The families in the lawsuit had all lost a child to leukemia. Grace on behalf of a group of residents in the Boston suburb of Woburn (pronounced Woo-burn) in 1982. Harr's book tells the story of a lawsuit brought against Beatrice Foods and W.R. It's not just that Zaillian has simplified the story (it's 500 very detailed pages - he didn't have much of a choice) it's that he almost wholly ignores Harr's complex portrait of the story's contradictory lawyer hero, Jan Schlictmann (John Travolta), in favor of a clichi that suits the worst caricatures of the profession. Neither interpretation suits Jonathan Harr's nonfiction book "A Civil Action." Millions of people read Harr's gripping bestseller, but Steven Zaillian may be the only one who didn't understand it. But it could just as easily be a reflection of the distrust most people feel toward lawyers, the persistent and unfortunate belief that the judicial system is a shark's feeding den. The somber shadowy look has always seemed to imply that there are grave, weighty matters going on here and that, like kids on a school field trip, we should be respectful and pay attention. Why is it that movies about the law almost always look so dark? It's a good bet that if a firm can afford mahogany paneling, it can afford to pay its electric bill.
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