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Film Analysis: A Civil Action

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The movie A Civil Action (Steven Zaillian, 1998) is about 12 children who die from leukemia over a 15 year span. The parents of the deceased victims seem to believe that the local tanneries caused their children to get sick from the well water provided in their community being poisoned by the toxic chemicals poured into the ground from these companies. Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta) is a personal injury lawyer from Boston who has an ignorant attitude and only cares about the profit he’ll win back from the cases he takes on. One evening when receiving incoming calls on his radio show a woman named Anne calls in asking Jan when he is going to establish who was responsible for the deaths of the children. He declines after meeting with them since …show more content…

They are aware that what they are doing is wrong but they don’t really seem to care because the risk is worth the reward and they could care less about these small towns and what happens to the people in them. For example GRACE admits to Jan when he goes directly to the NYC Corporation that his disposal of chemicals is incorrect but he is not going to take a hit on his company to admit it because the media will destroy …show more content…

Money was a huge motif of the whole movie. Every decision made came down to how the profit would be affected. For example why the companies wouldn’t own up to the incorrect disposal of poison was because of money or why Jan wouldn’t originally take the case was because he felt as though it wasn’t a profitable one. This is very problematic for any person, we live in a world that revolves around money and a lot of us don’t care about the people below us because we become greedy and selfish. I also said passion because I feel like Jan’s attitude really went from one end of the spectrum to the other. He starts to have a lot more motivation to help the families then to gain a profit for himself like he used to. He really made a different name for himself going from an arrogant, wealthy lawyer to not having really anything but was all about doing the right thing and supporting the

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396 Words | 2 Pages

In the movie, A Civil Action, the plaintiff’s case began when a group of various parents and families believed 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, he realized that 2 corporations sat at the border of the river. Mr. Schlichtmann and his firm thus took the case and file a major lawsuit which stated that the the two corporations, Grace and Beatrice, caused wrongful deaths due to the dumping of hazardous waste. The plaintiff side of this case then begins to collect scientific evidence and witness statements in order to prove that both Grace and Beatrice were

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243 Words | 1 Pages

Plaintiff is a person who brings a case against another in a court of law. In the movie a Civil Action, where 28 children diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia after toxic chemicals were spilled into a nearby municipal wells. Once the families learned about the toxic chemicals they filed a suit against two local companies W.R. Grace & Co. and the Cryovac Plant. In the film, A Civil Action, Ann Anderson, the Canes family, Tombies, Sonas, Robins, and A Fieros are the plaintiffs (1). Jan Schlichtmann took on the eight million dollar case against these two companies, in order, to find some relief for the families.

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1668 Words | 7 Pages

A Raisin in the Sun PBA Unit 2 Cinematography and filmmaking are art forms completely open to interpretation in many ways such lighting, the camera as angles, tone, expressions, etc. By using cinematic techniques a filmmaker can make a film communicate to the viewer on different levels including emotional and social. Play writes include some stage direction and instruction regarding the visual aspect of the story. In this sense, the filmmaker has the strong basis for adapting a play to the big screen. “A Raisin in the Sun” is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959.

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1335 Words | 6 Pages

The film 13th directed by Ava DuVernay targets an intended audience of the Media and the three branches of the United States government with an emphasis that mass incarceration is an extension of slavery. It is intended to inform viewers about the criminalization of African Americans and the United States prison boom. 13th uses rhetorical devices in its claim to persuade the viewers by using exemplum in the opening seconds of the film. President Barack Obama presents statistics, saying “the United States is home to 5% of the world’s population but is home to 25% of the world’s prisoners.” Also the film uses a hyperbole in talking about the movie Birth of a Nation produced in 1915 which portrays a black man as a violent savage who will kill white women.

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395 Words | 2 Pages

The progression of Martin that you suggest is most definitely prominent in the film, and I completely agree with your connections between Martin’s progression due to both the situation and those he is surrounded by. But alongside Martin’s search for himself in the film I see that Ethan also had to find himself throughout the course of their adventure. While obviously Ethan has much more previous time in his life to make decisions and change due to experience than Martin does, this big event can be displayed as changing both men. Initially in the film, Ethan is displayed with the aura of experience and strong bravery, while also being defined as a wanderer and not a family man. Throughout the film, he turns more aggressive as he attains further

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804 Words | 4 Pages

The Abolitionists Growing up as a Christian I never could understand how people claimed to be saved or god’s servant but yet can discriminate against skin color. I was taught God is of love regardless of skin color, size or how the person looks. Such as Caucasians with African Americans and even so how could they attend church but yet have slave servants in their home? As shown in the documentary most of the film was a conflict about slavery and the few whites that was against it. Such as “Angelina Grimké” a Caucasians female Christian who despised slavery and watch her parents live with it with no moral or self-respected.

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560 Words | 3 Pages

Fed Up is a documentary made in 2014 that is based on the issues caused by the American food industry. Fed Up, uncovers America’s true secrets about the food people consume every day. More specifically, it reveals the affect sugar has on people’s bodies. As a result, the amount of sugar in food, the bodies consent of glucose, and the satisfying taste it brings, too much sugar could cause certain sicknesses causing the body to not work the way it supposed to. To start off, the amount of sugar put in America’s food is predominately high.

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719 Words | 3 Pages

This movie portrays attorneys and litigation process in a negative light. Although Jan Schlichtmann initially rejects the case, he reconsiders his decision after realizing that he is dealing with defendants with “fat wallets”. Anne Anderson and her neighbors only wanted an apology from the corporations and were not interested to obtain financial gains. Having said this, many attorneys rejected the case as they were not seeing any financial settlement. In the movie, Jan states, “a lawyer who shares his client’s pain does his client such a grave disservice, he should have his license to practice law taken away.”

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446 Words | 2 Pages

“Censuring the Movie Censors” is a article written by Richard Corliss discussing an argument over the way movies are rated here in the U.S compared to the way other countries rate their movies. Corliss goes into deep detail throughout his article by discussing the issue with the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America] and who the MPAA actually are, and how it’s affecting film ratings. In his introduction Corliss introduced Maria Bello and actress that played a role in the movie “The Cooler” where this film was rated NC-17 due to the fact that the movie shows a glimpse of the actors’ genitals. Which angered Bello because “Scary Movie” received a softer ruling by being rated R. Who by the way shows grotesque brutality in their film. Bello

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995 Words | 4 Pages

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1170 Words | 5 Pages

The documentary titled, “ A Class Divided” introduces us to the experiment made in an elementary school in Iowa by the schoolteacher named Jane Elliot. The documentary begins with Mrs. Elliot reuniting with the students who she did this experiment with the first time. The students are much older now, and they willingly want to watch the experiment that they were part of when they were elementary kids. The experiment was done days after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Mrs. Elliot has always thought about doing the eye color experiment, but she was never sure of when to do it. She asked her third grade student if it would be interesting to see what would happen if they were judged by their eye color.

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1438 Words | 6 Pages

In 2015, HBO aired a six-part, true crime documentary series titled, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. Writer and director, Andrew Jarecki, examined the details of three crimes associated with Durst, including the disappearance of Durst’s first wife Kathy, the murder of his dear friend, Susan, and the murder and dismemberment of his neighbor, Morris Black. While the mini-series was met with acclaim, many – including myself – criticize The Jinx for its storytelling approach. The series seemingly blurs the lines of storytelling – for entertainment purposes – and journalism; raising many questions regarding ethics. Initially, Durst approached Jarecki regarding an interview after he saw All Good Things, a film Jarecki had released

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1050 Words | 5 Pages

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119 Words | 1 Pages

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920 Words | 4 Pages

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