User reviews

I want to disagree a little bit with the other reviewer. If you watch this as a "2009" movie-watcher who has seen Hollywood-ized stories like Erin Brockovich, you may be disappointed in this little TV movie from the 80s. But you have to realize that that is exactly what it was. Movie plots weren't as complicated or dramatic as they are today. I think (though I don't know the particulars of this case) the makers of this movie probably tried to make the characters more like the real people they were portraying than "basing" a great role on a real person.

I was actually surprised that there wasn't a big trial or lots of scenes with scientists where the victims had to prove that they were being poisoned. That is the kind of plot line we expect to see today. But this movie focused more on the families and their struggle to be treated fairly.

It may have seemed unrealistic that so many people refused to believe that the government allowed this to happen. But society was just beginning to experience problems like this. It was fairly reasonable for people to believe that "someone" was watching out for this kind of thing. It is exactly BECAUSE of situations like the real event that happened in this movie that we in 2009 have become so jaded and are more apt to believe that big business and government may not always be looking out for us.

Anyway, the point is that to enjoy this sweet little movie, you have to put yourself in the mindset of the early 80s TV audience.

When Marsha Mason stopped making movies on a regular basis (television or otherwise), the world of cinema lost a great natural dramatic resource: feisty, fiery, forthright, and intensely human, Mason gets down to the grit of her characters and makes them approachable, companionable. This troubling true story about an ordinary, under-educated housewife in late-1970s Niagara Falls, New York--who almost accidentally became the spearhead of a revolt by the people against the government and chemical companies who were dumping toxins into their water supply--really needs Mason's spirit to get it over the proverbial red tape and academic detail. The teleplay has been conceived in such didactic terms that every scene plays like another chapter in a medical journal, with one human calamity landing atop another. Lois Gibbs started out fighting for one sick child, and ended up defending family, friends, neighbors, and strangers. She emerges as a true heroine, though this film about her uphill struggle is balky, occasionally talky, and visually ungainly. It also features a barrage of stubborn characters who are nearly rendered unbelievable by their dialogue (such as Gibbs' own husband who, upon hearing a litany of chemical-related travesties described in the newspaper, chalks it all up to media sensationalism!). Nevertheless, an emotionally gripping document in the David-and-Goliath vein, thanks in no small part to Mason's well-displayed heart and courage.