TY  - ADVS
AU  - Cruise, Tom
AU  - Hackman,Gene
AU  - Tripplehorn,Jeanne
AU  - Davis,John
AU  - Rudin,Scott
AU  - Pollack,Sydney
ED  - Paramount Pictures Corporation (1914-1927)
ED  - Mirage Productions.
TI  - The Firm
T2  - Widescreen DVD collection
SN  - 0792164962
AV  - PN1997 .F47 2000
U1  - 791.4372 22
PY  - 2007///
CY  - Hollywood
PB  - Paramount
KW  - Law firms, Corrupt practices, Drama, Murder, Court room drama, Legal feature film
N1  - Based on the book by John Grisham; Originally released as motion picture in 1993; Rated R; The Firm is a 1993 American legal thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack. Mitch McDeere, about to graduate near the top of his class from Harvard Law School, accepts a generous job offer from Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a boutique law firm in Memphis, Tennessee. Mitch and his wife Abby move to Memphis, and he studies to pass the Tennessee bar exam. Senior partner Avery Tolar mentors Mitch and introduces him to the firm's professional culture, which demands strict loyalty, confidentiality, and a willingness to charge exceptional fees. Mitch is seduced by the money and perks – including a house, a brand new Mercedes-Benz, and his student loans paid off – but Abby is suspicious of the firm's interference with employees’ families.
Mitch passes the bar exam and begins working long hours, straining his marriage. Working closely with Avery, Mitch learns that most of the firm's work involves helping wealthy clients hide money in off-shore shell corporations and other dubious tax-avoidance schemes. During a working trip to the Cayman Islands, Mitch hears a client state that the firm's Chicago clients break people's legs, and finds suspicious documents in a locked closet at Avery's vacation house relating to four of the firm's associates who died under suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile, a local prostitute seduces Mitch, as prearranged by the firm's security chief, Bill DeVasher, who then uses photos of the tryst to blackmail Mitch into silence about the firm's activities, threatening to send the photos to Mitch's wife Abby. This prompts Mitch to hire a private investigator, Eddie Lomax, to investigate the associates' mysterious death, but soon after starting to work on the case, Lomax is fatally shot in his office by two hit-men, a murder that his secretary Tammy witnesses while hiding under the desk.
Mitch is approached by FBI agents who reveal that BL&L's biggest client is the Morolto crime family of the Chicago Outfit. Most of the firm is complicit in a massive tax fraud and money laundering scheme. The dead associates had learned the truth and were killed on the firm's orders, as was Lomax. The FBI warns Mitch that his house, car, and office are bugged and pressures him to provide evidence against the firm and the Moroltos. Mitch agrees to cooperate in return for $1.5 million and the release of his brother Ray, who is serving time in an Arkansas prison. The FBI orders Ray's release, planning to return him to prison once Mitch hands over the incriminating files, and gives him half the money. Mitch confesses his one-night stand in the Caymans to Abby, who prepares to leave him.
When a client complains about billing for several hours of extra fees, Mitch realizes that mailing clients these padded bills is mail fraud, exposing the firm to RICO charges. He secretly copies the firm's billing records with help from Tammy, but needs files from Avery's house in the Caymans. Avery invites Abby to come with him to the Caymans and she declines, but he reveals his Caymans schedule has changed, threatening Mitch's plans. Telling Tammy not to inform Mitch, Abby flies to the Caymans to seduce and drug Avery. The firm's phone tap picks up Abby's warning to Tammy, and DeVasher sends his hitmen to the Caymans. After Abby and Tammy steal, copy, and return the files, a drowsy Avery tells Abby that the firm had arranged for the Caymans prostitute on the beach to seduce Mitch. Avery warns Abby to leave and is later murdered by DeVasher's hitmen, who make it look like he drowned in the bathtub; Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Wilford Brimley, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn
N2  - A brilliant and ambitious Harvard Law grad joins a small, prosperous law firm in Memphis, and is soon confronted by FBI agents with evidence of corruption and murder within the firm
UR  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8sTfU-JkJ4
ER  -