Film Analysis: A Civil Action

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

In the movie, A Civil Action the plaintiff Jan Schlichtmann starts a case against the Riley Tannery to help justify health problems experienced by a number of families in Woburn, MA. The Riley Tannery was accused of dumping waste in the woods including the chemical trichloroethylene(TCE). The TCE contaminated the water supply which led to more than a dozen cases of Leukemia. Schlichtmann digs himself and his team into loads of debt by spending money on the case.

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.

The most provident issues of the MPAA comes from its business propaganda which severs ties from public interest. The MPAA force inspires creative individuals into predefined digital confinements in order to line greedy pockets with the donations of those whose political agendas they fulfill. All of which is supposedly in the name of protecting the minds of children. The rating system simply isn’t about content, rather it’s about economic and social power. If the MPAA was truly interested in protecting the innocents of America, they wouldn’t allow children to see R-rated movies even with the accompaniment of an adult.

Both films had problems with censorship, which caused both films to have multipliable re-edits in order for audiences to watch the film. Historically accurate gangster pictures were viewed as being extremely dangerous because these films could antagonize the audience into valuing these gangsters as modern day heroes, and when Hollywood learned of the making of Scarface they became concerned. Overall, both films portrayed a story that was essentially based on true events and possibly dangerous to the community. Especially, if these true events dealt with the criminal world. “This picture is an indictment of gang rule in America and of the callous indifference of the government to this constantly increasing menace to our safety and our liberty”

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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

The defendants associated with this case, included Beatrice Foods, Cryovac and UniFirst. The prosecution team sued the defendants for the causing contaminated water and a cancer cluster in their town. The main source of contamination was the tannery owned

I watched Sound and Fury, a documentary that came out in 2000, centered on the complications of getting the Cochlear Implant, and how Deaf and hearing communities can differ upon the topic. Particularly within one family, brothers along with their wives and parents have a tough time deciding if their Deaf children should undergo such a procedure. They all travel to visit families that are hearing with children who aren’t learning ASL because they have the implant. They visit a Deaf family whose 10-year daughter is the only person in the family to get the implant. They also visit schools focusing on speech to help Deaf children who wear hearing aids and/or got the Cochlear Implant, and visit a Deaf community with a school focused on ASL.

Steven Spielberg’s exhilarating film, The Post, is centered around The Washington Post, a family owned newspaper company, which is racing against the New York Times to exploit the wrongdoings of the U.S. government. It tells the story of the Pentagon Papers and how the Government hid these classified documents from the public along with the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War for three decades and four presidencies. This film stars Meryl Streep who takes on the role of Katherine Graham, Chief Publisher of the Washington Post after her husband passed away. Co-star Tom Hanks takes on the role of Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the paper. This film was directed by Steven Spielberg, an extremely talented director/producer for many well