New Film, DARK WATERS, Mark Ruffalo: Chemical Waste, Corporate Corruption [View all]

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Last edited Mon Nov 25, 2019, 07:21 PM - Edit history (1)

Trailer. *Now in theaters. "Dark Waters," starring Mark Ruffalo as an attorney trying to punish the DuPont chemical corporation for dumping toxic waste in West Virginia, is a lone-crusader-against-the-corrupt-system film, in the tradition of "The Insider," "A Civil Action," and "The Verdict." Director Todd Haynes ('Carol,' 'Mildred Pierce') embraces that lineage, giving viewers the sense of what a long, tedious, spiritually draining process this can be. Ruffalo stars as Robert Billott, a Cincinnati, Ohio attorney for Taft Stettinius & Hollister, a firm that defends major corporations, including DuPont, one of the world's most powerful chemical manufacturers.

Through personal ties, and against the wishes of his own colleagues, Billott decides to help a lowly cattle farmer from Parkersburg, West Virginia named Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp). Wilbur's cows have been getting sick, going insane, and dying off at an alarming rate, and he's convinced it's because DuPont poisoned the nearby water supply. He's right, of course, but proving it won't be easy, nor will establishing a chain of intentionality that might make DuPont liable for cleanup and restitution. What follows is a detective story with a nice guy lawyer at its center...
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dark-waters-movie-review-2019

*'The Atlantic' Review, A Chilling True Story of Corporate Indifference
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/11/dark-waters-review-mark-ruffalo-robert-bilott/602434/

*NYT Magazine, The Lawyer Who Became Dupont's Worst Nightmare, Jan. 2016,
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html

*TIME, The True Story of the Lawyer Who Took Dupont to Court and Won,
https://time.com/5737451/dark-waters-true-story-rob-bilott/