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List Price: $14.99Amazon.com's Price: $10.99 You Save: $4.00 (27%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: TRAVOLTA,JOHN
EAN: 9786305428282
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 630542828X
Label: Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 13, 1999
Running Time: 115 minutes
Sales Rank: 2800
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Theatrical Release Date: January 08, 1999
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The true story of an epic courtroom showdown in which two corporations stand accused of causing the deaths of children. Representing the parents is a young flamboyant lawyer who hopes to win millions, but he ends up losing nearly everything, including his sanity.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 2-APR-2002
Media Type: DVD
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Solid Flick with very pertinent material despite its age.
As a former resident of the Greater Boston area this was a film that evoked memories on a number of levels. The investigations of cancer clusters and their relationship to EPA Super Fund Sites is still something that should be coordinated. Moving film with solid performances.The follow up to the story is perhaps more hopeful. The sites have been cleaned and are being utilized! Despite the irepairable damage done to these families America can heal itself via the tenacious actions of its citizen/victims ... Read More
Rating: - A tort lawyer finds new meaning in life and goes down the path of righteous litigation; An underdog against the large corp
(1) A Civil Action is a 1998 film, starring John Travolta (as plaintiff's attorney Jan Schlichtmann) and Robert Duvall, based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Harr. Both the book and the film are based on the real-life case of Anderson v. Cryovac that took place in Woburn, Massachusetts in the 1980s.
(2) John Travolta plays a tort lawyer part of tort law firm making millions from large corporations by filing personal injuries on behalf of their clients.
(3) He is intellectually ... Read More
Rating:  - A page turner
A heart wrenching page turner! You will root for this guy all along. You will bite your nails, become invested and get your heart broken.
Don't bother renting the movie.
Rating:  - Far from great, but some great performances help keep the audience satisfied...
I'll be completely honest here. I saw `A Civil Action' because I am in love with James Gandolfini. Sadly his character has very little screen time although he is quite convincing with what he has to work with. What I found though was a nice little court room drama that is interesting as much as it is frustrating and deserves at least a little attention. This movie is by no means a brilliant film, but it does sport a few excellent performances that help elevate the plot and leave the audience at least satisfied ... Read More
Rating: - Delayed justice, delayed clean-up
A team of attorneys takes on a case that leaves them bankrupt and their firm destroyed, and years later, the EPA is the one that wins the case and forces two polluting companies to clean up their collective act. Well acted by Travolta, Duvall, Quinlan, and many others. It takes longer than necessary to tell the story, but makes a strong point about corporate responsibility, liability, and personal struggles.
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