First Monday in October (DVD)

Walter Matthau and Jill Clayburgh star in this dramatic comedy that centers around the appointment of the first woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. She is aggressive, witty, magnetic and an arch-conservative. He is wry, opinionated and resoundingly liberal. One hundred and one men have preceded the new female justice to seat on the bench of the nation's highest court, but now it's eight men and her. All unanimously accept their new colleague -- except Matthau, "The Great Dissenter." He becomes the source of her fury, her challenges, her antagonism...and finally, her loving admiration. Matthau and Clayburgh are unforgettably and hilariously opposed in this contemporary tale that goes behind the bench with wit, wisdom and great conviction.

• classic
• drama