Anatomy of a Murder (1959) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Karst ★★★★½ 6

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Absolute hypnosis. The rhythm of the line deliveries in every scene is almost magical. Too many examples to choose from—seriously, I could literally pick any moment—but there's an interaction in the final 15 minutes where something the audience already knows is revealed to everyone else in the courtroom and it still manages to come off just as shocking to us as it does to those in the film. That moment works because the nanoseconds in between every word in this thing feel carefully planned and completely intentional. A brief stutter speaks volumes at one point. This attention to detail reels you in and makes it the shortest two hours and forty minutes you'll ever sit through. I'll say it again: hypnotic.

  But hey that's just one of many things I love about this film. Fantastic all around. A lawyer who really likes to fish on the side feels like the character Jimmy Stewart was born to play!

• Review by liam f ★★★★½ 6

  to me, there are fewer things more surreal than hearing someone say the word "bitch" in a Hollywood film from 1959

• Review by Aaron ★★★★★ 32

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Part of Noir-November

  “How can a jury disregard what it’s already heard?” “They can’t, Lieutenant. They can’t.”

  You need an excuse, not a justification. There is no justification for walking into a bar and shooting an unarmed man five times. It’s a crime of the most serious order—the intentional, premeditated and deliberate killing of another human being. The elements are there: the actus reus and the mens rea, the guilty act and the guilty mind. You’re going to jail, and for a long time—unless you can find an excuse. Not a justification.

  So says Paul Biegler (James Stewart) to his client, Lt. Frederick “Manny” Manion (Ben Gazzara). Legally speaking, he’s absolutely right. An act that is justified by, say, self-defense…

• Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★★½ 1

  phenomenal film, the most brisk two and a half hour movie i’ve ever seen. more to say later about jimmy stewart’s performance, which is way more interesting than it appears at first glance.

  update: so i promised more on stewart and here it is.

  preminger presents the law as a kind of theater. everyone involved — the defense, the defendant, the prosecutor, the witnesses, the jury — is playing a part, and success (or failure) depends on how well you can perform your allotted part. what makes stewart so great here is he uses this premise to play with his own persona. to the jury, and to us the audience, stewart’s biegler is a kind, good natured, humble country lawyer,…

• Review by demi adejuyigbe 11

  I’m sure this was revolutionary for its time, but it feels like your run of the mill Sunday afternoon TCM procedural to me, with some pretty upsetting implications to its ending. Lee Remick is gorgeous though, and the faces are lit so beautifully!

• Review by Darren ★★★★½

  I liked the part where Jimmy Stewart requested for the victim's dog to be in the courtroom.

• Review by Shane McAvoy ★★★★ 2

  (jimmy stewart voice) mmhmm yes yes i see well then mmhmm yes now oh ohh ohhh mmhmm

• Review by LinusMxx ★★★★ 4

  A-

  • Watching this film feels like you're inside the courtroom yourself.
  • The 2 hour and 40 minute runtime flew by so fast.
  • Sharp and compelling dialogue, check!
  • The film provided no easy answers. It's morally ambiguous as a whole, just like the justice system in general.
  • Timely and relevant. Way ahead of its time!
  • I think this film and 12 Angry Men (1957) would make a great double feature.

  sinegang weekly pick #24 by abby

• Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★★ 13

  Only a few of the 1.2k movies I saw as part of my Movies You Should Watch Before You Die list made an impression on me. This was one of them. The opening few minutes are a little sluggish, and while there is plenty of good, terms of building up the film noir components into the film, once we get into the courtroom, the film morphs into what many, including myself, believe to be one of the greatest in the genre.

  The entire cast, from minor to our protagonist (one of them actually an icon in the legal field and US history) are all fire. The writing is superb; it is engrossing, quotable, and naturally hilarious. The cinematography is simple,…

• Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★★½

  83/100

  [Originally written on my blog.]

  Such a strange film, especially for its time. Despite being fictional, it's closer in spirit to Depardon's Moments of Trial than to most courtroom dramas, its focus on Jimmy Stewart's defense attorney a hugely effective red herring. Both sides of the law are examined and found wanting, albeit implictly; it took me half the film to realize (and I'm not sure I realized it at all when I first saw it over 20 years ago) that Biegler's tactics are often even more underhanded than the prosecution's, and that this isn't "clumsily ironic" but the whole damn point. Masterfully done, but it does leave a massive hole where any human interest ought to be, which retroactively makes touches like the redemption of Arthur O'Connell's alcoholic mentor seem not just irrelevant but intrusive. R.I.P. Ben Gazzara, so quietly powerful and cagily opaque in this role.

• Review by Ethan Colburn ★★★★½

  Every time I see a James Stewart impression I have to actively not try to impersonate him the next day.

  Unlike other courtroom dramas, Anatomy of a Murder seems to be more focused on the amoral than the moral. Preminger becomes fascinated with toying with your own sense of right and wrong, making you root for characters that don't always represent your own sense of right and wrong. Preminger is so methodical in his direction, it feels like you're actually in the court room, or sitting on the jury, getting to know this case inside and out.

  Beautifully shot, meticulously executed, and even more powerful on a rewatch.

• Review by ksenija ★★★★½

  i wish every movie in the 50s was scored by duke ellington