Dark Waters

dark waters

source: Dark Waters

The powerful company DuPont that runs consuming water business with a plant in Cincinatti, Ohio, has been polluting water for many years with a chemical called PFOA that proves to be greatly dangerous to human health and has inclusively caused some deaths. The defense attorney Robert Bilott starts a fight against that company which includes judicial proceedings, The movie shows it with every detail in an excellent realistic way with all characters performed by excellent actors which galvanizes us as viewers till its end. One of the best 2019 movies.

Can't stop thinking about this film. The fact that it is based on a true story in recent times is rather terrifying yet interesting at the same time, and makes you look at some of our Western products in a different way. For me it was a real eye opener. How ignorant the public is kept by some corporates baffles me... Truly recommend this film if you want your eyes to be opened!

In terms of storytelling, Dark Waters' most close associate that I've seen is The Big Short. Tonally, these two are polar opposites, but they both illustrate their convoluted and complicated stories of corporate corruption well. Well enough for any non-chemist, non-lawyer, non-doctor to understand the injustice that corporate overlords have exacted upon the public. The film is constantly tearing down the spirit of Mark Ruffalo, followed by brief, hopeful moments that Dupont will be held accountable for poisoning tens of thousands of people. These hopeful and demoralizing notes begin small. The idea that the EPA will help Wilbur Tenant, the farmer who had his cattle herd die from poisoned drinking water, is followed by Ruffalo realizing that report was written in part by Dupont scientists who will, of course, be corrupt. And that demoralizing note is followed by bestowing the hope that Wilbur Tenant will finally get his long sought chance for a $ settlement, and that's followed by the soul crushing scene of his entire family drinking water out of the tap, still poisoning themselves with no other means to change their fate. That was the scene that made me cry with rage. That nothing could be done to escape their death. What could they do without water? They're thirsty, and stressed, and their kids just want to come home from school and live normal lives. All I could do was cry tears of rage. Wilbur was not being served justice. The notes continue swooping from high to low. Ruffalo is served mountains of paperwork during the lawsuit against Dupont. Like, a laughable amount that no one could ever finish reviewing. But he sets to work anyway and finds the smoking gun: Dupont has known about the poison for decades. The film makes the audience believe we have Dupont dead to rights, but they wiggle out of it with legal maneuvering. When it has been years after the public blood testing, and no answers are given as to whether Dupont is at fault, the public gets angry at Ruffalo. All this pressure builds into him having a mental breakdown/siezure, and we all feared he would quit. Then, after he recovers, the call finally comes from the science panel that he was right. Dupont absolutely poisoned these people and must pay for their health damage. This movie is like an emotionally abusive boyfriend. Finally, we won, right? No. Dupont rips up the mediation contract (one would think this illegal) and now says anyone who has health problems cannot take part in a class action lawsuit, but can do so individually. And that's when we finally leave on the highest of high notes that makes you curse with joy and unleash primal, guttural screams of victory: Mark Ruffalo starts representing each of those West Virginians individually, wins tens of millions of dollars in the first 3 cases, and DUPONT GIVES UP. THEY PAYOUT THE BETTER PART OF A BILLION DOLLARS. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO YEAAAH SUCK IT.

