dark waters...

I went along to the Watershed this morning (I know!) to watch Todd Haynes’ “Dark Waters”.

It’s a shocking and true story of a corporate lawyer Robert Bilott (impressively played by Mark Ruffalo) and his decades-long battle against the large chemical company, DuPont, who knowingly dumped toxic materials on local land in West Virginia - poisoning animals… and people.

It’s a frightening story that powerfully underlines the stark reality… corporations rule the world! Corporations have unprecedented power, resources and, crucially, loads of ‘dosh’.

Whatever YOU think, whatever GOVERNMENTS think… Corporations can effectively “do what they like”. If someone argues or disagrees with them (even, it seems, governments), they argue back… and they WIN. They wear opponents down… you don’t stand a chance (whether you’re a business or an individual).

We constantly come up against instances where corporations/companies are fined comparatively paltry sums for breaking the law… and they do so because they know that the huge financial benefits (or, in the case of the ‘Leave’ campaign during the Referendum, for example, political results?) far exceed the penalties - make taking the risks MASSIVELY worthwhile.

Clearly, this story is exceptional in that, thanks to the single-handed determination of a pedantic lawyer, the appalling conduct of a corporation IS exposed… and you have to be aware that all this took place against a backdrop of a corporation who ‘generously’ rewarded communities living adjacent their business undertakings… by helping them to build community centres, libraries and such like (but, in fact, the amounts in question represented a tiny drop in a huge ocean compared with corporation’s high financial rewards). As you might imagine, members of such communities were loathe to find fault with such ‘benefactors’… until Bilott was able to prove that DuPont were (and had been) directly, and knowingly, responsible for hundreds of (early) deaths (and birth deformities) that had taken place within their State over the course of several decades.

DuPont come out of this mess appallingly… after being ‘found out’, they reneged on a vital legal commitment following proof of their guilt (resulting fines far outweighed by not having to pay out damages) – effectively forcing the ‘injured parties’ to fight on a case-to-case basis… with DuPont assuming that individuals would be scared off by the expense and commitment required. But, thankfully, Bilott DOES pursue EACH of the cases… the first results in a fine of more than a million dollars; the second even more; the third well exceeds that… and so on.

The story is utterly frightening… and underlines just how powerless most of us feel in the face of controlling corporations. But, very occasionally, their actions are exposed by amazingly brave individuals who just aren’t prepared to give up without a fight (even if such action might have serious implications for ‘everything’ – their future, their family, and even their own life) in order to expose the truth.  

The headline of a subsequent article in the New York Times (and on which the film was based) summed things up perfectly: “The lawyer who became DuPont’s worst nightmare”.

A brilliant film and one that I think you should see.