Anatomy of a Murder

Locations
Call Number: DVD Drama Anatomy
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	DVD Drama Anatomy	1-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	DVD Drama Anatomy	1-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult A/V 1-week checkout	DVD Drama Anatomy	1-week checkout	On Shelf

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1959.
Special features: interview with Otto Priminger's biographer Foster Hirsch ; critic Gary Giddins explores Duke Ellington's score in a new interview ; a look at the relationship between graphic designer Saul Bass and Preminger ; newsreel footage from the set ; excerpts froma 1967 episode of Firing line, featuring Preminger ; excerpts from the work in progress Anatomy of "Anatomy". The making of a movie ; behind-the-scenes photographs by Life magazine's Gjon Mili ; Trailer, featuring on-set footage ; a booklet featuring an essay by critic Nick Pinkerton and more.
James Stewart, Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick, Eve Arden, George C. Scott, , Kathryn Grant, Murray Hamilton, Orson Bean, Arthur O'Connell.
A small-town Michigan lawyer takes on a difficult case: that of a young Army lieutenant accused of murdering the local tavern owner who he believes raped his wife. A gripping, envelope-pushing courtroom potboiler, Anatomy of a murder was groundbreaking for the frankness of its discussion of sex. More than anything else, it is a striking depiction of the power of words. With its outstanding supporting cast and influential jazz score by Duke Ellington, it's a Hollywood landmark.
DVD, widescreen 16:9 (1.85:1) aspect ratio, High-Definition digital restoration, PCM mono.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

2 DVD set with lots of extras submitted by edwardvielmetti on June 14, 2013, 5:58pm I've seen "Anatomy" a number of times, so I was attracted to this edition because of a whole DVD full of extras - including a "Making of" feature with lots of background scenes and stories.

Suspense and Jimmy Stewart, with sexual assault. submitted by lisa on July 25, 2019, 2:56pm Kind of early-ish in mainstream American film for rape to appear so frankly. Opening titles famous (Saul Bass). Music notable too.

Great murder/trial movie with top actors submitted by ccrose on August 27, 2019, 2:18pm Each time I think of this movie, I hear Duke Ellington’s jazz score with dissonant horns opening the movie.
Top acting: Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara it’s attraction for Michiganders in particular are the shots all around the UP.
Rape is at the center and attitudes about women who say they have been raped.
And murder.

Classic Slow Burn Legal Thriller submitted by Meginator on June 12, 2020, 1:19pm Content Warning: This film involves a rape case and includes scenes with victim blaming.

This classic film trades heavily in ambiguity, following a murder trial in which only a few key questions are up for debate, yet allowing those crucial points to remain unclear even at its close. Its ambiguity is its great strength, as Otto Preminger asks his audience whether our trial practices are, indeed, means to uncover and assess truth or whether they are instead yet another stage upon which we concoct and from which we distribute our own fictions. Despite its age, the film remains compelling today, slowly drawing viewers into the tangled web of half-truths, white lies, and competing distortions crafted by the primary players. Its central legal questions may or may not be relevant today, but the crime of passion at the story’s center could certainly play out in the modern era, and the married couple at its center may (or may not, depending on the viewer’s interpretation) be crafty anti-heroes straight out of a current serial television drama. Much of the film does revolve around the propriety of a married woman’s actions, making for difficult viewing in light of the current political climate, but the issue is sadly relevant in the modern era even if some of the specific social mores on trial are no longer as frowned upon (or as common) as they were when the film was made. This film is a bit of a slow burn, its cumulative effect more intellectual than emotional even though the trial’s outcome hangs in suspense to the very end, but it offers a compelling story and a compelling case for ambiguity and subjective interpretation as the central tenets of our individual and collective ideas of truth. I wish that wasn’t so relevant in 2020, yet here we are.

Does not age well submitted by AndAReaderToo on August 9, 2022, 10:01pm If you’d like to see a well-acted, black-and-white, loooong and slow movie about victim-blaming a sexual assault survivor in the course of defending a murder suspect, this is the film for you. The overt sexism, paternalism, and stereotypes may leave a bad taste. You were warned.