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A Civil Action
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Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
December 18, 2001 "Please retry" | — | — |
—
| $39.99 | — |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
A Civil Action | — | — |
Purchase options and add-ons
Genre | Drama |
Format | Closed-captioned, Multiple Formats, Letterboxed, NTSC, Color, Widescreen |
Contributor | Dan Hedaya, David Thornton, Robert Duvall, Mary Mara, John Lithgow, Tony Shalhoub, Peter Jacobson, Conrad L. Hall, Bruce Norris, William H. Macy, Sydney Pollack, Kathleen Quinlan, Steven Zaillian, James Gandolfini, Stephen Fry, Zeljko Ivanek, John Travolta See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 1 hour and 55 minutes |
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Product Description
Product Description
Jan Schlichtmann is a cynical, high-priced personal injury attorney who only takes big-money cases he can safely settle out of court. Though his latest case at first appears straightforward, Schlichtmann soon becomes entangled in an epic legal battle ... one where he's willing to put his career, reputation, and all that he owns on the line for the rights of his clients! Also featuring Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, and John Lithgow -- this gripping, widely acclaimed hit delivers edge-of-your-seat entertainment!
Amazon.com
Jonathan Harr's nonfiction bestseller was a shot in the arm for those seeking more than last-minute heroics akin to a John Grisham thriller. Here was a labyrinthine case involving industrial pollution by two highly regarded corporations, contaminated drinking water, and the deaths of innocent children in New England, circa 1981. The case has hundreds of twists and takes our hero--a steady, respectable lawyer named Jan Schlichtmann--and turns his life into personal disaster. Instead of celebrating the law, the story is a maddening and rewarding look at the elusiveness of the courtroom case.
Steven Zaillian, who won an Oscar for adapting Schindler's List and directed Searching for Bobby Fischer, boils Harr's 502-page book into a complete, satisfactory film experience. Book readers will no doubt jeer the streamlining Zaillian had to perform to make the movie flow. Most changes can be quickly defused with the exception of the film's portrait of Schlichtmann. The lawyer has been turned into a movie star, an ultra-slick, cold-hearted gentleman who finds his purpose in working the case. Casting a stalwart John Travolta again diverges from the book, which right from the opening pages showed us a Schlichtmann with feet of clay. As Schlichtmann's partners (including William H. Macy and Tony Shalhoub) descend into the case, the unbridled sense of power and money is abandoned. This case is ultimately about survival.
Zaillian provides an excellent narrative for the sordid facts of personal injury suits, in which money is the only reward for lost or broken lives (deftly introduced in the film's opening scene). Zaillian also stays away from dwelling on the illness of the children involved, focusing on the gaunt faces of the parents who survive (Kathleen Quinlan, James Gandolfini) in controlled anguish. His evil characters--an industrial plant's owner (Dan Hedaya) and a corporate lawyer (another fine acting spin by director Sydney Pollack)--are so human it's terrifying. Zaillian's final ace in the hole is Oscar-nominee Robert Duvall. Perfectly cast as Travolta's opposition, Jerome Facher, Duvall steals scenes with the abbreviated dialogue; he turns a fancy settlement meeting into a farce with one line. Facher is not a callous, love-to-hate-him lawyer like James Mason in The Verdict. Facher represents the law at its brilliant foundation: to best represent one's client. With a taped-together briefcase and dry humor, Facher, not Schlichtmann, is the character who captures us by the film's end. --Doug Thomas
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 0.01 ounces
- Item model number : WD01679000DVD
- Director : Conrad L. Hall, Steven Zaillian
- Media Format : Closed-captioned, Multiple Formats, Letterboxed, NTSC, Color, Widescreen
- Run time : 1 hour and 55 minutes
- Release date : July 13, 1999
- Actors : John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Tony Shalhoub, William H. Macy, John Lithgow
- Subtitles: : English
- Language : English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Unqualified
- Studio : TOUCHSTONE PICTURES
- ASIN : 630542828X
- Writers : Steven Zaillian
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #28,062 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #4,601 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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Top reviews from the United States
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what some would call "an ambulance chasing" attorney. In the beginning of the film he is on top of the world due to all of
his wins in the court...he is named "Eligible Bachelor of the town"....basically he is at the top of his game. Then he is on a radio
show program and a woman calls in to the show saying that his firm has done nothing on her case which his firm has had for
some time. Once he goes back to his team and office he decides to address the plaintiffs and their case in person...meaning dump
it. He goes to the town of Wooburn and listens to the families who have gathered and who are all plaintiffs in the case. Apparently
a local tannery has been dumping poisonous substances illegally and the towns children and families are dying or affected.
