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A Civil Action
In an attempt to get rid of a company that throw its toxic garbage in the water, Jan Schlichtmann, an intelligent and aspiring lawyer, who takes on the mission of suing this firm, as it leads to the death of many children by leukemia.
19 November 1954, Pasadena, California, USA
24 July 1965, Brooklyn, New York, USA
1948, Chicago, Illinois, USA
21 September 1960, Syracuse, New York, USA
15 August 1957, Ljubljana, Slovenia
17 January 1952, Portland, Maine, USA
31 May 1990, San Diego, California, USA
24 August 1957, Hampstead, London, England, UK
17 July 1956, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
29 June 1968, England, UK
July 30, 2007
The movie becomes one more David-and-Goliath morality play.
April 09, 2005
I expected a harder hitting indictment against the uncaring power of corporate America. Instead, we get a middlin' courtroom drama that lacks the intensity of such films as the 1982 Sidney Lumet/Paul Newman film, The Verdict.
January 01, 2000
I'm all for films that don't flow from the usual Hollywood test tubes, but A Civil Action is basically the standard formula with a dash of downbeat.
February 05, 2005
... hints at the complex moral issues that vein the story.
November 22, 2009
This is a case in which the material really is better served in book form.
February 28, 2005
the film is slightly overlong and the ending is anti-cathartic.
February 09, 2006
Delivering the verdict two thirds into the movie is anti-climactic, while Schlichtmann's belated atonement feels beside the point.
December 06, 2005
While Travolta is passable as Schlichtmann, it is the outstanding work from Duvall, Macy and briefly Tony Shalhoub that drive the story.
January 01, 2000
A slick, shameless job that takes way too long to make its point (namely, we need the EPA).
February 14, 2001
As proficient a job as writer-director Steve Zaillian and his team do, A Civil Action has unmistakably unraveled by its close.
June 01, 2006
Based on a true story, this is an intelligent legal thriller, very much in the mode of 1970s issue-oriented films, that may be too subtle and complex for the damands of today's market.
January 01, 2000
Schlichtmann may have gone through this conversion in real life, but I just didn't buy it the way Zaillian presents it.