Last year I got around to watching
Dark Waters, Mark Ruffalo's follow on (thematically, at least) from Spotlight, a real life story about a corporate lawyer fighting corruption.
It's a fascinating and ghoulish film, well worth a watch. Without wanting to give any spoilers it's essentially Little guy vs. the corporation (with the twist being that the little guy works for a corporate law firm used to defending giant chemical companies rather than prosecuting them).
The case begins in West Virginia near a Dupont chemical plant, then halfway through the case starts to diffuse and each avenue of inquiry leads to several more just beginning. In real life the lawyer involved
is still working on 'the case' after decades. Despite being obstructed with all manner of delay tactics he has ploughed ever onwards.
It's essentially a heartbreaking exposition of how powerless ordinary people are. The extreme self-sacrifice we see in the film is highlighted as very rare, an example of picking on the wrong guy, albeit committed to long slog with a steady series of painful knockbacks while he moves on and on in pursuit.
At the end of the film, they chose
Take Me Home, Country Roads for the credits. On paper this looks like such an obvious, trite choice, picking the only thing many most people even associate with West Virginia. However, after sitting through 2 hours of 30 of bloody misery, decades of corporate shit and lives ruined, a stain that has spread worldwide, literally, condensed into its most horrifying and depressing moments, with those involved fighting for justice, older, uglier, more unwell (but still there fighting) the simplicity and decency of the sentiments in the song cuts through with an intense poignancy.
One of the most awful things about the film is that because DuPont is a major employer in the area, the locals (who are being poisoned by them) fight against the lawyer and victimise the families who initially go through litigation, because they are terrified of losing their jobs. This is a film about the potential hazard of a behemoth wielding and mercilessly exploiting tacit power, soft power, the sort that leads to enormous abuse, that leads to intimidating people, that leads victims fighting to be put back into their clutches.
And while the credits roll and you're trying to reflect on that (and you will, for several days to follow) in comes the jaunty love-filled nostalgia fest, John Denver's soaring voice, and so after hours of softening up it finally broke me into pieces, something I would never, ever have expected of that song.
