1 August, 2024 Siobhan Marie Day 0 Comments 7 categories

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Written by Susannah Grant, Produced by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, and Stacey Sher, Starring: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, with Cinematography by Ed Lachman, and Edited by Anne V. Coates, with Music by Thomas Newman, Production companies: Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Jersey Films, Distributed by Universal Pictures (North America), Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (International)(2000)

It’s about the fight in the girl…

Erin Brockovich is a 2000 biographical legal drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Susannah Grant. The film dramtizes the true story of Erin Brockovich, portrayed by Julia Roberts, an unemployed single mother of three children, who had recently been injured in a traffic accident with a doctor and is suing him. Her lawyer, Ed Masery, portrayed by Albert Finney tries to win her case, but due to Erin’s explosive behavior in the courtroom under testimony in cross-examination, they lose. Ed won’t answer Brockovich’s calls, until one day he comes to work and Erin is already in his office, seemingly working. Ed takes pity on Brockovich, and gives her a paid job after she explains she needs a job since the lawsuit didn’t work out.

Steven Soderbergh directing "Erin Brockovich" (2000) Photo by Getty Images/Universal Pictures/Columbia Pictures

Susannah Grant attends the world premiere of "Erin Brockovich" on March 14, 2000 at Mann Village Theater in Westwood, California. Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich in "Erin Brockovich" (2000) Photo by Getty Images/Universal Pictures/Columbia Pictures

Erin Brockovich-Ellis during "Erin Brockovich" Premiere at Mann Village Theatre in Westwood, California, United States. Photo by SGranitz/WireImage

Julia Roberts, Emily Marks, Gemmenne De la Peña, and Scotty Leavenworth in "Erin Brockovich" (2000) Photo by Getty Images/Universal Pictures/Columbia Pictures

Albert Finney as Edward L. Masry in "Erin Brockovich" (2000) Photo by Getty Images/Universal Pictures/Columbia Pictures

Ed Masry attends the world premiere of "Erin Brockovich" on March 14, 2000 at Mann Village Theater in Westwood, California. Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Albert Finney and Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich" (2000) Photo by Getty Images/Universal Pictures/Columbia Pictures

And so begins the true story of Erin Brockovich.

Erin is given files for a real estate case where the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is offering to purchase the home of a resident of Hinkley, California. Erin is surprised when she finds medical records in the PG&E file and begins to research the medical records and real estate case further. The film tells the story of how Brockovich initiated a class action legal case against PG&E over its culpability for the Hinkley groundwater contamination incident.

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at 300 Lakeside Drive, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield and northern Santa Barbara County, almost to the Oregon and Nevada state lines. Overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E is the leading subsidiary of the holding company PG&E Corporation, which has a market capitalization of $36.33 billion as of February 23, 2024. PG&E was established on October 10, 1905 from the merger and consolidation of predecessor utility companies, and by 1984 was the United States' "largest electric utility business". PG&E is one of six regulated, investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs) in California; the other five are PacifiCorp, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, Bear Valley Electric, and Liberty Utilities. In 2018 and 2019, the company received widespread media attention when investigations by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) assigned the company primary blame for two separate devastating wildfires in California. The formal finding of liability led to losses in federal bankruptcy court. On January 14, 2019, PG&E announced its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to its liability for the catastrophic 2017 and 2018 wildfires in Northern California. The company hoped to come out of bankruptcy by June 30, 2020, and was successful on Saturday, June 20, 2020, when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali issued the final approval of the plan for PG&E to exit bankruptcy.

Satellite image of Hinkley, Barstow and Harper Lake, California. From 1952 to 1966, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) dumped about 370 million gallons (1,400 million litres) of chromium-tainted wastewater into unlined wastewater spreading ponds around the town of Hinkley, California, located in the Mojave Desert about 120 miles north-northeast of Los Angeles. PG&E used chromium 6, or hexavalent chromium (a cheap and efficient rust suppressor), in its compressor station for natural-gas transmission pipelines. Hexavalent-chromium compounds are genotoxic carcinogens. In 1993, legal clerk Erin Brockovich began an investigation into the health impacts of the contamination. A class-action lawsuit about the contamination was settled in 1996 on July 2 for $333 million (around $634 million in 2023). In 2008, PG&E settled the last of the cases involved with the Hinkley claims. Since then, the town's population has dwindled to the point that in 2016 The New York Times described Hinkley as having slowly become a ghost town. Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Julia Roberts and Albert Finney in "Erin Brockovich" (2000) Photo by Getty Images/Universal Pictures/Columbia Pictures

Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry pose for exclusive portraits April 3, 2000 in Los Angeles, CA. Photo by Ann Summa/Liaison

Erin Brockovich emerged as a critical and commercial success at the box-office. The film received 5 nominations at the 73rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (for Soderbergh) and Best Supporting Actor (for Albert Finney), winning Best Actress (for Roberts). For her performance, Roberts also earned the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Additionally, the film also won the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Director (for Soderbergh) and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (for Finney).

