DeLaughter raises an The expression and the Put at unease,
28. 1:40:08 objection quite loudly to one manner in which Loud objection
of the statements of the DeLaughter raises the
Defence and the Judge objection show quite
sustains it. clearly his frustration and
his attempt to keep his
frustration in check. The
Defence counsel does
well in affecting the
mental calmness of the
Prosecution.
The Judge is asking the Jury The Judge acts in his Accordance
29. 1:40:37 to disregard the last professional capacity and with
statement of the Witness as asks the Jury to disregard professional
it was mere opinion. the opinion of the ethics
witness, further showing
that opinions can’t be
standards for courts. The
Judge discharges his duty
very well in a case,
where whole lot of
tension is involved.
The witness, here, starts The Defence creates an Uneasy witness
30. 1:41:35 fumbling when the Defence uncomfortable situation
counsel launches attacks on for the witness and
his personal preferences and thereby, makes him
his history with Beckwith. fumble in his testimony.
By bringing up the
history of the witness
with Beckwith, the
Defence forces the
witness to fall short of
words and fumble,
thereby, making his
account doubtful.
In this scene, the defence The Defence further Language,
31. 1:41:39 cuts short the witness and intimidates the witness intimidate
further overpower the by his speech modulation witness
already faltering evidence. and keeps his point quite
strongly and hence, the
already faltering witness
gets all the more
dumbstruck. The
Defence uses his skill
and proficiency in the
language to overpower
the witness.

DeLaughter is being advised DeLaughter was visibly Becomes uneasy

32. 1:47:26 by his senior to stay calm shaken by the short
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 and put aside the encounter he had with
conversation he had with Beckwith in the restroom
Beckwith. and it makes him uneasy.
The District Attorney
asks him to stay calm and
concentrate on the case.
In that sense, the motive
of Beckwith’s mind-
game was fulfilled as
soon as DeLaughter lost
his composure.
DeLaughter takes the He handles it well by Shows wittiness,
33. 1:49:42 rebuttal of the witness quite dismissing it off as some humorous
sportingly and the people at light hearted humour and
the court enjoy his witty the people enjoyed his
reply. wittiness. This made the
Defence counsel a bit
concerned and fidgety.

The witness holds on to his The witness shows some Unease witness,
34. 1:51:18 testimony despite being tough nerve by holding logical
cornered by DeLaughter. on to his statement, but arguments
his discomfort was
clearly visible in his
demeanour. The flow of
his logic seemed to have
stopped. And he was
trying hard to put up a
brave face. The logical
counters used by
DeLaughter rendered
him speechless.
The Jury seems to have The Jury and the people Jury enjoying
35. 1:51:46 some light hearted moments at the court seemed to
in an otherwise tense case. enjoy the witty
They were laughing at the comebacks by
way DeLaughter was DeLaughter. He did ease
cornering the witness. of some nerves at the
cost of the witness. The
witness had made strong
rebuttals earlier but, he
counters them all by pure
logic and genius.
As the Defence rests, there They had expected a Clamour
36. 1:53:03 is a clamour amongst the better comeback from the amongst people
people of the court and Defence, after their last
Myrlie calls them ‘coward’. witness was completely

