A Civil Action
Walt Disney Video - Walt Disney Video
Release date: 1999-07-13
DVD
Director:Steven Zaillian
Actors: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Tony Shalhoub, William H. Macy, Zeljko Ivanek
Adult Situations, Color, Confrontational, Courtroom Drama, Deliberate, Docudrama, Drama, Earnest, English, Feature, Feature Film-drama, Fighting the System, Matter-of-Fact, Movie, Mystery / Suspense, Profanity, Righting the Wronged, Star Lawyers, USA
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A Civil Action
Date undefinedAs a former resident of the Greater Boston area this was a film that evoked memories on a number of levels. The investigations of cancer clusters and their relationship to EPA Super Fund Sites is still something that should be coordinated. Moving film with solid performances.The follow up to the story is perhaps more hopeful. The sites have been cleaned and are being utilized! Despite the irepairable damage done to these families America can heal itself via the tenacious actions of its citizen/victims and the scar tissue shoud be a reminder as to the dangerous and destructive nature of unmonitored business interests.
A Civil Action
Date undefined(1) A Civil Action is a 1998 film, starring John Travolta (as plaintiff's attorney Jan Schlichtmann) and Robert Duvall, based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Harr. Both the book and the film are based on the real-life case of Anderson v. Cryovac that took place in Woburn, Massachusetts in the 1980s.
(2) John Travolta plays a tort lawyer part of tort law firm making millions from large corporations by filing personal injuries on behalf of their clients.
(3) He is intellectually attracted (seeing the the financial jackpot and oppurtunity to make millions for his firm and partners) to a case about a large corporation polluting the waters of a small town which incidentally shows a high rise of deaths due to cancer.
(4) Travolta law firm tries to proove that the deaths due the cancer of the many residents of that down were actually due to the consumption of the water from the river where the toxic waste from the company were dumped.
(5) In a surprising move , and totally against his nature he decides against taking a reasonably sizable sum of money as settlement (from the corporation) on behalf of the town dwellers to end the case there which would have left Travolta and his partners with sizable monies and would have also left his clients some money. But the clients are not after money, they are after truth and want justice to be served against the large corporation.
(6) The culprit in question are actually 2 companies of which Robert Duvall is the attorney for one of the companies.
(6) Having turned down the offer and having decided to go on the righteous route of litigations for justice and truth, he sinks his whole law firm into bankruptcy fighting the case; His partners leave him (one of whom is William H Macy)
(7) ' An underdog against the large corporation' film
I won't call it the best legal thriller of our times like the DVD jacket proclaims, but it is certainly an above par legal thriller churned out of Hollywood. Travolta surprisingly suits the role very well.
regards, Vikram
A Civil Action
Date undefinedA heart wrenching page turner! You will root for this guy all along. You will bite your nails, become invested and get your heart broken.
Don't bother renting the movie.
