In this movie Julia Roberts plays Erin Brockovich, a single mother raising three kids on her own. She is a confused character who has a big mouth and is struggling to gain employment. She has been married and divorced twice and is struggling to raise three kids as a single mother Victimized by a car accident, Erin, with the help of her lawyer tries to grab the opportunity to get money by sues for damages.
As she fails to do so, she blames her lawyer and demands a job.
She manages to succeed but proves to be a liability on him. She loses her job during her investigation to find out the truth about Pacific Gas & Electric Company. She is outraged by the deadly chemical that has seeped into the water in the town of Hinkley, resulting in physical ailments ranging from nosebleeds to a deadly leukemia.
The Mutt and Jeff team begin their job of gathering the facts and evidences against the company to prove their stand.
They are deciding to unveil the truth behind PG&E, under all circumstances. Later how she gets to the root of the cause is and tries to curb it is what the movie talks about. It is a movie which talks about a woman who inspite of being a disaster in life emerges out to be a lady who does whatever she can to stand for the truth.
She is one of those people who dares to fight against the malevolent corporates to save the society from their unethical deeds.
Erin is depicted to be a woman, who seems to possess all the strength to stand against all odds; i.e. bring her three children up as a single mother, face the critics of the people around her, and still live her life with gust and enthusiasm.
Erin Brockovich projects the image of a modern age woman who manages to gain victory against all odds with her wit, intelligence and sexuality. Though initially in the movie she is interpreted to be a careless and immature lady who is good at almost nothing, but gradually she transforms into a person who , when time comes can face the odds diligently.
From the social perspective, Erin Brockovich can be seen as a modern era lady who may personify any ordinary individual who is struggling her way to living but somewhere has a sense of responsibility towards the society, and in this attempt goes out of her way to rescue it. Inspite of having her own personal hassles, she goes to root of the problem and tries to resolve it. The movie succeeds in giving us a vision that everyone of us has the ability to overcome all odds and discover our true worth; i.e. what we are capable of doing and what changes can we make to our lives as well as others.
The perspective depicted in the movie has been reasonably been justified by the character Erin Brockovich that how one should have the courage to overcome adversities and how one should be able to differentiate between what is right and wrong and stand up for the truth. But somewhere down the line the image of a woman gets diluted by the way Erin Brockovich is presented in the movie ;in the sense, the way she carries her self , how she uses her sexuality to get things done, how unbothered she is about her life and so on. This is not the way a woman should behave. There could have been a better way in which she could have led her life if she would have behaved a little stable and mature.
Also the movie seems to be a little unrealistic at times in the sense that the character of Erin Brockovich transforms suddenly from an irresponsible and sinister individual to a responsible citizen. But somehow the movie shows that she is not getting a man at the cost of her self respect and integrity. The China Syndrome: The China Syndrome as the name suggests talks about a scandal regarding a faulty equipment that could lead to a meltdown and how the characters of the movie try to unleash it.
The story basically revolves around Kimberly Wills a news reporter who is intelligent and is trying to get a breakthrough in her career. Also Richard Adams, the freelance cameraman seems to be a man who acts according to his beliefs. They get hold of a sensational video showing evidence of the faulty equipment, which could lead to a meltdown at one of the nuclear plants in California.
The station manager denies the airing of the film on the grounds that they might get hit by a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. How the characters try to unleash the truth and expose the truth to the world is what the movie talks about. The China Syndrome is basically a thriller, based on real occurrences. It tries to throw some light on the possibilities of the dangers that could be caused by nuclear energy and also how the high level officials, in order to maintain their reputation and avoid high costs of maintenance, conveniently put the lives of masses at stake.
The China Syndrome showcases the dangers of nuclear energy and the unwillingness of corporate officials to put public safety above economic considerations. The film is based on a very real life plot, bringing a very serious issue to consideration, depicting a scenario that could really occur. It has very well shown how power and money games can egregiously ruin the lives of people and what actually is in practice in the corporate as well as the political world. The most impressive fact about the movie is its human content .i.e. how on one had people can be so inhumane and insensitive and how on the other end people put their lives at stake for the cause of humanity.
So the perspective of the movie is efficiently met where the audience can easily relate to the story and agree to it. The film literally gives you goose bumps making you imagine how as scary as hell it could be if such an incidents actually takes place. That how the intentional negligence of the corporate officials just to avoid mere costs and bad image can claim the lives of many,i.e the most divine form of life on earth. It also arouses a feeling of awareness and realization that it’s high time we should take the issues of politics and corruption seriously and take actions to curb it. Silkwood: Silkwood is a tale of an ordinary woman who has fathomed injustice and by all means tries to curb it and do what she thinks is right.
The movie talks about Karen, a lady working in a nuclear plant in Oklahoma who seems to be just another girl next door who has friends and is content with life. But after an incident she begins to worry about her safety and in that attempt starts working on gathering evidence of the wrong deeds of the company. Gradually she loses her friends and also builds a pool of enemies around her. She dies in a mysterious car accident in the end. She was on her way to deliver some documents, the evidence which she had collected, to a New York Times reporter when her car left the road.
The documents were never found. Therefore she was unable to accomplish her cause. Silkwood is a well narrated story with lots of challenges and emotional melodrama. It tries to sketch the character of a woman who cannot stand injustice prevailing in the form of corporate recklessness and greed. Karen displays a character with a lot of substance, grace, guts and sensitivity. She goes out of the way on her own, to expose the wrongdoing of the nuclear plant at the stake of her own life.
The movie also displays the fact that any ordinary individual does not have guts like Karen and so quietly subdues to the will of brutal corporates just to continue to earn a living, without giving much thought to humanity; thus being cowardly. The theme of the film rightly justifies the character of Karen by showing a gradual change in her nature from a fun loving individual to an intense and highly sensitive woman who dares to fight against all odds to get justice for herself as well as the entire humanity. Though the movie is a bit slow paced, but it serves the purpose.
An issue like this could only be well narrated with a lot of intricacy and detail. Though in the end it is a little heart breaking because you tend to interpret that malevolence is powerful enough to curb an act that is against their whims. One completely agrees to the perspective of the film as it succeeds to convey the message that its high time we need to look around and realize that its high time one needs to curb such acts and that to in unity. Because unless we don’t do so, a deadly scenario like this will continue to prevail; thus endangering the entire humanity as a whole. After all we exist to live lives on a healthier term; not at the cost of it.
Connection
Erin Brockovich, Silkwood and China Syndrome all three are distinct movies and had messages relevant to the time when they were released. However the common theme that ties the three movies together is a common man’s strive to fight against the wrong. Each movie had a symbolic feminist revolutionary fighting to bring about a change in the system.
The movies try to arouse in the viewers a feeling of revolt. The corporate scenario driven by politics often creates a dirty situation where in the innocent masses are cheated in many ways. All the three movies instill the viewers to wake up and do something about these corrupt industrialists. China Syndrome and Silkwood have a more alarming issue to be raised i.e. of the nuclear hazards, while Erin Brockovich deals with the deadly industrial waste nonetheless and equivalent eye opener.
All the three movies seem to have a connection in the sense that, they were they were related to the common issue of corporate injustice and malevolence, where dirty politics and selfish motives prevail at the cost of mankind. Also the three movies talk about women who display immense courage and power to fight all odds and stand for the truth and attempt to curb injustice and inhumane behavior. They share the common plot of corporates doing wrong to the society by either dumping toxic wastes in the environment or by acts of intentional ignorance of harmful materials that could threaten lives of many.
The Story of Erin Brockovich, a Single Woman With Three Children. (2019, Nov 01). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-essay-erin-brockovich/