Post by Rob W. Case on Apr 27, 2020 22:59:07 GMT -6
The Story:
Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) is a corporate defense attorney out of Cincinnati, Ohio. A part of his job is defending chemical companies. One day, however, an outraged and distressed farmer from West Virginia by the name of Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) visits Bilott’s office with a box of VHS tapes, and asks Rob to look at them. It’s not too long before Rob finds out that Wilbur is a friend and neighbor of his Grandmother (Sue Hopkins), and that his grandmother suggested that he express his concerns to her son. While continuing on with his job, his conscience sparks a curiosity about the man in his office. And so, he sets out to connect with her to perhaps understand who Wilbur Tennant is and why she suggested Rob’s services to him. When she doesn’t pick up the phone, he takes a trip out to West Virginia and visits her. After getting a bit of a background on Wilbur, Rob decides to visit Wilbur to hear out his grievances and perhaps maybe see if he could be of any help, in some way.
When Rob visits Wilbur’s cow farm, he learns that nearly a couple hundred of his cows have died. He tells Rob that he believes that there are chemicals in the water that his cows are drinking from, and that they’re seeping in from the DuPont chemical company in town. He then confronts Rob with body parts of cows that contain tumors, deformities, unusual enlargements, discolorations, etc. So, Rob then looks at the tapes Wilbur sent him and asks his supervisor Tom Terp (Tim Robbins) if he can take the case as a sort of “side project”. Tom has his reserves against Rob taking the case, but he hesitantly allows him to do it. Rob utilizes his skills to force DuPont to turn over scores of information, looking particularly for any information regarding a chemical component called PFOA or C8. Bombarded by boxes and boxes of documents, Rob begins the extremely tedious task of filing documents and organizing them in hopes to connect dots that are vital in explaining Wilbur’s case. And so, in his research, he finds that PFOA, a man-made chemical used in the creation of Teflon (i.e. the non-stick coating found in cookware) might have something to do with the adverse effects in Wilbur Tennent’s cows. Rob searches for leads, stumbles across some vital information, pursues information from DuPont’s primary attorney Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber), and talks with Dr. Gillespie (John Newberg), a chemistry expert who offers insights into the synthetic nature of the chemical. From there, things get really interesting.
Getting deeper and deeper in the case, Rob stumbles across proof that DuPont’s presence in small town West Virginia has caused innumerable after effects like birth defects, cancer in humans and animals, as well as other things…while letting business continue as usual, without saying a thing. All of Rob’s pursuits also begin to take heavy tolls on his personal life, as he takes numerous pay cuts at the office, his marriage to his wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) is strained by all of the time and effort he has been putting in this case, and his health is at risk because of all the stress associated with it. And all of these things amount to big consequences on the town as its largest employer, as its obligated to clean up its act and conduct health screenings at DuPont’s expense. And all of this is the movie in a nutshell. There is so much more in terms of legal battles, court proceedings, and strategy that makes this movie so fascinating on many levels. This film is based on a true story which predominantly covers the details regarding Wilbur Tennant's grievances in 1998 and the response, progress, and challenges that followed, moving through to 2015.
My Take:
As a person who is usually captivated by matters of politics, business, and law, this movie, I thought, was both fascinating and intriguing. I particularly enjoyed the “seed to growth” dynamic in that the seed of Rob’s looking into the matters for Wilbur Tennant began with a conviction of conscience to look into things, even to explain it to a helpless farmer, and then grew exponentially as his moral regard for people took over. Then in pursing to do the right thing, it takes tremendous sacrifices on the part of Rob, his wife, his family, his health, and in doing so, dealing with the consequences and even the fallout of the impact due to the results of that. What you have here is a really captivating drama that grips you and makes you care about the people involved. Another thing that I liked about this film that was unique, was that some of the real-life people who suffered birth defects or cancer of some type played their real life selves, adding a dimension of reality that sort of seeped into the fabric of this story. The movie was based on a New York Time article entitled “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich from January 10th, 2016.
Out of 4 stars, I enthusiastically give “Dark Waters” 4 stars.
The film is rated PG-13 and runs 2 hours and 6 minutes.
To view a trailer, please click on the “Play” button below.
Memorable Quote:
Rob Bilott: "The system is rigged. They want us to think that it'll protect us, but that's a lie. We protect us. We do. Nobody else. Not the companies, not the scientists, not the government. Us. A farmer with a 12th grade education told me that. On day one, he knew.”
“Dark Waters” is available to own on Blu-ray and DVD, and is also available on various streaming sites. It is also available to rent/buy in the DVD format at Redbox kiosk machines everywhere.
Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) is a corporate defense attorney out of Cincinnati, Ohio. A part of his job is defending chemical companies. One day, however, an outraged and distressed farmer from West Virginia by the name of Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) visits Bilott’s office with a box of VHS tapes, and asks Rob to look at them. It’s not too long before Rob finds out that Wilbur is a friend and neighbor of his Grandmother (Sue Hopkins), and that his grandmother suggested that he express his concerns to her son. While continuing on with his job, his conscience sparks a curiosity about the man in his office. And so, he sets out to connect with her to perhaps understand who Wilbur Tennant is and why she suggested Rob’s services to him. When she doesn’t pick up the phone, he takes a trip out to West Virginia and visits her. After getting a bit of a background on Wilbur, Rob decides to visit Wilbur to hear out his grievances and perhaps maybe see if he could be of any help, in some way.
When Rob visits Wilbur’s cow farm, he learns that nearly a couple hundred of his cows have died. He tells Rob that he believes that there are chemicals in the water that his cows are drinking from, and that they’re seeping in from the DuPont chemical company in town. He then confronts Rob with body parts of cows that contain tumors, deformities, unusual enlargements, discolorations, etc. So, Rob then looks at the tapes Wilbur sent him and asks his supervisor Tom Terp (Tim Robbins) if he can take the case as a sort of “side project”. Tom has his reserves against Rob taking the case, but he hesitantly allows him to do it. Rob utilizes his skills to force DuPont to turn over scores of information, looking particularly for any information regarding a chemical component called PFOA or C8. Bombarded by boxes and boxes of documents, Rob begins the extremely tedious task of filing documents and organizing them in hopes to connect dots that are vital in explaining Wilbur’s case. And so, in his research, he finds that PFOA, a man-made chemical used in the creation of Teflon (i.e. the non-stick coating found in cookware) might have something to do with the adverse effects in Wilbur Tennent’s cows. Rob searches for leads, stumbles across some vital information, pursues information from DuPont’s primary attorney Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber), and talks with Dr. Gillespie (John Newberg), a chemistry expert who offers insights into the synthetic nature of the chemical. From there, things get really interesting.
Getting deeper and deeper in the case, Rob stumbles across proof that DuPont’s presence in small town West Virginia has caused innumerable after effects like birth defects, cancer in humans and animals, as well as other things…while letting business continue as usual, without saying a thing. All of Rob’s pursuits also begin to take heavy tolls on his personal life, as he takes numerous pay cuts at the office, his marriage to his wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) is strained by all of the time and effort he has been putting in this case, and his health is at risk because of all the stress associated with it. And all of these things amount to big consequences on the town as its largest employer, as its obligated to clean up its act and conduct health screenings at DuPont’s expense. And all of this is the movie in a nutshell. There is so much more in terms of legal battles, court proceedings, and strategy that makes this movie so fascinating on many levels. This film is based on a true story which predominantly covers the details regarding Wilbur Tennant's grievances in 1998 and the response, progress, and challenges that followed, moving through to 2015.
My Take:
As a person who is usually captivated by matters of politics, business, and law, this movie, I thought, was both fascinating and intriguing. I particularly enjoyed the “seed to growth” dynamic in that the seed of Rob’s looking into the matters for Wilbur Tennant began with a conviction of conscience to look into things, even to explain it to a helpless farmer, and then grew exponentially as his moral regard for people took over. Then in pursing to do the right thing, it takes tremendous sacrifices on the part of Rob, his wife, his family, his health, and in doing so, dealing with the consequences and even the fallout of the impact due to the results of that. What you have here is a really captivating drama that grips you and makes you care about the people involved. Another thing that I liked about this film that was unique, was that some of the real-life people who suffered birth defects or cancer of some type played their real life selves, adding a dimension of reality that sort of seeped into the fabric of this story. The movie was based on a New York Time article entitled “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich from January 10th, 2016.
Out of 4 stars, I enthusiastically give “Dark Waters” 4 stars.
The film is rated PG-13 and runs 2 hours and 6 minutes.
To view a trailer, please click on the “Play” button below.
Memorable Quote:
Rob Bilott: "The system is rigged. They want us to think that it'll protect us, but that's a lie. We protect us. We do. Nobody else. Not the companies, not the scientists, not the government. Us. A farmer with a 12th grade education told me that. On day one, he knew.”
“Dark Waters” is available to own on Blu-ray and DVD, and is also available on various streaming sites. It is also available to rent/buy in the DVD format at Redbox kiosk machines everywhere.