Papke, David Ray. “Peace Between the Sexes: Law and Gender in Kramer vs. Kramer.”
University of San Francisco Law Review 30.4 (1996) 1199-1208. (available at http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/usf/papke30.htm)

    “Peace Between the Sexes: Law and Gender in Kramer vs. Kramer,” Papke focuses on the legal intricacies of divorce in America from colonization to the time of Kramer vs. Kramer. He identifies the criteria used to determine child custody by American courts and how this criteria has changed dramatically several times over the past few hundred years. Contemporary to the release of Kramer vs. Kramer, child custody laws were being radically overhauled. In 1979, New York changed it criteria for child custody, moving away from maternal preference to accounting for which situation would be in the “best interest” of the child. Papke identifies the dramatic inaccuracy of Kramer vs. Kramer’s depiction of standard legal proceedings in a child custody case. He demonstrates, however, how these inaccuracies are purposeful and meant to underline the important of gender and gender roles in the movie. An example of this lies in the depiction of a lackadaisical judge who allows Joanna’s attorney to slander him in court without factual basis. Although inaccurate, such actions are derived from common divorce attorney stereotypes and do serve the purpose of eliciting sympathy for Ted Kramer. These mistakes also demonstrate the public resentment towards many figures involved with child custody judicial processes. Papke also discusses the appearance of the “male gaze” in the movie as it relates to the movie’s plot and feminist theory.
    This article is very relevant due to the number of unique views on Kramer vs. Kramer. The article gives a history of the judicial processes handling divorce and child custody, but in addition discusses general public opinion regarding these events and how these attitudes surface in Kramer vs. Kramer. In addition, the article incorporates a prominent idea in feminist cinematic theory, that of the “male gaze,” and it discusses how this element presents bias as truth.

Eiseman, Selise E. and Ira Lurvey. “Divorce Goes to the Movies.” University of San Francisco
Law Review 30.4 (1996) 1209-1219. (available at http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/
usf/lurvey30.htm)

    In this article, Eisemen and Lurvey trace the history of divorce as depicted in cinema. They highlight individual roles, especially those that garnered critical acclaim, that dealt with the issues of divorce. Furthermore, they identify how the presentations of divorced changed in ways that paralleled industry, social, and political changes. During the silent era, films depicted divorce as a tragedy. When talkies emerged, divorce had become a more widely accepted fact of
American life. In fact, in 1930 Norma Shearer won an Academy Award for her depiction of a wife who becomes very flirtatious out of frustration with her husband’s own flirtations. The movie industry’s attempts to not endorse divorce while still providing commentary on it caused several shifts in cinema standards on the topic. The article’s scope is very significant, as the movies discusses transcend genre, including westerns, comedies, dramas, and black satire. The article then focuses on The War of the Roses, a 1989 comedy/thriller about divorce. Through its analysis of The War of the Roses, the article raises a number of essential considerations regarding the relation between movie and reality. Furthermore, the movie and article pay special attention to the issue of family law and the judicial divorce proceedings that punctuate divorce.
    This article is relevant to the research because it discusses a movie remarkably similar to Kramer vs. Kramer along with the industrial and social context it was made. Because The War of the Roses was release a decade after Kramer vs. Kramer, The War of the Roses is an heir to Kramer vs. Kramer in the divorce genre. However, the film is unique in its approach to the topic of divorce, and highlights the social changes that occurred during the time between the two movies. While the article only mentions Kramer vs. Kramer explicitly in passing, it does investigate the changes in the industry during the time period.