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<font size="2"><p>Movie Review
<font size="4"><br>A Civil Action</font>
<br>by Gary Johnson</font>
<font size=3 face="Book Antiqua,Century Schoolbook,Times New Roman">
<p><font size="6" color="#FF9900"><b>A</b></font>mericans have decidedly mixed feelings about lawyers. On one hand, we deplore what we perceive as a morality wed to the almighty dollar, but at the same time, regardless of how much we complain and feign disgust, we understand many of the profit-motivated decisions that lawyers must make. In the first few scenes of <i>A Civil Action</i>, director/screenwriter Steven Zaillian mines this schism of attitudes with remarkable skill and insight. John Travolta, as attorney Jan Schlichtmann, narrates these scenes while explaining the "calculus" of personal injury law, where a white male, 40-years-old, "at the height of his earning potential," is the most prized client--and where a dead child is the least prized. The bluntness of this message, and how easily we understand its economics, is genuinely unsettling.
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