(The Devil’s Advocate)

Please allow him to introduce himself. He’s a man of wealth and taste. He’s been around for a long, long year. His legal skills will tempt your faith. The lawyer-as-devil trope has been done before—most notably in the famous short story The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936) and on Saturday Night Live with Jon Lovitz as Satan.

But it’s never been done with as much gusto and over-the-top mania as it was in the 1997 Al Pacino tour de force The Devil’s Advocate. As John Milton, Pacino plays a senior partner at what looks like a typical white-shoe firm in New York City. Except he can manipulate anyone with nothing more than his words and suggestions—and he has an entire firm full of demons that can carry out his nefarious plans. In other words, he’s a very effective lawyer.