ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a research frame that looks closely at how classical Hollywood produced representations of law. It focuses on the contingent representations of legal discourse and law-related practices within classical Hollywood cinema, or for shorthand, "law within movies. The chapter looks closely at the 1945 and 1946 versions of The Big Sleep and Force of Evil. These movies offer prominent examples of film noir, a group of motion pictures released during the 1940s and 1950s that foreground images of "things legal. The chapter argues that might well begin by trying to outline the process through which classical Hollywood produced legal imagery. It emphasizes what might be called the legal academic gaze is not the only cultural lens through which to look at works of popular culture. As an increasingly interdisciplinary literature on the intersection between law and culture begins to emerge, however, the nature of legal scholarship on commercial movies is changing.
