| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | A Civil Action (1998) |
| Director | Steven Zaillian |
| Writer | Steven Zaillian, based on the book by Jonathan Harr |
| Lead Actor | John Travolta |
| Cast | John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Tony Shalhoub, William H. Macy, John Lithgow |
| Genre | Drama |
| Release Date | December 25, 1998 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 55m |
| Budget | $75 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 6.6/10 |
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A CIVIL ACTION: This is the Era of the Lawyers as heroes, as significant villains, as knights-errant for good or evil. They engage in our titanic battles. They risk lives, careers, fortunes. They determine truth, who wins, who loses, who gets the money, who inherits the land.
Symptomatic of the times is a film like A Civil Action, in which the most stupefyingly tedious and complicated matters on the judicial calendar become the meat of popular shoot-out melodrama, using words instead of bullets. This John Travolta hit movie offers a kind of mythic showdown of lawyers struggling for their own souls as well as the soul of America. It’s also the essential American story the eternal combat between big bad capitalism and little-guy victims.
The story is cut from 1980’s reality. Families living near a stream in a blue-collar Boston suburb (Woburn) are afflicted by an unusual epidemic of leukemia. When a small firm of personal-injury lawyers discovers that nearby polluters are subsidiaries of major corporations, it goes after the companies with the deep pockets.
The hero, Jay Schlictmann, played by Travolta, is at first in it just for the money. He becomes a hero because it becomes a moral issue for him, a matter of justice, even when he and his reluctant partners have to mortgage everything to keep the case going.
They’re the underdogs, and it’s David vs. Goliath. The guilt exposed here is criminal neglect and general abuse caused by the power of wealth. Jay sacrifices everything, eventually, for justice. Even more sympathetic and courageous are the workday victims (movingly acted by Kathleen Quinlan and others) who have no choice about their sacrifices.
Young writer director Steve Zaillian (debut film: Searching for Bobby Fischer) boils Jonathan Harr’s huge book down to its heart the hired-gun skills and tactics of the courtroom pros who bring lawsuits and defend them.
As the folksy veteran legal gunslinger for one of the conglomerates, Robert Duvall is a major challenge for the good guys. Sidney Pollack is also outstanding as a corporate hotshot who pulls class and Harvard-education credentials to intimidate Travolta.
In one of the movie’s insightful moments, Duvall and Travolta sit in the courtroom hallway awaiting the verdict, trying to hammer out a settlement. “We’re like kings,” Duvall says, “deciding the fates of others and counting the money.”
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