He tells them all he cannot take the case. The woman who called the radio show encourages him to just go out to the site and
"take a look for himself". Grudgingly he does.....he then sees "deep pockets" affiliated with the tannery like Beatrice...que the "cha-thing" sounds in his head and off he goes to the races. He decides to take the case. Now, I will leave this here because you will be amazed by how fast the
starch is knocked out of him and I don't want to tell you too much. You will get a taste of just how cunning corporate lawyers are and you will see just how easily a "David and Goliath" case can be gutted....how crooked indeed. In the end no one wins. Children have died and people's lives have been affected. But in the end what is right triumphs... in a way....you witness the renewal of a mans perspective on life and those that use and abuse the environment and humanity are held to account. The film, to me, seemed to be a sleeper...but a really good one. You have a stellar cast. Travolta is on point and ever the enthusiastic actor. William Macy is phenomenal as the accountant for the firm. Robert Duvall hams it up but he is also very good LOL. You even get to see another side of the late, great James Gandonfini. John Lithgow is the perfect, arrogant judge and Tony Shalhoub is in the cast. Trust me, on a nice quiet, rainy day for movies...this is a great choice. Enjoy.
I can highly recommend this film.
The WR Grace corporation has been truly a monumental polluter in the US and were extensively sued due to all the dead and diseased victims of their chemical intensive operations.
Jan Schlichtmann (Travolta) is a Boston tort lawyer and something of an ambulance chaser who is initially reluctant to take on an industrial pollution case involving some children dead of leukemia in rural New England. He changes his mind when he realizes the likely defendants are a couple of big companies with particularly deep pockets and smells the possibility of serious money. Over time, however his interest in the case becomes a moral obsession. The cynical becomes a crusader, refusing offers to settle as his company's finances spiral downwards towards bankruptcy.
If you like courtroom dramas, this is highly recommended. It's one of the best specimens of the genre to come out of America since `The Verdict'. It's interesting to compare it to `Erin Brockovich' released a couple of years later. EB is about how a heroic small timer takes on the big boys of corporate America and how her pluck and determination triumphs over all obstacles, something of a legal feelgood movie in other words. Which this, to its great credit, is not. Its central character, for starters, is far more amibivalently likeable: initially just out for a fast buck, moral seriousness has to creep up on him and take him by surprise (perhaps reminding writer/director Zaillian of Oskar Schindler whose story he scripted for Spielberg a few years earlier) and the story's development paints a significantly more ambivalent picture of what pluck and determination can accomplish. It's a highpoint of Travolta's acting career even if he is comprehensively upstaged by Robert Duvall, on brilliant form as his quietly cynical adversary, bigshot lawyer Jerome Facher who knows far better than to look for the truth in a courtroom...
And I add, a VERY entertaining and interesting movie with some redeeming social value, a very provacative movie that should inspire many 'thoughtful' viewers to an enlightened perspective ... that may not have ever been considered before!
Top reviews from other countries
Ich bin froh darüber,
natürlich Wenn die neu wäre, wäre besser. Viel Spaß mit VHS Video Spiel Geräten! Morgen könnte schwerer sein- und
verbleibe;
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Eric Perrinjaquet.
En síntesis, es una película para quienes quieran formarse una idea cruda y veraz de lo que se trata realmente la litigación. Si bien el caso involucra a estudios jurídicos y el sistema legal de Estados Unidos, se puede extrapolar a todas las realidades del resto del mundo.