In recent decades, particularly since the horror that erupted on 9/11, more than a few dramatic movies have dealt with real-life events and/or social issues in ways that are often so engaging that they supersede most Hollywood blockbusters. Some of the very best deal with the kind of rampant corporate malfeasance that goes on when there are few or no regulations in place to protect the people that these corporations have a tendency to harm with all-too-painful regularity. DARK WATERS is one of those films. Mark Ruffalo portrays Robert Billott, a Cincinnati-based attorney who is part of a law firm that represents dozens of multi-billion dollar corporations, the biggest not only in America but the world at large as well. But when he hears about a farmer in his own hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia who has lost nearly two hundred head of cows because they drank from toxically polluted water, he wades into the situation (albeit reluctantly at first) and discovers that one of the companies he has represented in his time, no less than DuPont, is the corporation whose dumping of their toxic waste is responsible for not having only killed livestock, but poisoning and/or severely deforming almost everybody there in Parkersburg, nearly seventy thousand in all. Combing through documents dating all the way back to the 1970s, he learns that some of this poisoning may be connected to a very well-known product, that DuPont created back in the early 1960s (everyone will know all too well what the name of that product is), and is in practically everything in every home in the United States, including pots and pans. The toll it took on him and his family, including the relationship with his wife (portrayed by Anne Hathaway) was almost too much for him (he ended up in the hospital for a time); but he kept on fighting for the people in his town, getting blood samples from everyone tested to be used as evidence of DuPont's corporate malfeasance, which virtually bordered on corporate homicide. Based on Nathaniel Rich's article "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare" that appeared in the New York Times Magazine in 2016, DARK WATERS is quite well directed by Todd Haynes (I'M NOT THERE; WONDERSTRUCK), and co-written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (LIONS FOR LAMBS; DEEPWATER HORIZON). Ruffalo, who portrayed one of the Boston Globe reporters in the much-acclaimed 2015 drama SPOTLIGHT, ably portrays Billott in a way that gives us a glimpse into his way of thinking that, just by having represented DuPont in his time, he himself may have been somewhat responsible for the years-long poisoning of his own hometown, even if only indirectly. The atmosphere conjured up by Haynes is not too dissimilar to what we saw in ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, SPOTLIGHT, or THE POST, one that is decidedly sinister, shadowy and arguably corrupting. Tim Robbins, well known for his highly liberal political beliefs, does a good job of playing Ruffalo's partner in the firm, who is initially extremely reluctant to take his side but then does when the facts about DuPont become too big to ignore. Mare Winningham is also good as one of Parkersburg's many residents who have to face what the town's biggest employer has been doing to then for decades. While it may seem all too common for movies to take what may seem like potshots at multi-billion dollar conglomerates, when they do the wrong thing (which seems to happen all too frequently, as it did with DuPont), then those wrongs have to have a light shone on them. This is what DARK WATERS does; and as a result, it was one of the best films released in 2019.

Good movie with an important message about the chemicals poisoning us all.

"Dark Waters" (2019 release; 126 min.) brings the story of Cincinnati lawyer Rob Bilott's long legal battle against DuPont. As the movie opens, it is "1975 Parkersburg, West Virginia" as we see several teenagers (one of them a young Bilott) go swimming in a lake that we later see being sprayed with chemicals. We then go to "1998 Cincinnati, Ohio", and Rob has just made partner at Taft, one of the large law firms in Cincinnati. Then a stranger shows up who is from Parkersburg and knows Rob's grandmother. The stranger, Wilbur Tennant, claims that chemicals have ruined his farm, he has the VHS tapes to prove it, and can Rob please represent him.... At this point we're 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all turns out. Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Todd Haynes, whose prior movie, the excellent "Carol" was coincidentally also filmed here in Cincinnati (where I live). But that is where the comparisons stop. Here, Haynes brings to the big screen the long legal battle that Bilott fought against chemical giant DuPont. The film starts a bit tentative in my opinion, but after the first half hour, the tension doesn't let up as DuPont is fighting with all of its might against Bilott. This movie is a labor of love for Mark Ruffalo, who stars and also co-produces. I've seen a lot of the films that Ruffalo has made in his career, and I don't know that he's ever been better, playing the almost mousy yet determined lawyer. Anne Hathaway seems underused as the supportive spouse but as the movie goes deeper, her role expands. The movie was filmed in early 2019 in and around Cincinnati, and the downtown area is featured extensively, including Fountain Square, the Queen City Club, the Hall of Mirrors at the Netherland Plaza, etc. The movie had a red carpet premiere here in Cincinnati in mid-November, a week before it got a limited theater release. This weekend it got a wide release, and the Friday early evening screening where I saw it at my art-house theater here in Cincinnati was attended okay (about 20 people). This movie will surely create strong word of mouth, and if it manages to pick up some award nominations (as it is expected), this could have a decent run in the theaters. If you are interested in a tense legal drama where Mark Ruffalo shines, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Awesome true to life story ... It really puts into perspective the world we live in and the illusionary bubble we can live in and not even know it. Dupont sucks!!

The movie is among the best of tense thrillers (think: John Grisham The Firm), only that it is actually a real life story about the unbelievable crimes Dupont did to the American People & how they tried to cover for decades the fact that 99% of people nowadays have at least traces of their toxic Teflon-chemicals in their body. This is how entertainment should be: engaging, entertaining & telling an important story in a time of civic society uprise against corporate coruption. The atmosphere is tight, the film never slows down and Mark Ruffalo & Tim Robbins bring us honest & wonderful portrayals of their characters! 10/10 Must see & worthy of (at least one) Oscar !