The Devil We Know

It was good. Truth. The law works. It was real archived footage. Glad it was done.

As a former resident of Parkersburg, I always heard people talk about the danger of the chemicals produced and disposed of by the multiple plants in the area but never thought much of it because I never had more than hearsay. This documentary is excellent investigative journalism and exposes how DuPont corporate's blasé attitude about toxic chemicals hurt their employees health and the health of surrounding communities. Im so glad this was produced and I hope it prompts government agencies to take more action in regard to unregulated and potentially dangerous chemicals.

Very well made film. The whole thing was informative and well directed. I was particularly impressed with the editing. Certain sequences, especially one near the middle of the film are Oscar worthy. Content of the film is invaluable and well communicated. This is a BBC Storyville documentary film and is of higher quality than what you typically see on Netflix, from younger inexperienced filmmakers. BBC Storyville released another good documentary last year that is also worth seeing: The Work (2017). Different writers/directors, yet still good.

The pacing in this is better than your average Netflix documentary, thanks not just to better editing, directing and writing, but the presentation being in documentary film format, and not the stretched-out documentary series format we see so much of now. Where documentaries which should be 2 hours are stretched out over 6 to 10 and puffed out with much repetition (an awful trend to increase viewing time for their shareholders at the expense of quality and people's time). Wild Wild Country being a prime example of such abuse of the viewer's time, which should have been two episodes and not six. Or preferably documentary film format, like this hidden gem-where filmmakers are forced to cut the unnecessary. If you can find it, watch it. A theatrical release would have been handy. No sign of it on DVD or streaming at this point-Dec 2018. Update: someone uploaded it to YouTube ;-)

First - the documentary. I thought the evidence was damning and generally well presented. It leaves little room for doubt about the harmful effects PFOA and the misguided attempts at damage control by DuPont. The documentary reminds everyone that watches it that the impact of this chemical is global and virtually everyone is impacted, although to what extent is unclear.

Although I consider a 7 star review "very good," I felt balance of time was weighted a little too heavily on a few individuals that were (or may have been) affected by PFOA vs. what took place in the courts. It seemed clear that the producers had access to a fair amount of company documentation and some very telling interviews with company spokesmen as well as attorneys for the plaintiffs and it was those sequences that had the biggest impact for me.

As a retired Mech. Engr. for DuPont, I can honestly say I have never encountered any circumstances where I saw or was asked to do anything morally or legally wrong. I was the project lead on a multi-million dollar solvent capture project, and I can say that our internal Environmental Dept. Representatives were often more trying to deal with on regulatory requirements than the local EPA representatives. That's not to say I dispute the message in this documentary. It's clear some company officials made some very misguided decisions in an effort to limit the financial impact to the corporation.

I was scrolling through my Facebook yesterday when I saw a preview for Dark Waters. I'm looked up who it was based on because I was intrigued . Needless to say 1 NY Times article and this documentary. Has me repeating it to anyone who will listen. The sheer negligence of blatant disregard for human life on the companies involved is disgusting to say the least. My daughter who is 10 was watching this and her face when she realized what we were watching affected her as well was heart breaking. Great documentary. Good enough you had a 10 year old with attention issues to sit and watch.