So you want to be a lawyer. Can you handle the drama or the lack thereof?

“I want the truth!”

Ever since Tom Cruise screamed these words as US Navy lawyer LTJG Danny Kaffee, accusing one of the US Marines’ high-ranking officers Colonel Nathan Jessep, a role played to perfection by actor Jack Nicholson, of ordering the infamous Code Red in the 1992 courtroom drama film A Few Good Men, the world’s fascination for trial lawyers especially the underdogs and their unbelievable courtroom prowess has been ignited.

A Few Good Men was written by Aaron Sorkin originally as a play which he later tailored for the silver screen. The film was a major box office success with earnings of close to $250 million with a powerhouse cast that included actors Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Demi Moore, Keifer Sutherland and Kevin Pollak. The film also got a major thumbs up from the critics as it garnered several nominations from both the Academy and the Golden Globe Awards among others.

As Kaffee convincingly punctuated his trial victory by excusing the proud Colonel Jessep who previously fell into the brilliant lawyer’s mousetrap with a satisfying glare, millions of filmgoers who watched Tom Cruise’s litigation stunts must have silently vowed to go to law school, take the bar exam, happily flaunt the title Attorney affixed to their names and prepare for the most captivating courtroom showdown of their lives.

Well, that’s fine and dandy but only if you are cut for the sometimes thrilling, sometimes ho-hum job of a lawyer.

In reality, being a lawyer takes a lot of hard work and dedication. First, you need to get admitted to a law school, fulfill all those excruciating academic requirements and then you have to pass the almighty bar exam to finally get a license to practice law, not to mention meeting requirements and other certifications necessary to become a full pledged lawyer.

Also, the chances of trying a big, sensational case like Kaffee’s may be very close to finding a pin in a haystack. More often than not, lawyers are confined in their cubicles doing endless research and filing gazillions of paperwork. They generally spend countless hours and sleepless nights not really to perfect trial courtroom strategies but to review fine prints and beat filing deadlines, a relatively small price to pay though for all the perks that they get for being hotshot legal representatives … perks that include money, fame, self-fulfillment, a secured future and maybe lifetime memberships and invitations to a host of diner clubs, hotels and resorts.

For those who are driven to pursue a career in law due to the magnetic appeal of magnificent courtroom face-offs, there is this wonderful world of phenomenal, noble, passionate and oftentimes conniving lawyers, right in the heart of fictional legal thrillers that one can always visit.

John Grisham’s novels turned films are a great place to start.

Grisham who is the brilliant author of numerous best-selling legal thrillers and a great trial lawyer himself is far from romanticizing the legal profession as he also presents the ugly and sometimes dark side of being part of the “legal industry”. Like Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, Grisham’s The Rainmaker and A Time to Kill do not belittle the ability of the underdogs to win legal battles against the Goliaths of big time law firms through mere passion and determination to uphold nothing but the truth. Of course, a dash of good luck and a little help from their “guardian angels” are definitely a plus.

Grisham’s novels turned films such as The Client, The Firm, The Runaway Jury, The Chamber, The Pelican Brief aside from The Rainmaker and A Time to Kill open doors to the complex and exciting world of lawyers and the legal profession in general. It could be your first non-traditional law school albeit mock and a very enlightening one.

After you’re done viewing the films or reading the novels, check if you still want to pursue a career in law.

You have to realize that one day, you may meet your own version of Sorkin’s infamous award-winning villain-character, Marines’ high ranking Mr. Big called Colonel Jessep, who will bark at you just to ask if you can handle the truth in his scary, booming voice and his inexplicably frightful contorted face.

Can you handle that?