The first required reading assignment for this year is A Civil Action, a very well-written account of the human side of a large and complex case involving the alleged pollution of the City of Woburn’s drinking water by two large industrial plants. Of course, I read the book a month or two ago, and I’m about to dig through it and make some reference notes (in case Day #1 starts with “Mr. Hook, please explain to the class the parties and issues of the case.") Of course, being a little bored with reading, I decided to watch the movie.
I had been told by one of my classmates that the movie was unlike the book. He recommended not seeing the movie until after classes start, in order to avoid confusing myself. Being someone who can keep straight the difference between the book and movie versions of Starship Troopers, I figured I could handle it.
Anyway, the book is good, going into a fair amount of procedural detail. The pacing is a little slow, but since we’re talking about a case that lasted approximately from 1982 until 1998, and there’s a lot of backstory, It’s not so bad. The movie pretty much portrays Jan Schlictmann, the main character as an ambulance chaser who gets in way over his head because he gets involved in the human details, and is forced to cut his losses and bail.
In case I’ve got any loyal readers out there, and on the off chance that they’ve been assigned this book to read (and the case to brief, as I have), I would definitely recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. And if you see the movie, expect to read the book before you get involved talking about it in class.