Who needs Atticus Finch when you have Abercrombie and Fitch?
Warner Huntington III:You got into Harvard Law?
Elle Woods: What, like it's hard?
Life seems to be going swimmingly for sorority socialite Elle Woods. Homecoming queen, president of Delta Nu, and girlfriend to Warner Huntington III, Elle has no qualms with the way her life is heading, particularly as she suspects Warner is soon to pop the question. However, things take a turn when Warner dumps her on the night she thought he was going to propose. His reason? "If I'm going to be a politician, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn."So Elle is dumped for being "not serious enough." However, she realizes the perfect way to get Warner back — by becoming a serious law student. Elle manages to get into Harvard Law School, but this is only the beginning as she strives to prove her worth to Warner, her professors, her fellow students, and even herself, all while dressed in pink and with her Chihuahua Bruiser by her side.Based on the semi-autobiographical story of Amanda Brown, this 2001 film starred Reese Witherspoon in her major break-out role. There was a sequel and a spin-off made: Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde in 2003 and Legally Blondes in 2009.Meanwhile, the genuinely great adaptation Legally Blonde The Musical hit Broadway in 2007, starring Laura Bell Bundy as Elle.
The films have examples of:
Academic Alpha Bitch: When Elle gets to Harvard Law in she faces this horrible preppy girl, Vivian Kensington, who tries to make her look bad in front of the professor. Vivian is a threat to Elle because she's a smart, serious, law student.
Always Camp: Everywhere. If the guy isn't a law student, a lawyer, or a love interest, chances are he's FLAMING.
Artistic License - Law: Several, although Elle being able to act as lead counsel when she hasn't even passed the bar yet (in any jurisdiction) is one of the crowners.
Artistic License University Admissions: Elle Woods submits a video application, rather than the requested essay, allowing the Harvard Law admissions committee to see how pretty she is. It works.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Elle, at one point even doing this almost literally. Almost, because she hadn't graduated yet.
Butch Lesbian: Enid Wexler, at least in personality. In appearance, she's more of a "Soft Butch."
California Doubling: USC and UCLA stand in for Harvard. (Which is ironic, given that Elle graduated from "CULA" and the movie goes out of its way to show how different the school environments are.)
Camp Gay: Presented as an iron rule - gay men know brand named shoes, straight men don't.
Chekhov's Skill: Elle's supreme knowledge of fashion and hair mentioned throughout the film pays off twice at Brooke's trial. Elle winds up getting the pool boy outed as gay in front of the court because she noticed his unusual knowledge of shoes. When she herself is defending Brooke, she notices Chutney's perfect, fresh perm and realizes that her alibi of being the shower was false because the water from the shower would have ruined the chemicals in her hair.
Conviction by Contradiction: As noted in the entry above, Elle uses this to find the real murderer during Brooke's trial.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Vivian. Subverted with Callahan, because the viewers think he's defrosting but he's not, and with Stromwell (the female law professor) because she was nice all along; just really, really tough.
Dumb Blonde: Elle can come across this way and does have some common traits of one, but subverts the trope with her intelligence and depth of character; sometimes it's actually closer to Obfuscating Stupidity.
She also got exemplary scores on the LSATs, proving that she actually is pretty intelligent. It's played straight with some of Elle's sorority sisters, though.
Also, unless she does sports or has a building with her last name on it, she would have to be pretty smart to begin with to get into UCLA (well, it's UCLA in the musical, anyway).
Dumb Is Good: For a movie like this, surprisingly averted, and played with all over the place by various characters.
Everyone Loves Blondes: Elle Woods is homecoming queen, president of Delta Nu, and girlfriend to pre-law student Warner Huntington III. All of this changes, though, when she gets to Harvard.
Fish out of Water: The story is based on it. Especially apparent when she first arrived, dressed in hot pink surrounded by the muted earth tones of everybody else.
Genre Shift: 2/3's of the way in it switches from rom-com to court-room drama with comedic elements.
Go Getter Girl: Like most Harvard Law students, Vivian is this, which leads her to resent the ditzy yet capable Elle.
Gold Digger: This is Callahan's initial impression of Brooke, a good-looking younger blonde married to a seventy-year-old millionaire. However, she's got her own money, and she insists that he had... other assets of more interest.
