May 1 - A Civil Action

Today’s movie is a courtroom drama with a scene that happens on May 1. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

A CIVIL ACTION            

Jan Schlichtman is a high powered, high profile, personal injury attorney who’s so good that most of his cases settle before trial. One of his associates is asked to handle the case of children who died in Woburn, Massachusetts, allegedly from contaminated water. Jan thinks this case is a loser so he volunteers to go to Woburn and tell Anne Anderson why he won’t take the case. On the way out of town he gets a speeding ticket on the bridge over the river. He walks around and discovers that subsidiaries of Beatrice Foods and W.R. Grace, deep pocket companies operate in the area. He files a lawsuit against them and Cheeseman , the lawyer from Grace files a Rule 11 frivolous lawsuit motion against him, that is denied by the judge. Jan starts geologic investigations of the area and deposing the defendants. One defense witness, Al Love says he saw dumping of toxic waste, but refuses to name names. The plaintiffs are deposed by the defense attorneys. Jan gets a court order that allows him to examine the defendant’s land and drill test wells on it. The expenses of the case are soon putting a heavy strain on the firm’s finances and Jerome Facher, attorney for Beatrice offers to settle by paying Jan’s expenses to date, but Jan refuses. Then on May 1, 1985 Al Love visits with and talks to Anne Anderson, who lives across the street from him. [43:54 to 45:33] Al and another witness testify that there was large scale dumping of chemicals. A settlement conference is unsuccessful and the trial starts. There is months of presentation of boring scientific testimony showing how the chemicals could have gotten into the drinking water as Jan’s firm slowly goes bankrupt.  At the end of this testimony the judge asks the jury to find if the contamination was caused by the defendants. While the jury is deliberating Facher offers Jan $20 million to settle with Beatrice, which Jan refuses.  The jury finds no contamination was caused by Beatrice and they are dismissed from the case.  Although the case continues against W.R. Grace, they are finally forced to settle the case for $8 million, which barely pays their expenses and gives each family only $375,000. Jan’s firm dissolves. Later Al Love reveals that he was paid to haul off illegally dumped chemicals from the site. Jan ships all his documents to the EPA which indicts Beatrice on criminal charges and makes Grace and Beatrice pay for a cleanup. Jan ends up filing bankruptcy, but later starts  practicing environmental law.  

An interesting courtroom procedural on one of the pioneering private environmental law suits. Manages to keep the storyline moving so it doesn’t become a snoozer. Has some touches of self-deprecating humor that keep it fresh. Travolta’s slightly sarcastically toned narration makes this film.

A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr (Random House, New York, 1995) at page 168 gives this date for their meeting

Producers - Scott Rudin, Steven Zaillian, David Wisnievitz, Robert Redford, Rachel

                    Pfeffer, David McGiffert and Henry J. Golas

Director  - Steven Zaillian

Screenplay - Steven Zaillian

Awards - The film was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall) and

                 Best Cinematography Oscars at the 71^st Academy Awards.

                       

Released - December 25, 1998

Runtime - 1 hour 55 minutes

Starring -

John Travolta as Jan Schlichtmann

Tony Shalhoub as Kevin Conway

William H. Macy as James Gordon

Zeljko Ivanek as Bill Crowley

Kathleen Quinlan as Anne Anderson

Mary Mara as Kathy Boyer

Robert Duvall as Jerome Facher

Bruce Norris as William Cheeseman

Peter Jacobson as Neil Jacobs

Sydney Pollack as Al Eustis

John Lithgow as Judge Walter J. Skinner

Dan Hedaya as John Riley

James Gandolfini as Al Love

Stephen Fry as Dr. George Pinder