My Cousin Vinny

The opening moments of My Cousin Vinny (1992) make clear that the film is taking place in the deep American South. Seeming to echo (unintentionally) the opening images of Huston's Wise Blood, this film shows us scene after scene of Southern imagery: a roadside hubcaps stand, a roadside fruit stand, a hand-lettered sign advertising "Dirt for Sale," another sign offering "Free Cow Manure," a columned mansion, a barking dog, a unpainted wooden store with a Confederate flag, and a rundown convenience store called "Sac-o-suds." The result is that the setting is established as a stereotypical South. What's more, two teenagers from the North are driving towards Florida and, shortly after entering Alabama, are arrested, by mistake, for robbing a roadside store and killing its owner. The local law enforcement officials are convinced they have the right suspects because, in part, they are Northerners, Yankees. The judge and the prosecutor assume the case is a no-brainer, that no one will question the evidence, and, believing the boys guilty, do not bother to look past the obvious facts of the case. Corruption and ineptitude are also stereotypical traits ascribed to Southern policemen and judicial systems.

Unlike other films which use similar scenarios, My Cousin Vinny makes the use of stereotypes a two-sided affair. When Vinny, the second cousin of one of the arrested boys, shows up to defend them, he is the incarnation of a Brooklyn character—heavy accent, swagger, garish leather boots, and a purse-laden and loudly dressed girlfriend who has probably never been outside the borders of New York City in her life. At first it appears that Vinny's appearance is not going to serve the interests of the two arrested boys. Eventually, he proves his mettle.

Undermining stereotypes, using them for the sake of humor, is the point of My Cousin Vinny, an amusing film. Vinny proves he can be a good lawyer. His girlfriend proves she is intelligent. The Southern prosecutor and judge prove they are human beings after all. Once all these characters break through the obscuring façade of their outer stereotypical surfaces, all is peace and light.