A Civil Action Page #8

Synopsis: Jan Schlichtmann, a tenacious lawyer, is addressed by a group of families. When investigating the seemingly non-profiting case, he finds it to be a major environmental issue that has a lot of impact potential. A leather production company could be responsible for several deadly cases of leukemia, but also is the main employer for the area. Schlichtmann and his three colleagues set out to have the company forced to decontaminate the affected areas, and of course to sue for a major sum of compensation. But the lawyers of the leather company's mother company are not easy to get to, and soon Schlichtmann and his friends find themselves in a battle of mere survival.
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Steven Zaillian
Production: Touchstone
  Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 8 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.5
Metacritic:
68
Rotten Tomatoes:
60%
PG-13
Year:
1998
115 min
6,058 Views


I failed completely.

What it doesn't say

is if I could go back,

knowing what I know now and where

I'd end up if I got involved,

knowing all the numbers,

all the odds,

all the angles...

I'd do it again.

Sorry.

Jesus!

I'm sorry. Yes?

The purpose of these questions

is not to humiliate you,

but to verify

the assets that you've declared.

I understand.

Because what you're asking

your creditors to believe is...

- Well, it's hard to believe.

- I know.

After 17 years of practising law,

all you have to show for it is...

14 dollars in a chequing account

and a portable radio?

That's correct.

Where did it all go?

The money?

The money, the property,

the personal belongings.

The things one acquires

in one's life, Mr Schlichtmann.

The things by which

one measures one's life.

What happened?

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote

Steven Zaillian

Steven Ernest Bernard Zaillian (born January 30, 1953) is an American screenwriter, director, film editor, and producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for his screenplay Schindler's List (1993) and has also earned Oscar nominations for Awakenings, Gangs of New York and Moneyball. He was presented with the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the 2009 Austin Film Festival and the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement from the Writers Guild of America in 2011. Zaillian is the founder of Film Rites, a film production company. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "A Civil Action" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 14 Jan. 2025. <https://www.scripts.com/script/a_civil_action_5625>.

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