16 | P a g e
 outdone by the
Prosecution. It might
well be considered
cowardly that the
Defence didn’t get their
next witness to the box.
In that sense, DeLaughter
did well in forcing them
to take such a call.
The Defence makes a He, thus, puts up an Ethically
37. 1:55:27 closing statement saying ethical question before questioned Jury
that if the system doesn’t the Jury. He asks the Jury
work for Beckwith, it to disregard what they
wouldn’t work for anyone. think about the accused
and just do justice as it
should be done for
anyone who stands
before the court. He asks
them to keep bias against
Beckwith aside and
decide the case in his
favour, because if they
do not do so, the entire
justice dispensing
mechanism could be
questioned. He pushes
the Jury in professional
ethical dilemma and
banks on their moral
weakness for the verdict
to be in his favour.
Here, DeLaughter points out He points this fact to Professional
38. 1:56:52 the legal fact that there is no prove the point that a ethics question
statutory limitation to murder remains a grave
murder. crime against life, no
matter when it had been
committed and hence, it
must be punished. This
scene also raises a
question on the common
saying of ‘Justice
delayed is Justice
denied.’ Though justice
has been delayed here,
but that doesn’t, in any
way, reduce the
importance of it for the
victim’s family, who had
been persevering all
those years to see justice
17 | P a g e
 done. Hence, justice
should come, no matter
however delayed it
comes. This is an
important professional
ethics question that must
be decided in the case.
In this scene, we find Medgar Evers had died Ethical question
39. 1:57:28 DeLaughter raising an fighting for a just cause:
ethical question before the to secure equality for his
Jury about how justice people, his family and
should be done to a man himself. DeLaughter
who had been fighting a raises yet another ethical
cause for his people. question for the Jury
about the selfless man, as
Medgar Evers, not
getting justice. He seeks
to get justice for Evers by
putting the Jury into a
moral dilemma and thus,
influencing their
decision.
In this scene, DeLaughter The speech of John F. Convincing
40. 1:59:03 uses John F. Kennedy’s Kennedy called for the speech
speech, delivered just on the people of USA to be modulation
night when Evers was brave and speak up
murdered, to remind the against racial
Jury of what principles discrimination.
Evers died protecting. Ironically, this speech
was delivered in the
night when Evers was
murdered. DeLaughter
asks the Jury to be
‘Brave’ and do justice to
the man who had died
protecting such a novel
cause. The voice
modulation and the
language used by
DeLaughter were too
impactful and
convincing.
As the Judge enters the The respect for a Court Manners and
41. 2:01:55 courtroom, every one of Law is paramount is etiquettes
respectfully stands up, highlighted in this scene.
buttons their coats and get The people might remain
all silent. in whatever state of
mind, but manners and
etiquettes are paramount.
The lawyers are seen
18 | P a g e
 buttoning up their coats
and everything seems to
have settled down all of a
sudden as the Judge
entered the court.
In this scene, the Judge The Judge also owes a Decorum of
42. 2:02:22 warns the people of the duty to see to it that the Court
Court against any kind of decorum of the court is
demonstration and maintained and hence, it
emotional outburst after the becomes important for
verdict of the case was him to sternly warn the
given, to maintain the people beforehand. The
decorum of the court. court could have seen a
variety of emotional
outburst had the Judge
not warned them against
it. So, the Judge did his
duty well enough by
maintaining the order of
the court after such a
historical decision.
Myrlie Evers and her family This decision had taken Decorum of
43. 2:03:44 are seen rejoicing after years of perseverance court
Beckwith is held guilty by from Myrlie Evers and
the Jury. yet, she maintained the
decorum of the Court by
not indulging into
emotional outburst in
court. This was an
excellent example of the
manners to be followed
in a Court.

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 ANALYSIS & RESULTS

CONCEPT FREQUENCY
Manners/Gesture 5
Disdain 3
Power 2
Professional Ethics 6
Intimidate 2
Impactful Language 7
Speech Modulation 2
Uneasy 7
Confident 4
Decorum 2

Frequency
8
7
6
5
4
3 Frequency

2
1
0
re r cs e e y t
tu ain we hi at ag on as en ru
m
s si d o t id u lati e d o
Ge D P la E m an
g u Un nfi c
r s/ n In
ti
lL od Co De
io
ne es
s
ctf
u
h
M
an r of pa eec
M P Im Sp