Oscar during The 73rd Annual Academy Awards - Nominations Announcement at The Academy in Beverly Hills, California, United States. Photo by J. P. Aussenard/WireImage

US actress Kathy Bates (L) and President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Robert Rehme (R) announce the nominations for the Best Picture category for the 73rd Annual Academy Awards in Beverly Hills, CA 13 February 2001. The Awards will be presented March 25, 2001 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. AFP PHOTO/Lucy Nicholson Photo by LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP via Getty Images

The 73rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best of 2000 in film and took place on March 25, 2001, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and was directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Steve Martin hosted the show for the first time. Three weeks earlier in a ceremony at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California held on March 3, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Renée Zellweger. Gladiator won five awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Traffic with four awards and Almost Famous, Big Mama, Erin Brockovich, Father and Daughter, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Pollock, Quiero Ser, U-571, and Wonder Boys with one. The telecast garnered almost 43 million viewers in the United States.

Kathy Bates and Robert Rehme, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at the Nominations for the 73rd Academy Awards. Nominees for Best Supporting Actor are pictured in the background. Photo by Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images

Kathy Bates (L) and President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Robert Rehme (R) announce the nominations for the 73rd Annual Academy Awards in Beverly Hills, CA 13 February 2001. Nominated in the Best Actress category are (clockwise from bottom L) Joan Allen ("The Contender"), Juliette Binoche ("Chocolat"), Ellen Burstyn ("Requiem for a Dream"), Laura Linney ("You Can Count On Me"), Julia Roberts ("Erin Brockovich"). The Awards will be presented March 25 2001 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Photo credit should read LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP via Getty Images

Julia Roberts wins the Academy Award Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her 2000 film "Erin Brockovich" at the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001. Photo Credit: ABC/The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Actress Julia Roberts celebrates her Oscar win for Best Actress for her role in "Erin Brokovich" at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA, 25 March, 2001. Photo credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

Actress Julia Roberts poses backstage at the 58th Golden Globe Awards with her Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for her 2000 film "Erin Brockovich", January 21, 2001 in Beverly Hills, CA. Photo by Newsmakers

US actor Julia Roberts accepts her award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for "Erin Brockovich" at the 7th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, in Los Angeles, CA 11 March 2001. Photo by LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP via Getty Images

US actor Julia Roberts with her SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for "Erin Brockovich" at the 7th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, in Los Angeles, CA 11 March 2001. Photo by J. Vespa/WireImage

Director Steven Soderbergh, nominated for his films "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich," poses for photographers at the 53rd Annual Directors Guild of America Awards March 10, 2001 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, CA. Photo by Chris Weeks/Liaison

Albert Finney during "Erin Brockovich" Premiere at Mann Village Theatre in Westwood, California, United States. Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc

Erin Brockovich is the Featured Film Blog of the month for August, for its biographical legal drama about the PG&E/Hinkley groundwater contamination class action lawsuit, that when settled in 1996 for $333 million was the largest settlement of a class action lawsuit in U.S. history at the time. You can expect to read a critique of the 2000 film, as well as a detailed explanation of the PG&E/Hinkley groundwater contamination class action lawsuit. You can also read a recommendation for the film that includes a detailed description of the real life characters portrayed in Erin Brockovich. There is also a review of the 2000 film included as the Featured Film Blog of the month. You can also watch the 2021 ABC News interview with the real Erin Brockovich where she discusses the Hinkley case and what it was like to have Julia Roberts portray her in a film about her life. There is also a Top Ten List to commemorate the film being a Featured Film Blog of the month, and for Erin Brockovich, the topic of the list is My Top Ten Julia Roberts Movies! And finally, as a Featured Film Blog of the month, you can watch the Official Trailer for the 2000 film and then plan on watching Erin Brockovich on Hulu tonight!