Dark Waters
Warning : The following stop spoiler toDark urine .
A innovative David and Goliath story , Dark Waterssees Robert represent out of nothing more than a sheer sense of righteousness . When West Virginia husbandman Wilbur Tennant ( Camp ) get in at the truehearted one day with a corner full of video recording magnetic tape , showing the extent to which the vicious weewee adjacent to a DuPont facility have been touch on his cattle , the Cincinnati lawyer agree to seem into it as a favor to his grandmother ( whom Tennant is neighbors with ) . But once he understands the severity of the post , the case becomes his eminent priority .
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As Robert ’s fixation raise , the other facets of his lifetime - his piece of work and even his mob - lento fade off . The actual Robert Bilott was under an enormous amount of stress as a result of this watershed lawsuit , but how much of what is shown actually happened in theDark Waterstrue narration ? And how much of it was adapted , or perhaps overdone for the big silver screen ?
Who Is Robert Bilott?
Like inDark Waters , Bilott began his post - school law of nature career working on behalf of chemical companies for his employer , the Taft Stettinus & Hollister business firm . During his time there , he would provide his clients with guidance on how best to abide by with the " Superfund " law ( or Comprehensive Environmental Response , Compensation , and Liability Act ) which , passed by Congress in 1980 , determine sites that were tainted by wild heart and soul . So , at one time , Bilott did have a good , business human relationship with company like DuPont and some of their highest executive . It almost goes without saying that once the investigation start , as the pic portrays , that relationship was quickly squashed – though the setting in which DuPont executive Phil Donnelly ( Garbert ) hisses " f*ck you , bumpkinly , " was forge .
In terminus of Robert ’s dedicated and kind-hearted personality , the article around whichDark Waterswas base – Nathaniel Rich ’s 2016 New York Times Magazine feature " The Lawyer Who Became DuPont ’s bad Nightmare " – seems to confirm that the motion picture did right by him . It ’s also true that Billot did n’t have the same Ivy League rearing as many of his Taft fellow worker , having been raised on Air Forces bases around the United States and West Germany . However , according to trial attorney Harry Deitzler ( play by Bill Pullman in the film ) , one thing the actual Robert did not do , despite all of the stress take on by the lawsuit , is turning to the bottle . " I do n’t recall him drinking , " he toldSlate . " I noticed that in at least one of the vista where I was portrayed … everyone appeared to be wassail . That ’s Hollywood , I guess . "
In addition to his personality , Dark Waters ' enactment of the physical price the decades - spanning sound battle took on Robert ’s health is also fair precise . As hear in the film , Billot did start out to live strange symptom in 2010 similar to the diagonal - like attackMark Ruffalo reenacts . In his memoir , vulnerability : Poisoned Water , Corporate Greed , and One Lawyer ’s Twenty - Year Battle Against DuPont , Bilott says that after an MRI ( which is shown in the picture show ) , medico could only really name the issue as " unusual brain activeness . "
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What Happened At The Tennant Family Farm?
Given the fact that the events depict on the Tennant Bos taurus farm in Parkersburg , West Virginia , areDark Waters ' most authoritative grounds , the film producer should have process them with the farthermost genuineness – to their credit , they did for the most part . Wilbur Tennant ’s pal Jim really was a DuPont employee who got sick with a disease the doctors could n’t name ; and the chemical company did win over Jim ’s 66 acres of the kin ’s 600 - acre attribute into a sludge marsh for acid and toxic chemical .
AsDark Watersmakes perfectly light , DuPont was not ignorant of the effects their activeness could have on the environment . In fact , nearly a decade before they would be blaming Tennant ’s farming abilities in court for the damage done onto his cows , the fellowship conducted internal run for PFOA ( perflurooctanoic Elvis ) . Upon evaluating the results , DuPont on the Q.T. expressed concern for the health of for the livestock , whose symptoms – as seen in the plastic film – included blackened tooth , bloated reed organ , and sudden hostility .
Like Bilott , the stress of the situation did get to Wilbur Tennant as well . So much so that he and Bilott would occasionally have fuss at one another , though they were both , ultimately , on the same team . Robert acknowledged the fact that Wilbur ’s changeless refusal to simply take the money and run was a push force out for him to last out tortuous in the case .
As find out inDark piddle , Wilbur ’s adamance did get him in problem with DuPont . As it turns out , one of the moving picture ’s more horrendous sequences – in which the Tennant farm is being stalked by a low - riding chopper until Wilbur dash it forth with his rifle – did actually happen . As Robert explained inExposure , DuPont sent a photographer to take aery photos of the property as part of its effectual defense team , and when Wilbur came out with his gun , the company ’s lawyers hand out to the farmer and told him that the pilot program was going to follow up on the incident with federal authorities . That being said , though DuPont did conduct walkthroughs and searches of the Tennant ’s belonging , there was never any record that indicated Tennant ’s grounds had go missing .
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What Else Did DuPont Do?
As shocking and as distressing as it may sound , in the 1960s , DuPont really did offer some of its stave Teflon - laced cigarettes to examine the potential side effects of PFOA . The consequence receive that 9 out of the 10 employee inadvertently study upon grew noticeably sick , experiencing flu - similar symptoms that include chills , backache , febrility , and coughing . Similarly , DuPont ’s secretly malicious presence in Parkville is precise to the way in which both the company interact with its server cities , as well as how the majority of the community put full trust in them . Citizens in the Oho and West Virginia ' Chemical Valley " regions really were too impressed and grateful by the economical benefits to wonder whether or not their actions would have an impact on the citizen ’s health and security measure .
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