Film: Dark Waters
The inspiration for Mark Ruffalo’s character in the film Dark Waters, Rob Bilott believes the battle to protect polluted communities is far from over
Why a corporate lawyer is sounding the alarm about these common chemicals
The inspiration for Mark Ruffalo’s character in the film Dark Waters, Rob Bilott believes the battle to protect polluted communities is far from over
Why a corporate lawyer is sounding the alarm about these common chemicals
Most haunting is the sight of a cow graveyard — a desolate vista of swollen grassy tombs that cover an entire paddock.
With the uneasy acquiescence of his boss (a fatherly Tim Robbins), Rob takes on the case. But as he chases the paper trail, finding cryptic references to a chemical named PFOA, it quickly becomes clear this is about a lot more than sick cows.
Whistleblower drama Dark Waters offers damning account of DuPont's toxic behaviour
West Virginia, 1975. Young people are skinny-dipping in a river, oblivious to the filthy film on its surface. A boatload of shady-looking officials shout at them as they carry on hosing away the pollution under cover of night. The oily substance is soon revealed to be the by-product of chemical company DuPont’s illegal dumping in the state’s waterways, where it is being drunk by Wilbur Tennant’s cows.
As Tennant (a storming performance by Bill Camp) watches his animals die gruesome deaths, he harangues corporate lawyer Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), who, ironically, has built his career on defending such companies, to take up the case.
As if there weren’t enough troubles in the world, this horrifying true story, based on several investigative articles and Bilott’s memoir, portrays how the US chemical giant has contributed to an increasingly toxic planet for more than half a century.
Dark Waters: A damning account of DuPont's water pollution
Actor Mark Ruffalo has earned big coin and an even bigger fanbase playing the Hulk, but to his six million followers on Twitter, he's more of a superhero for the environment.
Political and outspoken, his latest movie feels personal - it's the story of the Du Pont chemical poisoning scandal, and it's called Dark Waters.
Twenty years ago Julia Roberts won an Oscar for Erin Brockovich, a true story based on a woman who took on a massive American power company knowingly poisoning the water in her town. At that same time, one of the world's largest chemical conglomerates, DuPont, was doing exactly the same thing.
Now, we have the true story of the lawyer who spent that same two decades trying to expose them.
Robert Bilott's specialised in environmental law. He represented some of the biggest chemical companies in America, including Teflon giant Du Pont
But when an old family friend asks for his help, he will be called upon to do the exact opposite; to side with the plaintiff, not the corporation.
What he slowly uncovers is the stuff of nightmares and on the big screen as a feature film, it's just as horrific.
Patient, procedural, potent, I urge you to take the dive and swim these Dark Waters. You may feel the need for a scalding hot shower afterwards and even then you might find yourself wondering what was in the water.
Ruffalo's performance is without a whiff of Hollywood histrionics, fuelling the authenticity and delivery of the bare facts of the case in a story which needs little embellishment to render it vital viewing, and a high impact call to action.
The new 10-part miniseries about an unsolved murder, adapted from Stephen King's 2018 novel, stars Ben Mendelsohn, Jason Bateman, and Cynthia Erivo, and is well worth your time.