The bar graph distinctly shows us the frequency of keywords used in the observation table. It
reflects the manners, language and the professional ethical dilemmas involved in the complex
situations at the court.
20 | P a g e
The bar stands the highest for two of the keywords, which happen to be, impactful language
and uneasy.
The possession of an impactful language is a necessity for a lawyer. Lawyers are said to be
“wordsmiths” due to their ability to influence the thought process of people around by mere
use of words and that has been in true display throughout the court scenes in the movie. Both
the lawyers have adequately used an impactful language to get under the skin of the Jury and
raise serious doubts in their minds, at some occasions, and make them agree to their
respective points, at others. Hence, the paramount importance of impactful language has been
adequately displayed in the movie.
Uneasiness of the witnesses, in particular, and the people present at the court, in general, is
quite obvious, considering the discussion above. If the lawyers had been so impactful with
their words then, we don’t expect the mere witnesses to be all comfortable. The witnesses’
testimony would obviously go against one of the parties’ cause. Hence, it can be safely said
that he would be put in an uneasy ground by the opposing lawyer.
Professional ethics get the second highest bar. In a case such as the one depicted in the
movie, the ethics of everyone involved with the case is brought to question. The Jury had the
huge responsibility of shedding down the racial biases and give an appropriate decision and at
the same time, they had to make sure that their decision wasn’t influenced by the fact of their
personal loathing for the accused. The Judge had to fulfil his responsibility of maintaining
decorum in the court, in a case which was so emotionally connected to sentiments of a
significant portion of the society. The lawyers’ ethics were also called to test, when they had
been arguing for their respective counsels.
Manners and gestures are next o the list. People tend to give a lot about themselves by their
manners and gestures, sometimes even more than what they would have imagined. Hence, the
manners and gestures had to be pointed out. In a courtroom, where the words are so
measured, the manners and gestures of individuals go a long way in letting the ones
concerned know about their thought process, if they happen to be keen observers.
Being confident about one’s causes and statements is a key element in the courts. As has been
discussed above, being impactful is a key in a courtroom and that generally comes when a
person is confident about what one is speaking.
The disdain of the accused, in the case depicted, was continuously and deliberately stressed
upon during the course of the movie. The accused was a powerful and an influential man,
who had least bother or respect for the laws. He expressed pride in committing and a murder

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and getting away with it. His mannerism in the court adequately hinted at the utter disdain he
had for the law.
Then, we see power, decorum, intimidate and speech modulation getting an equal footing in
the graph. They show the relevance of these factors in the court of law. Power of the accused
was made clear in the movie and hence, he hoped to get away with the crime in the third trial
as well. It was power and influence that he had been banking upon. The decorum of the court
was of paramount importance and had to be maintained at all costs, keeping in mind the
gravity of the case and the sentiments attached to it. The speech modulation was a technique
used by the lawyers to make them sound convincing. And finally, intimidation was another
techniques used by them to make the witnesses falter and make a statement which they could
use in their support. Further, it might be considered that the lawyers might not have
necessarily intended to intimidate, but their overbearing presence in the courts would have
been enough to intimidate any witness.
Thus, we see that the graph brings out the importance of the various relevant keywords in the
observation table and thus, helps in the analysis of the movie, and thereby, the objective of
the project.

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 DISCUSSION
The results which have surfaced after the analysis seem to concur with the ordinary practices
and nature of proceedings in the court. The graph accurately shows the relevant factors
involving manners, etiquettes, professional ethics and language which might affect and
influence the verdict of the case, ultimately. All these factors do play an important role in the
nature of proceedings as well.
We know, by ordinary sense and knowledge, that these are the very factors generally talked
about in context of court proceedings. The fact that the result of the analysis done in this
project also point at these factors being relevant, appears to point at the fact that the results
are in adequate consonance with the generally accepted notions of the society.
The project didn’t involve any questionnaire or any quantitative analysis and hence, no
comments can be made in those regards and in context of the variable or constant factors.

