Erin Brockovich

Steven Soderbergh tells the hexavalent chromium case in Hinkley from a law clerk going door to door, not from inside the firm. The contamination had come from a natural gas compressor station since 1952; the case settled in 1996 for 333 million dollars. It was shot in the towns where it happened: Hinkley, Boron, Barstow, Ventura and Los Angeles. Hinkley residents were cast as extras and in smaller parts, and Judge LeRoy A. Simmons, who presided over the real PG&E hearing, plays himself. The real Erin Brockovich turns up as a waitress, the real lawyer Ed Masry in a booth behind her. Julia Roberts was paid 20 million dollars, the first actress to receive that figure. Roberts won the Academy Award for actress in a leading role. The film was also nominated for best picture, directing, supporting actor and original screenplay, and lost all four. Soderbergh was nominated twice in directing that year and took the statue for Traffic. The first cut ran 3 hours and 15 minutes. A good fit if you want the win collected file by file and door by door, and count the town’s own residents in frame as part of it. Not for viewers who want Hinkley to own its story; some residents later felt shown as a bunch of hicks.