You know that feeling when a made-for-TV movie sticks in your brain for decades, not because of high-budget explosions, but because the performances felt uncomfortably real? That’s exactly what happened with the 1997 legal drama Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan. It aired during the golden era of the "Monday Night Movie," a time when networks like CBS were obsessed with ripped-from-the-headlines stories that made you question everything about the American legal system.
The cast of Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan 1997 wasn't just a random assortment of actors looking for a paycheck. They were a powerhouse group. Brian Dennehy led the charge, and if you've seen him in anything from First Blood to Death of a Salesman, you know the man possessed a gravitational pull. He didn't just play Edward Brannigan; he inhabited the skin of a man whose internal contradictions drove the entire narrative.
The Heavy Hitter: Brian Dennehy as Edward Brannigan
Brian Dennehy was the anchor. Period.
In this film, he plays a high-profile, incredibly successful defense attorney. He’s the guy you hire when you’re guilty but want to walk free. He is charming. He is ruthless. He’s also a father. The central conflict of the movie kicks off when Brannigan is accused of rape, and the story pivots from a legal procedural into a claustrophobic character study.
What makes Dennehy’s performance so haunting is his ability to play "the gray area." He doesn't make Brannigan an obvious monster from the first frame. Instead, he shows us a man who has spent his entire career manipulating the "truth" for his clients, only to find that the truth is a very slippery thing when it’s applied to his own life. Honestly, watching him go from a position of absolute power to a man under the microscope is a masterclass in subtle physical acting. His shoulders get heavier. His gaze gets shifty. It’s brilliant.
Reed Diamond and the Moral Compass
Then you have Reed Diamond playing Eddie Brannigan Jr.
If you recognize Diamond, it’s probably from his later work in Homicide: Life on the Street or even the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Werner Reinhardt. But in 1997, he was the perfect choice to play the son who is also a lawyer. He’s essentially the audience’s surrogate. Through his eyes, we see the pedestal his father sits on start to crumble.
The dynamic between the two is the real heart of the film. It’s not just a "did he do it?" mystery. It’s a "how do I love a man who might be a predator?" story. Diamond plays Eddie Jr. with this specific kind of earnestness that feels very 90s. He’s trying to defend his father while simultaneously being repulsed by the evidence. It’s a messy, emotional tightrope walk.
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Alice Krige: The Quiet Power
Alice Krige plays Rebecca Highsmith.
Now, if you’re a sci-fi fan, you know her as the Borg Queen from Star Trek: First Contact. She has this ethereal, almost otherworldly quality to her acting. In Indefensible, she brings a much-needed groundedness to the cast. She isn't just a supporting character; she represents the shifting tide of the narrative.
The 1997 television landscape was often criticized for how it handled female characters in legal dramas, often relegating them to "the victim" or "the nagging wife." Krige avoids those tropes. Her performance is measured. She provides the counterbalance to the Brannigan men's bravado.
Why the Supporting Cast Mattered
The film also featured solid turns from actors like Lynn Whitfield and Joanna Cassidy.
Cassidy, who many remember from Blade Runner or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, brings a sharp, cynical edge to the proceedings. She plays the kind of character who has seen the underbelly of the law and isn't surprised by any of it. It’s the contrast between her world-weariness and Reed Diamond’s idealism that gives the script its bite.
Basically, the casting director, Susan Glicksman, knew what she was doing. She didn't just hire "TV actors." She hired theater-trained heavyweights who could handle long, dialogue-heavy scenes without making them feel like a soap opera.
The Reality of the 1997 Legal Drama
Let’s be real for a second.
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The late 90s were obsessed with the fallibility of the legal system. This was post-O.J. Simpson trial. The public was fascinated by the idea that a "great" lawyer could be a "bad" person. Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan leaned hard into that cultural anxiety.
The movie wasn't based on one specific true story, but it felt like it was. It felt like a composite of every scandalous headline of the decade. This sense of realism was bolstered by the direction of Peter Levin, who specialized in these types of high-stakes television movies. He focused on tight close-ups and long takes, forcing the actors—and the audience—to sit in the discomfort of the accusations.
A Cast That Transcended the Medium
Often, TV movies from this era feel dated. The hair is too big, the music is too melodramatic, and the acting is "for the back row."
Indefensible is different.
Because of the cast of Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan 1997, the film holds up surprisingly well. Brian Dennehy’s performance in particular feels like it belongs in a prestige HBO miniseries from 2026 rather than a network movie from nearly thirty years ago. He doesn't go for the easy "villain" tropes. He makes you feel for Brannigan, which makes the ultimate revelations of the film even more devastating.
It’s about the masks we wear.
The movie asks: if you spend your whole life defending the indefensible, do you eventually become indefensible yourself?
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Finding the Movie Today
Finding a high-quality version of this film today is actually kind of a pain. It hasn't received a 4K restoration or a massive streaming push. You can usually find it on secondary streaming services like Tubi or YouTube, or if you're lucky, a dusty DVD in a bargain bin.
But it’s worth seeking out.
If you’re a fan of courtroom dramas like Primal Fear or The Lincoln Lawyer, you’ll appreciate the DNA of this film. It’s a relic of a time when television was just starting to get "gritty" and "prestige" before those terms became marketing buzzwords.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Researchers
If you are looking into the history of this film or trying to track down the careers of the cast, here is what you should do:
- Check out Brian Dennehy’s 1990s filmography: To truly understand his performance here, watch him in To Catch a Killer (1992) where he played John Wayne Gacy. He had a specific knack for playing powerful men with dark secrets during this decade.
- Look for Reed Diamond in "Homicide: Life on the Street": If you liked his performance as the conflicted son, his work in this series is where he really refined that "moral man in a corrupt world" persona.
- Evaluate the "Movie of the Week" Genre: If you are a film student or a history buff, compare Indefensible to other 1997 TV movies like The Member of the Wedding or Night Sins. You'll see how Indefensible took a much more cynical, modern approach to its subject matter.
- Search for the Director’s Cut or Original Airing Details: Sometimes these TV movies had slightly different edits for international markets. Looking through newspaper archives from October 1997 (when it premiered) can give you a sense of how the critics of the time reacted to the twist ending.
The legacy of Indefensible isn't in its ratings—which were decent for the time—but in how it treated its audience like adults. It didn't offer easy answers. It gave us a cast of complicated, flawed people and asked us to judge them. And thanks to actors like Dennehy and Diamond, that judgment is still hard to make even decades later.
Next Steps for Deep Diving:
- Search Archive.org: Occasionally, original TV broadcasts with the 1997 commercials are uploaded there, which provides a fascinating look at how the movie was marketed to the "Family Values" era of television.
- Compare to "Presumed Innocent": If you enjoy the "lawyer on trial" trope, watch the 1990 film Presumed Innocent starring Harrison Ford. It makes for a perfect double feature with Indefensible to see how the genre evolved from the big screen to the small screen.
- IMDb Pro Check: If you are looking for specific crew members or bit players, use IMDb Pro to find the full production credits, as many secondary cast members went on to become staples in the procedural era of the early 2000s (CSI, Law & Order).