A tenacious environmental lawyer comes up against the might of a multinational chemical firm when he investigates potential contamination in a rural community in West Virginia.

Director:  Todd Haynes

Screenwriters: Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan

Based on: The New York Times magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html)

Synopsis:

*Spoilers* Rob Bilott is a corporate attorney who defends companies from environmental claims. Bilott is visited by a farmer from his grandmother’s rural West Virginia town. The farmer’s cattle are dying from a mysterious disease and he believes chemical-maker DuPont, which dominates the town, is responsible. At first, Bilott is reluctant to get involved, but eventually he starts to dig into the case. Leveraging his law firm’s resources, Bilott accesses documents and finds that a chemical, PFOA, which was dumped on the land neighbouring the farmer’s property isn’t regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, meaning there are no legally set ‘safe’ limits. Digging further, Bilott finds that the chemical, a key component in ubiquitous Teflon (among other things), has had a wider impact on the townsfolk’s health. Meanwhile, his growing commitment to the case causes tension at home, as he spends more time away from his family. Bilott files a class action, which reaches a settlement, the terms of which DuPont flouts. However, Bilott sticks to his guns as the years roll by, determined to secure justice for the people whose lives have been ruined.

Comments:

*Spoilers* Dark Waters is, in many ways, a textbook example of how to structure a screenplay, in particular one which deals with an investigatory process.

Indeed, one of the first rules of writing a compelling screenplay, of any genre, is that the protagonist should be proactive and committed to their goal. In Dark Waters, we have the dramatization of a real-life protagonist, played by the always excellent Mark Ruffalo, who fought for justice across decades; a man who became doggedly determined to hold DuPont to account for chemical contamination that impacted the health and lives of the residents of Parkersburg.

Bilott’s initial involvement with the case is well-handled. Initially reluctant to ‘switch sides’ and pursue the case as a lawyer for a potential claimant, Bilott feels an obligation to do something, due to his family link to the town of Parkersburg. So, he takes a half-hearted step by getting a report from DuPont, with whose boss, played by Victor Garber, he has a good relationship that quickly sours. From there, Bilott is increasingly drawn into the case and slowly becomes committed to the cause. When we meet him, his wife is expecting their first child and by the end, he has three teenage sons, demonstrating just how much of his life the case absorbed.

Along the way, Bilott must battle DuPont’s deep pockets and the legal quagmire the case becomes. He also has tensions at home, as the case creates divisions with his wife, played by Anne Hathaway, as Bilott spends more and more time away from the family in order to pursue justice. A further complication is the cast of potential plaintiffs, whose livelihoods depend on the chemical firm’s omnipresence in the town. However, Bilott equally has ‘helpers’, including a local lawyer, played by Bill Pullman, who assists in the case, and a remarkably supportive boss, played by Tim Robbins, who allows him to spend significant time pursuing a case against a company that the firm wants to represent.

The danger of the ‘investigatory’ type of screen story is that it becomes bogged down in scene after scene of dull exposition and characters frantically searching for information, often including a ‘discovery’ montage of sifting through files or going through databases until they find what they’re looking for. There’s a touch of this in Dark Waters and it does drag a little in places, but mostly the filmmakers keep the action moving and ensure the events remain absorbing. For example, near the beginning, Bilott requests documents from DuPont, and the company duly complies, delivering so much paperwork that it fills a room. Not only does this add a touch of humour as box after box is delivered, but it also highlights a) DuPont’s arrogant and dismissive attitude to the investigation – swamp Bilott with paperwork and hope he goes away; and b) DuPont’s underestimation of Bilott, as the lawyer diligently goes through the paper mountain, getting his reward when he comes across PFOA, which unlocks the rest of the case.

The story is essentially well-paced, parsing out the information as the issue grows, seeping and spreading like the PFOA contamination from a herd of sickly cows to the whole town of Parkersburg, revealing the extent of DuPont’s damaging actions and ambivalence. This feeds Bilott’s determination to hold the company to account. Not unlike Erin Brockovich (2000), there is also plenty of human interest, as Bilott returns to the town to see with his own eyes the havoc that PFOA has caused the townsfolk.

The events build to a dramatically satisfying conclusion, which comes after Bilott enjoys a long-fought victory, followed by a crushing blow. However, as is fitting with his character, he refuses to give up. DuPont may win the day but Bilott has no intention of slinking away with his tail between his legs. Indeed, the real-life Bilott continues his fight to this day.

Overall, Dark Waters fits well into the pantheon of investigatory screen stories. It also is a worthy addition to the sub-genre of ‘social issues’ films that aim to dramatize how large corporations can act with impunity, and how it can take the efforts of a committed protagonist to hold them to account. As such, anyone interested in developing a screenplay in these categories would do well to study how Correa, Carnahan and Haynes put Bilott’s compelling true-life story on the big screen.

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Take a look at the trailer for Dark Waters: