As we continue examining women's biopics during the 21st century, this week we'll consider their role in the long-form dramatic serial on TV channels such as HBO, Netflix, AMC, FX, BBC. Successful (non-biopic) examples are Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Americans, Orange is the New Black. FX's American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson (2016) dramatized the case of football star O. J. Simpson, who was on trial for murdering his wife Nicole and her male friend Ron Goldman in 1994. Director/producer/writer/showrunner Ryan Murphy is known for Glee, The New Normal, American Horror Story, Pose and many others.
Episode 6 ("Marcia, Marcia, Marcia") of The People v. O. J. Simpson focuses on Marcia Clark, LA county deputy district attorney, head of the prosecution in this case. Clark, now a writer and producer, has appeared in previous episodes already, so it would be interesting to compare her depiction in "her" own episode with depictions throughout the other episodes (10 in all). Another basis for comparison would be her depiction AND role as a "talking head" in the long-form ESPN documentary series O. J.: Made in America (also 2016).
Fiction films about female lawyers and judges are plentiful—some would say they're over-represented—but biopics about actual female lawyers are fairly rare. Look at the Women's Film List in Files to see examples.
Gloria Allred is possibly the most famous female lawyer today. She represented Nicole Brown Simpson's family during the Simpson trial. She's famous for taking women's rights and other civil rights cases, usually "ripped from the headlines"—for instance, representing women accusing Bill Cosby and Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. She has been in some movies: Rat Race (2001), John Q (2002) and the TV courtroom series, We the People with Gloria Allred (2011-2013). There's a documentary about her, Seeing Allred (2018, on Netflix). Recently Allred has been dealing with accusations that she (and her daughter Lisa Bloom) have helped shield serial harassers/rapists such as Harvey Weinstein, Bill O'Reilly and Larry Nasser through nondisclosure agreements she negotiated.
Usually the central character of a crime film is the client, not the attorney. But this series is all about attorneys, ruthless and hapless, so this biopic episode overlaps with another genre, the courtroom drama, where attorneys fight it out. The courtroom drama has ideology and techniques of its own different from the biopic—identify them as you watch this episode. But keep in mind the basic questions we've asked of previous women's biopics.
Watch: American Crime Story, Season 1: The People vs. OJ Simpson – Episode 6, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" (52 min) (USA: Ryan Murphy, 2016; Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, )
A) Ask 3 discussion questions of your own regarding the episode. The questions can be about specific techniques used in specific scenes, the characters, what being an attorney/mother/ex-wife entails, the plotline, the way courtroom scenes are rendered, unexpected outcomes, courtroom entrance scenes, the way the episode ends.
B) Answer 3 discussion questions posed by other students. If you don't include the question with your answer, I'll dock points.
C) Respond to at least one other student's response with polite agreement or disagreement, giving evidence for your point of view.
D) Read 3 things: 1) "Melodrama" chapter in Introduction to Film Genres. 2) Interview with Sarah Paulson, http://www.vogue.com/13402242/sarah-paulson-marcia-clark-sexism/ (Links to an external site.). 3) Selma review, http://projectfandom.com/the-people-v-oj-simpson-episode-6-review/ (Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)Comment on something in any or all of these readings that would pertain to an interesting discussion of "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia." So you can make from one to three comments—the more you attempt, the higher your grade.
For part B:
peer's post:
Marcia seems like a strong-willed, determined, and competent lawyer in the series, but do you see any points where she doubts herself?
Who do you think angers Marcia the most: her ex-husband, the lawyers for O.J. Simpson, or the media?
Marcia says she’s prepared for anything going into the courtroom ready to question Fuhrman, was she?
D.
In the chapter about melodramas it’s mentioned that everything has significance, to the point where the movie is saturated in it. I thought about how nothing that happened in this episode had a form of connection, like how Marcia’s favorite song was “Who’s that Lady” by the Isley Brothers, and she dances with Chris to it, then later when she gets her haircut and everyone is judging her Chris tells her he loves it. The idea of saturation would be a great topic to discuss the episode “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” and the various ways Marcia’s life seemed to be saturated with emotions and problems all at once.
In the Vogue interview with Sarah Paulson, Paulson says she was excited to play Marcia because, “She’s a three-dimensional person, as opposed to these cardboard-cutout wife characters that we are supposed to consider ourselves lucky to be playing.” Although this episode wasn’t an outright biopic of Marcia Clark, it is interesting to hear Paulson make that comment about how women tend to be portrayed in entertainment. I think an interesting conversation based off this would be whether or not most women featured in biopics fit the cardboard-cutout, or if they’re the stories that stand out?
In Jada Selma’s article she mentions that when Cochran attacked Marcia’s mothering issues in court that it was the first time Cochran irritated her (Selma). I think it’s an interesting historical point to bring up, especially one that came up earlier in the series. Cochran was portrayed as a lawyer justly pursuing rights for people of color, but when the opportunity came up to belittle a woman (Marcia), he took it. Historically issues of sexism have always been prevalent when issues of race have been brought up, so it’s interesting to see this dynamic play out in Marcia’s storyline. A great conversation would be one on whether Cochran is a good guy or a bad, or the historical implications he’s portraying.