Gr.

11 Law Culminating Task

Law Movie Critique/Review
As part of the Gr. 11 Law course you will be require to complete a movie review/critique that
will comprise 10% of your final grade.

Seeing how many movies that Canadians watch are American based, many Canadians
incorrectly assume that the laws and courtroom procedures presented throughout American
films are the same in Canada.

Your task is to analyze a legal film and assess the legal accuracy of the film.

Requirements
1. Watch a movie that has a significant amount of legal issues.
a. You can find suggestions for movies on the following website
http://www.legalresearchandwriting.ca/movies/atozlist.htm

2. Using power point, prezi or any presentation software, create a movie critique about
a movie that is based on law.

a. Write a brief summary formulating a specific opinion about the film. (was it a
good or bad film)
b. Create a good lead sentence. You want your reader to be interested on what
you have to say. Compare it to other movies, or explain if it met your
expectations
c. Write a plot summary. Write what is the film about. But don’t give the ending
away. Give them the basic premise and tell them how the story unfolds. Keep
it brief.

3. Analyze 3 key areas or scenes within the movie

 State a legal occurrence.
 State whether it is accurate to Canadian law and procedure. (Make sure to
justify you answer using information from the text book or from an outside
source) Very Important
 Explain how it is accurate or inaccurate to Canadian law and procedure.
 Make sure to prove what you say with actual laws as stated in the criminal
code or in the charter or in the text.

Areas of focus: (choose 3 from the list found below)

Assess whether the following have been portrayed accurately according to Canadian Law.
 Charter of Rights Violations  Criminal Punishments
 Legal Rights  Criminal law - court and
 Drugs trial procedures
 Human Rights Violations  Civil law —
 Gun Control family/divorce/laws
 Juries and Jury Selection  Arrest Procedures
 Drinking and Driving  Search Laws
 Corruption  Youth Laws
 Other aspects of Criminal  Racial Profiling
Law  Civil law - court and trial
 Criminal Defences

4. Provide an appraisal. The audience and the work you’re critiquing deserve an honest
opinion.

5. Make sure to provide a 1 -2 minute clip of an important legal scene and explain your
reasoning for that particular clip.
CPT — Movie Review and Presentation Template

Movie Title: ____________________________________________________________________

Who are the Main Characters?

1. ________________________ 5. ________________________

2. ________________________ 6. ________________________

3. ________________________ 7. ________________________

4. ________________________ 8. ________________________

Briefly, explain the storyline.

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How does the movie relate to Grade 11 Canadian Law? (4 areas of
focus)

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 Rubric: Law Film Analysis

Criteria Level 4 Level 3 Level 2 Level 1

(80-100%) (70-79%) (60-69%) (50-59%)
Knowledge - clearly explains a - explaining the key -making some effort to -making a limited
multitude of key concepts and explain the relationship effort to explain the
concepts and relationships between between the film’s relationship between
relationships between various films’ portrayal of the legal the film’s portrayal of
various films’ portrayal portrayal of legal issues and real life the issues and real life
of legal issues and real issues and real life
life
Application -making excellent -making considerable -Lacking a varied use of -making little use of
connections to legal connections to legal connections to legal connections to legal
issues, terminology and issues, terminology issues, terminology and issues, terminology
historical events with and historical events historical events with and historical events
evidence and/or current with evidence and/or some evidence and/or with weak evidence
events current events current events

Thinking / -providing exceptional -providing clear -providing some -provides little analysis
Inquiry analysis in the analysis in the analysis in the in the descriptions and
descriptions and critical descriptions and good descriptions and few comparisons of
comparisons of various comparisons of adequate comparisons various themes found
themes found in the various themes found of various themes in the films and how
films and how and their in the films and how found in the films and and their relation to
relation to law and their relation to how and their relation law
law to law

Communication -exceptional sense of good sense of - some sense of -somewhat has a

audience and effectively audience and audience and sense of audience
outlines analysis effectively outlines effectively outlines - makes little attempt
-ending with a clear and analysis analysis to sum up the
effective conclusion, -ending with a clear attempts to sum up the evidence
summing up the conclusion, summing evidence - Information lacks
evidence up the evidence - Information presented clear organization and
- Information presented - Information is somewhat organized contains numerous
very organized and presented organized and contains some errors in language
contains exceptional and contains good errors in language conventions
language conventions language conventions conventions