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 CONCLUSIONS
The research project has been truly an exciting one, considering the fact that it involved
watching a movie so intently and closely, in order to minutely analyse it and draw
conclusions of it. It happens to be true intellectual satisfaction when one is able to
comprehend the things left unsaid in any form of visual media and that truly adds to the
beauty of that specific piece. The concept of Observation Table that has been used in this
research project has proved to be an efficient and convenient technique in analysing the
various scenes of the movie, without losing track of the previous scenes and analysis. The
graphical representation of the results have also been quite a help in adequately finding the
pattern amongst the relevant keywords and thereby, being able to relate them with the
courtroom scenes of the movie.
The Ghosts of Mississippi is considered to be one of the best legal drama movies of all times
and hence, was made a choice by me. It has indeed been a great experience, looking into the
past of USA and understanding the precarious situation of racial discrimination, which was so
prevalent. The laws confirmed the protection of the coloured people, but, the societal attitude
of the Whites hadn’t improved a lot. They continued to look down upon the coloured people
and atrocities continued against the Coloured. Thus, it is under this backdrop that the movie
has been set up.
The goal of my research was to analyse the manners, etiquettes, language and professional
ethics in any form of visual media and apparently, I have been able to meet that goal quite
effectively. The various factors that had to be looked at have been effectively tabulated and
presented in a graphical format, which further adds to the effective analysis of the table. The
results have been able to interlink the various scenes and find out the common keywords and
meaningful patterns in the tabulated data.
There wasn’t much of difficulty that I faced in the planned course of research. The guidelines
provided to us were quite comprehensive and hence, they could be referred to for any sort of
clarification that would have been needed during the course of research.
The findings of the research have been that in a Court of Law, the language, manners and
etiquettes can and do play a major role in the ultimate verdict of the court. The people
involved in the legal profession and the justice delivery mechanism face professional ethical
crises every now and then, because at times, it gets quite tricky to dispense justice to the
victim. Law and Justice need not necessarily be the same thing. The factors mentioned above,

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if used efficiently and smartly, have the potential to sway the judgement to the favour of the
person using them. In a broader sense, it means that the verdict of the case not just depends
on the facts o the case or commonplace opinion or understanding of the case, it also depends
upon the intricacies of the law that are brought before the court by the lawyers arguing the
case. In such a scenario, the skills possessed by the lawyer might become all the more
important and useful for the counsel represented.
As Law is never static and evolves on a daily basis, the requirements of the court and the
judges also might change. There is future research possible on this topic. The dynamism of
the Law enables it to remain relevant and applicable in the society and world which is fast
changing. If I would be trying to look further into the issue, I would rather go for an approach
where I would study the body language of the characters in a more detailed fashioned and
explore the various ethical dilemmas of the judges and juries in a more efficient way.

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 REFERENCES
The project in hand involved much of self analysis and thereby, reaching a conclusion.
Hence, there haven’t been quite a many sources referred to in coming up with this project.
There was a website visited to watch the movie, so as to do the analysis.
The link has been provided: https://youtu.be/MvxHjPWVwKk
I went through two articles which helped me to get an idea of the theme of the movie and the
general mannerisms of the people present in the Court of Law. It also helped me to draw an
analogy of the behaviour of the people in an American Court and an Indian Court, which I
found to be very much same.
The articles were:
 Schmitthener Samuel, (1969) A Sketch of the Development of the Legal Profession in
India, Law & Society Review, Vol. 3.
 Nair Janaki, (2008) Law and Disorder, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.43.

There were some website referred to get a hold of the movie and the themes surrounding it.
The websites were:
 https://www.movieguide.org/reviews/ghosts-of-mississippi.html
 http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?
res=9F0DE7DF1431F933A15751C1A960958260
 https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ghosts-of-mississippi-1996
 http://www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/ghosts.html
 http://articles.latimes.com/1996-12-20/entertainment/ca-10830_1_mississippi-
burning
 https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-71764033/achieving-authenticity-in-
the-film-ghosts-of-mississippi
 https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-71764033/achieving-authenticity-in-
the-film-ghosts-of-mississippi

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