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Law on Film
Law on Film explores the rich connections between law and film. Law is critical to many films, even to those that are not obviously about the legal world. Film, meanwhile, tells us a lot about the law, especially how it is perceived and portrayed. The podcast is created and hosted by Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer, legal scholar, and film buff. Each episode, Jonathan and a guest expert will examine a film that is noteworthy from a legal perspective. What does the film get right about the law and what does it get wrong? Why is law important to understanding the film? And what does the film teach about law's relationship to the larger society and culture that surrounds it. Whether you're interested in law, film, or an entertaining discussion, there will be something here for you.
Law on Film
Dark Waters (2019) (Guest: Mark Templeton) (episode 44)
Dark Waters (2019), directed by Todd Haynes, tells the real-life story of how a lawyer, Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), waged a twenty-year battle to hold the DuPont corporation accountable for contaminating a local water supply with carcinogenic chemicals that poisoned tens of thousands of people. While Bilott is ultimately able to achieve some degree of compensation and justice for the victims, the film shows the challenges of litigating against a powerful company bent on denying responsibility and covering up its misconduct.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:35 The origins: a small case for a family friend back home
6:24 Teflon and the “miracle” chemical
10:24 How attorney Rob Bilott uncovers the pollution
13:49 Getting the Taft firm on board
21:50 Addressing the legal challenges in the case
24:30 Medical monitoring and causation in toxic tort cases
28:36 Divisions in the community, financial pressures, and client management
30:30 DuPont’s clout
35:14 Bellwether trials: trying the cases in court
39:44 What the litigation achieved and the continued challenges
46:27 The risks of “forever chemicals”
49:50 Developments since the film was released
55:43 Can the legal system deliver justice?
1:01:53 Some further developments
Further reading:
Bilott, Robert, Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (Atria Books 2019)
Carucci, Rob, “Leadership Lessons from Rob Bilott’s 20 Year Battle for Justice Against DuPont,” Forbes (July 12, 2021)
Nevitt, Mark P. & Percival, Robert V., “Can Environmental Law Solve the ‘Forever Chemical’ Problem,” 57 Wake Forest L. Rev. 239 (2022)
Rich, Nathaniel, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” N.Y. Times Magazine (Jan. 6, 2016)
Small, Sarah Chen, Note, “Toxic Film: Analyzing the Impact of Films Depicting Major Contamination Events on the Regulation of Toxic Chemicals,” 35 Georgetown Env. L. Rev. 561 (2023)
Tabuchi, Hiroko, “Trump Administration to Uphold Some PFAS Limits but Eliminate Others,” N.Y. Times (May 14, 2025)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember.
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast