While Rossio may be wrong to focus on the singular nature of the relationship found in a film, the idea of trying to locate the relationships embedded in the story seems sensible. And it is this power that gives rise to the claim that movies, made for a mass audience, and attended for entertainment, can have a direct influence on the way we try to live. Law is also portrayed as a kind of world apart, with its own culture and actors, its own way of doing things. The relationship of law and society is not, of course, limited to lawyer films. It features prominently in other film genres as well, in particular, the Western, detective, and police dramas.
Conflict plays a central role in film drama.
The forces of antagonism can be external or internal to the central character. Bob Ewell, who has brought on the prosecution of an innocent, Tom Robinson, is neither powerful or complex. There was nowhere to go and nothing to buy. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.