Film Summary of Erin Brockovich (2000):

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Release Date: March 14, 2000
Awards: Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role [Julia Roberts]
             Nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture.
            A total of 32 award wins out of 59 nominations.
IMDB: Erin Brockovich Hash#tt0195685
Netflix availability: America, Brazil and The Netherlands.
Ratings: IMDB: 7.3 | Rotten Tomatoes: 84% | ESRB: Rated R for Language.

Why watch Erin Brockovich?

Erin Brockovich is an American legal clerk who was instrumental in building a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company as well as several other pollution and personal injury related litigations such as the Chromium Contamination Lawsuit against the Whitman Corporation, Operation of Oil Wells case against the Beverly Hills School District and BreitBurn Energy. Her extensive environmental activism career can only be overshadowed by her intense personality after all she brought a small town to its feet and a huge corporation to its knees which was showcased in the autobiographical drama aptly titled: Erin Brockovich.

I wanted to showcase this movie because it shows the hard time consuming and personally affecting work that needs to be done for grass roots environmental work. Through the work of Julia Roberts, we find a woman in search of meaning in her life who was deeply moved by the people who were affected by the chromium dumping policies of PG&E. She went to he homes of over 600 people over a span of years to secure them justice after it was seen the PG&E’s policies created a lot of health and environmental issues in the town of Hinkley, California.

Do watch if you like movies featuring strong bold women such as Jackie Brown and Kill Bill. The script is well-written with a simplicity that makes it easy to understand despite the challenging topic. This movie will teach you about managing blue collar people and corporations’ approaches to safety of civilians provided government intervention is not strong. Erin’s pageant past is also a big part of the movie and can also be a glimpse of a life of a washed-up beauty queen. Overall, This is an inspiring and beautiful way to spend 2 hours preferably with your friends and family.

Please note some of the jokes made by the characters may seem sexist today nonetheless the director as well as Ms. Erin Brockovich herself have maintained that these reflect the truth and wasn’t added for commercial purposes.

Additional Links:

Picture Captions and Licensing: 

1. Erin Brockovich Movie Poster. Movie Posters are encouraged to be shared by the studios.

2. Erin Brockovich speaking at the 2016 Arizona Ultimate Women's Expo, Phoenix, AZ. Photographer: Gage Skidmore. Uploaded with Wikipedia Commons License.