LSC Review of Philadelphia Discussion

You be the critic. Write a movie review of a movie about a real US court case, for example, the 2016 movie Loving. The movie review must be 100% your own creation in your own words. It should include this information:

1. Summary of the movie.

2. What you think about the movie.

3. What you think about the movie in terms of the actual court case involved. If you select the movie Loving, tell me what you think about the movie in terms of the Loving v. Virginia opinion by the US Supreme Court. This means that you should look up the actual case so that you can talk about it in your movie review.

This is intended to be a fun and creative extra credit assignment, but your submission must be worthy of 50 points in every way (think correct grammar and substantive creativity). The review should be at least two double-spaced pages in length.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but do not go to a movie review website and copy the movie review as your own work. This is plagiarism and a silly thing to do on an extra credit assignment.

I am providing some movies below. You are welcome to choose a different movie, but you MUST be able to tell me about the real-life case. ***Email me to get approval if you choose to write about a movie not listed below.***

HERE ARE SOME PRE-APPROVED MOVIES:

Loving is a 2016 British-American biographical romantic drama that tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the plaintiffs in the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). This Supreme Court case invalidated state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The film takes inspiration from The Loving Story (2011) by Nancy Buirski, a documentary that follows the Lovings and their landmark case.

“A Civil Action” (1998)
Written and directed by Steven Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”), this is about a 1980’s water contamination case in Massachusetts and the lawyer who argued that two corporations were culpable for the deaths of many children from leukemia.

“Erin Brockovich” (2000)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh and based on the real events surrounding a covered-up environmental catastrophe not dissimilar to the one that inspired “A Civil Action,” only this time the contaminated water is in a small town in California in the early ’90’s. Erin Brockovich is based on a real woman, who, acting as a legal clerk, was instrumental in obtaining a three hundred million dollar settlement for the victims.

“Philadelphia” (1993)
This Tom Hanks-Denzel Washington drama was inspired in part by two different attorneys with AIDS who had sued their employers for wrongful termination, in 1987 and 1990. They were among the first to bring charges of discrimination based on an HIV diagnosis.