In the movie, A Civil Action, the plaintiff’s case commenced when a group of various parents and families suspected that the health related issues and deaths in their city of Woburn was the result of contaminated water. Although the attorney, Jan Schlichtmann, was reluctant to take the case at first because they didn’t have plausible cause “who is going to apologize to you when you don’t know who did it and pay me” [1], he perceived that 2 corporations sat on the border of the river. Mr. Schlichtmann and his firm thus took the case and filed a major lawsuit, which stated that that the two corporations, W.R Grace and Beatrice Foods, caused wrongful deaths due to the dumping of hazardous waste.”Lawsuits are a declaration of war. They begin the same way: with a complaint” [1]. The…
Ladies and Gentleman of the jury, W.R. Grace and Beatrice foods have polluted the aquifer located under East Woburn. There is no question of this, as testimony from workers such as Al Love show that they have spilled, poured and dumped TCE, or Trichloroethylene. Mr. Reilly testified that he should have known what was happening on the 15 acres of property he leased out to the Whitney barrel company. By dumping TCE and other chemicals onto the ground, these companies introduced these harmful substances into the environment, particularly the aquifer underneath. These chemicals are not industrial revolution chemicals; they are modern, harmful chemicals that have adverse health affects.…
Such history has seen a thousand times, stealing money to the Mafia, murders, thieves, mixed again and again in different ways, the only difference here is that they are two lesbians.The most striking aspect of the film is that it is a bloody film, which deals with the mafia and money, but ends up being a lesbian relationship that in the end they are the real winners because they make with what they want. The Celluloid Closet is a documentary that examines the history of the presence and treatment of gay characters in major Hollywood films. This film documentary interviews several men and women connected with the Hollywood industry to discuss various segments of different films, and their own experiences with the treatment of gay-themed personas…
A Civil Action is a gloomy film featuring a lawsuit versus two companies, W. R. Grace and Company and Beatrice Foods, for dumping various chemicals into Woburn's water system. A number of youthful lives were ended due to this incident, leaving their families to grieve. This case eventually begins to bankrupt the attorneys involved, including Jan Schlichtmann, who directly represents the plaintiffs. [1] Soon after declaring war against these companies, Schlichtmann discovers, through a witness, that barrels of chemicals have been dumped into the city's water by employees of the accused companies. [1] However, this proves to be exponentially expensive for Schlichtmann and his team to prove, causing them to fall into bankruptcy. This outcome is…
These people were going through many problems like they could not use tap water due to hazardous contamination present in the tap water, their pets are chemically burned, they were getting sick and some of them could not even step out of their houses due to polluted air. But their main problem was nobody who actually could help or could make difference would listen to them. In this kind of situation their voice being heard by the entire nation was half battle won and Fox does exactly that for them. However I was little disappointed when I did research to verify the validity of supporting evidence presented in the movie. Only somewhat credible evidence shown is the EPA representative, however, he doesn’t make a formal statement hence does not contribute in a meaningful way. Another piece of evidence he used was lab reports of the fluid in the jar that was handed to him by an unknown person who could have possessed if from anywhere. Since this source was not trustworthy, Fox should not have been used the result to support his theory that fracking is reason of contamination. Fox claimed that chemicals used in fracking polluted the river with dead fish; but according to Energytribune, even before Gasland was shot, EPA reported that it was due to toxic build up, the result of discharges from coalmines. It is true that there are some…
In the movie “A Civil Action”, the environmental problem was that trichloroethylene and silicone was placed into the water in the town of Woburn. It happened through a tanning company pouring chemicals on the hides of animals and it seeping out. The company also placed a lot of barrels with the dangerous chemicals into the ground and it seeped out into the wells of the town. The damage it caused to the environment and to the people was a huge amount. It poisoned the town and children were killed because of it. The chemicals caused the children to get Leukemia and they died. The people blamed the companies Beatrice Foods and W. R. Grace & Co for neglecting proper cleaning habits.…
The Verdict was the name of the movie I chose to view for this assignment. The leader in this movie was a lawyer named, Frank Galvin, played by Paul Newman. Frank Galvin is a washed up alcoholic lawyer who in the beginning of the movie is reduced to becoming a perpetual ambulance chaser. Initially his leadership skills are almost non-existent. He has no drive left. One of his associates, Mickey Morrissey, meets him at the office and notices once again that Frank is drunk and passed out on his office couch. Mickey tells Frank he is not going to send any more business his way because he doesn’t seem to put any sincere effort into his cases anymore. Mickey tells him to clean up for this one last case he is sending. It’s a chance to make big money on a medical malpractice suit where a young woman, Karen Ann Quinlan, enters the hospital in labor with her third child, and was given the wrong anesthetic which left her a vegetable for life. Karen’s sister is seeking retribution. The hospital where this occurred is owned by the Archdiocese. Everyone is willing to settle out of court. Frank Galvin takes the case based on profit but later discovers he is doing the right thing for the victim, her family, and his reputation. He wants to get even more money for the victim’s family. So when the lawyers for the Archdiocese offers Frank $210,000.00, he automatically refuses the money and decides to go to court for more. He does not consult his clients who later find out about the offer and are furious. They would have taken it. Now they are stuck going to court for a case in which they may lose completely. Frank reassures them he will win; but as the movie unfolds the rival law team for the defendant is working behind the scenes to sabotage his chances. They plant a woman into his path that becomes his girlfriend but is spying for the Archdiocese. His star witness, another doctor, suddenly takes off to the Caribbean the day before the court case starts. He is…
