Anatomy of A Murder - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

The language used during the movie startled the Chicago Police Commissioner and Mayor Richard J. Daley, and as a result Anatomy of a Murder was banned in that city. Preminger went to the federal court there and the decision was overturned and it was allowed to be exhibited. The court found that the clinical language during the trial was realistic and appropriate within the context of the movie.

Anatomy of a Murder has been well received by members of the legal and educational professions. In 1989, the American Bar Association rated this as one of the 12 best trial films of all time. In addition to its plot and musical score, the article noted: "The film's real highlight is its ability to demonstrate how a legal defense is developed in a difficult case. How many trial films would dare spend so much time watching lawyers do what many lawyers do most (and enjoy least) — research?" The film has also been used as a teaching tool in law schools, as it encompasses (from the defense standpoint) all of the basic stages in the U.S. criminal justice system from client interview and arraignment through trial. UCLA law professor Michael Asimow calls the picture "probably the finest pure trial movie ever made." It was also listed as Number 4 of 25 "Greatest Legal Movies" by the American Bar Association.

Film critics have noted the moral ambiguity, where small town lawyers triumph by guile, stealth and trickery. The film is frank and direct. Language and sexual themes are explicit, at variance with the times (and other films) when it was produced. The black and white palette is seen as a complement to the harsh Upper Peninsula landscape. The film is "ade in black-and-white but full of local color".

Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times said, "After watching an endless succession of courtroom melodramas that have more or less transgressed the bounds of human reason and the rules of advocacy, it is cheering and fascinating to see one that hews magnificently to a line of dramatic but reasonable behavior and proper procedure in a court. Such a one is Anatomy of a Murder, which opened at the Criterion and the Plaza yesterday. It is the best courtroom melodrama this old judge has ever seen. . . . Outside of the fact that this drama gets a little tiring in spots—in its two hours and forty minutes, most of which is spent in court—it is well nigh flawless as a picture of an American court at work, of small-town American characters and of the average sordidness of crime."

TIME felt that it was a well-paced, well-acted, and that the explicit language was warranted within the context of the film.

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed AFI's 10 Top 10, the best 10 films in 10 "classic" American film genres, after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Anatomy of a Murder was selected as the seventh best film in the courtroom drama genre. (In a 1999 AFI poll, star James Stewart was ranked # 3 of the Top 25 American male screen legends.) The Internet Movie Database rates it number 19 of 807 trial films.

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on thirty-six reviews.

"Over the years, the movie's reputation has grown. Many movie buffs believe that its adult subject matter (along with that of Psycho and Some Like It Hot) challenged the censorship guidelines the film industry" labored under at the time.