courtroom scenes had going for them was a good sense of reality... We shot them in an actual courtroom in Toronto's old city hall and used real court clerks. That helped a lot." ReleaseBy Reason of Insanity was first broadcast on 7 March 1982, at a time when revelations of the Clifford Olson serial murders were still fresh in the minds of the audience. Shebib remarked: "We couldn't have lucked out better... With the public interest in the Olson case, this will have enormous topicality." Distribution The film was sold to overseas markets in Curaçao, Trinidad, Jamaica, Singapore, Philippines, Israel and New Zealand. Broadcast rights and home media The film was also sold to cable channels in the United Kingdom and United States, and released in video formats in South Africa and Scandinavia. Reception Critical response Reviewing For the Record's 1982 season of dramas, Bill MacVicar judged By Reason of Insanity to be the best, "well-crafted" and displaying "praiseworthy equilibrium" and found it "refreshing" that the film withholds editorial judgement:By Reason of Insanity questions the market in "expert" witnesses and the adversarial system itself, but it leaves us with a disturbing paradox. ... Who is best served, the drama asks. The answer seems to be neither the accused nor society, but the victorious lawyer. Wessley Hicks calls the film "a terse, spare, provoking drama", that, while making no judgments, does create uneasiness. Mike Boone was impressed by John Wildman, who he found projects everyone's "nightmare image of adolescent menace alternately unfeeling and touchingly vulnerable, impulsive and full of pent-up hostility." He also found the film as a whole was a "refreshing change" from American TV trial scenes from Perry Mason on down: "No cries of "Objection!" every two minutes, no histrionics or long-winded oratory by flamboyant attorneys." Moreover, the film offers "fascinating insights into the workings of the Canadian legal system" and psychiatric testimony. Accolade David McLaren was nominated for an ACTRA Award for his screenplay. References External linksBy Reason of Insanity'' on IMDb 1982 crime drama films 1982 films Films directed by Donald Shebib Canadian crime drama films Films about law in Canada 1980s Canadian films