Actually kind of a Deconstructed Trope, as Elle points out that Brooke actually did what she could to stay married to the old man, who has a history of getting divorced on a whim.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Elle. For all that she can be a bit tactless at times, is truly caring, feminine, noble, and sweet. Despite her shallow exterior, she has a good heart. She also comes across as the naive innocent compared to all the... um, lawyers.
Heel Face Revolving Door: Callahan. He goes from being a hard-ass lecturer to an understanding mentor to a pervert who hits on his student the second the movie needs a reason for Elle to defend Brooke.
Ivy League For Everyone: ´Subverted. She has a 4.0 from a UCLA equivalent, near perfect LSAT scores (as in, one point off from a perfect score), and is the president of a relatively large sorority, at which she is incredibly active and prolific. She would have no problem getting into Harvard Law. Law schools are numbers-consious to the extreme degree and give very little preference towards one major over another. Her fashion merchandising major, from a good school, no less, wouldn't hurt and having any sort of extracurricular would be icing on the cake that is a 179 LSAT score.
The Makeover: When Elle reinvents herself after the costume party.
Market-Based Title: In Japan the title was changed to "Cutie Blonde." It makes sense to do something like that seeing as the really lame pun in the title probably wouldn't have translated, but there is really no reason why they would change the sequel title from "Red White and Blonde" to "Happy Max."
Morning Routine: How the movie begins (cross-cut between shots of other girls preparing for her date).
MRS Degree: Elle is going to Harvard Law so she can get back her boyfriend who left her because she wasn't serious enough.
Ms. Fanservice: Not too much, but Elle certainly isn't afraid to strut around in bikini tops and Playboy Bunny attire.
Murder by Mistake: It turns out this is what really happened to Brooke's husband. Chutney, Brooke's stepdaughter, had a huge grudge against Brooke because her father married Brooke, who was Chutney's age. So Chutney hatched a murder plan that hinged on her being able to anticipate when Brooke would return to the house. As Chutney shouts in court, she didn't mean to shoot her father, she thought it was Brooke walking through that door!
No Bisexuals: The defense team "proves" that Enrique couldn't have been sleeping with Brooke because he has a boyfriend. No one in the film, let alone the prosecution, tries to suggest he could be bisexual and a flirt. There's also the other problem that him having a boyfriend doesn't actually preclude him from cheating on his boyfriend either. However, his response to said boyfriend's outburst in the courtroom would have proven the point far better (though the defense could not have possibly known said boyfriend would be in attendance).
Of course, Brooke is a bit of a snob when it comes to potential lovers. As Elle puts it, "No Delta Nu would ever sleep with a pool boy!"
Only Cool People Matter: Played with in many, many ways, all of which ultimately reinforce the trope.
Spoiled Sweet: Oh, Elle. Granted, she can be tactless at times, but other than that.
Straw Feminist: Enid such as in her speech to Warner at the Halloween party about changing the name "semester" to "ovester." The latter example was actually drawn from a real student Amanda Brown met during her brief tenure at Stanford Law School, who suggested the same thing in all seriousness.
Subverted Trope: Elle seems to be the walking antithesis of stereotypes about blondes.
Blondes are dumb - she possesses extreme wealth of knowledge about all things fashion, and besides that had a 4.0 GPA and near-perfect SAT scores, regardless of how she got them.
She has a 179 LSAT score. A 179. That. is. not. dumb.
Blondes are bitchy - she is never deliberately spiteful to anybody (just a little tactless), and is shown at various times to be good-natured and even caring.
Blondes are promiscuous - she's never shown or even hinted to have been with a lot of men, at the beginning of the movie she has a long-term boyfriend who she thinks is going to propose, and at several points in the movie she spurns the advances of others (the closest the movies to any hint of this stereotype was when Elle was studying and looked very forlorn when a bunch of shirtless frat guys walk by her window and throw a keggar she's going to miss out on.)
Unlimited Wardrobe: Not only are none of Elle's clothes re-used, but none of her hairstyles as well. It also applies in the musical to an extent which means a lot of rapid costume changes for the lead, which is helped by all the dresses being fastened by magnets, making them easily removable.
"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The film ends with a scene showing what happened to the main characters while they attend Elle's graduation.
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