Facher: knock a guy down, knock him in a way that he can’t get up again…
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A Civil Action is a movie based on a real life case that took place several years ago. Several families of Woburn, a small town, were alleging that chemicals spilled by local plants had contaminated their drinking water. Reckless, careless dumping of chemicals at a tanning plant, they discovered, must have caused the chemical spill. This contamination, they believed, caused several children of the town to become sick with leukemia and eight of the children died; the leukemia was only found in the children because of their weak immune systems. Although the cause of leukemia was not known, the parents argued that there was a substantial amount of evidence supporting their assertion. The case was a very risky one to undertake; thus it was passed around by law firms and considered an "orphan" for lack of interest.…
More than a tragic story of sorrow, death and family turmoil, Harr's narrative tells the story of how a lawyer and grief stricken families pieced together the pieces of a very complex puzzle to determine the cause and effect that such water contamination had on their personal injury matters. By depicting the work that epidemiologists, geologists, medical experts, civil engineers and public health specialists did over the course of the case, Harr instrumentally lays out the multifaceted sides of Anderson v Cryovac.…
This essay will take an in-depth look at the history of Hollywood during the late 60s and early 70s. This period of time is considered to have been a renaissance for American cinema, and was titled the ‘New Hollywood’ by cotemporary critics of the time. In order to understand the changes that Hollywood went through the late ‘60s, you first have to examine the preceding era of Hollywood filmmaking during the 30s and 40s. This was a period that is commonly referred to as Hollywood’s Golden Age; when the dream factories were in full swing and the audiences were in regular attendance. This period of time could be defined by a number of social, political or economic contexts, but it’s the filmmaking practices that were employed at the time which…
“Journey to Justice” is a documentary about the issue of civil rights in Canada during the twentieth century. It focuses on the role of central people who took vital actions to end the issue of racial discrimination. The movie clearly portrays the experiences of black Canadians thorough interviews of key persons including Ray Lewis, Fred Christy, Stanley Grizzle, and Viola Desmond.…
“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all.”(Martin Luther King Jr.). Violence and racism are both important motifs in, Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989). They are prominent in almost every scene of the film and lead to the climax when Radio Raheem is killed by the police. Spike Lee used many different directorial techniques in his movie. Heat and music were an example of this and were prominent throughout the movie. They were clever ways that Lee got across his ideas, they brought the audience into the movie. They helped immerse you in the movie and made you feel as if you were feeling the heat. I had never seen a Lee movie before and was not let down by Do the Right Thing. It was a film that really grabbed your attention and kept your attention because of the strong characters and controversial main ideas. Mookie, The Mayor, and Sal are just a few characters that were important to the central theme of the story. They all represented a different voice of reason when it came to problems in the neighborhood, but one thing remained the same. Violence and racial intolerance are not the answer to problems in black America, the only way to survive as a community is to come together and get educated on the subject.…
In 1996, Paramount pictures made a movie called “A Civil Action” from one of the best-selling books by Jonathan Harr. The author depicts the real-life incidence where water played a factor of life and death in this small town of Woburn, Massachusetts. The premise of the movie starts with one child being diagnosed with a rare disease known as leukemia. Then more and more people to include the children were getting diagnosed with leukemia. One of the mothers decides this could not be a coincidence but an epidemic of some sort. The mother hires a lawyer and when investigating these cases, the finding showed that all the people had trichloroethylene (TCE) in their body. So what was the common link with all of the victims? The water! The town’s water supply was contaminated .There were three major companies to include a chemical company involved in the contamination of the water supply. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) witnessed and found these companies guilty from contaminating the town’s water supply by dumping waste in the rivers and wells. This is just one environmental problem that was observed then and is still happening now the need for environmental action on shortages and water pollution by contaminating and overconsumption. This paper will explain the relationship between the preservation of the environment and psychology, give an solution to control water, give at least one legal barrier, political, and economic barrier that exists for solving the environmental problem of water control and how these barriers can be overcome, and propose an outcome and justification of why the solution to the identified problem will be successful, based upon scholarly research.…