ERIN BROCKOVICH

[jacqueline]

Hi Mike!

Erin Brockovich was the movie I enjoyed the most since the first class! Actually when you told us it would be a serious movie the week before, I was kinda worry because I was afraid I would be bored. However, it failed to bored me, it impressed me seriously.

Without doubt, the wholes story is inspiring as well as stirring. But what impressed me the most was Julia Roberts. She gave the characteristic so much and it was almost ten years after the first time she was nominated by the Oscar, but she won what she deserved by this movie finally. Though I don't know how the true Erin Brocovich would be, I can see her beauty, careless, strength and wisdom from Julia Roberts acting. What's could a director want more, right? And another amazing part of this movie is that although all of us have already known the end of the story, we are will attracted by the plot.

This movie also reminds me of another one－Legally Blonde. The latter one is also about a charming girl who has no any knowledge background about law finally finds her niche as a lawyer. But it's totally a different style compared to Erin Brockovich, Legally Blonde would be a typical chick flick one. Usually I prefer this kind of movie more than the serious one like Erin Brockovich cause I always feel peaceful when seeing the former type. But surprisingly I felt peaceful also when seeing Erin Brockovich at class! Maybe I should try not to be scared by the type of a movie next time. Starting with the America History X, haha~

[dr.musleh.dent]

How does Erin's life change during the course of the story?
She becomes a successful person because she wants to change there're so many difficulties in her way, but she has a great goal to reach. She doesn't want her kids to feel any sore she felt.

What character traits help her to become successful?
Herself, she was self motivated and has a good memory that helped her.
George, he was a good person and he helped her with her kids.
Ed, he gives her all what she needs to solve this problem.

Why are Erin and Ed Masrey well-suited for each other?
Ed was the knowledgeable one and Erin was the emotional person.
Ed was a good arguing person and Erin was hard worker one.

Write a setup/opinion of ERIN BROCKOVICH.
It's been interesting and inspiring to me, I like it and I'll recommend this movie.

[Yoni chang]

At the beginning of the movie, Erin repeatedly got fired from many companies, and she was always angry about her situations, struggling with the starvation and lack of money. However, she became persistent with her works dealing with the water pollution law suit. Moreover, Erin was the woman who highly relied on ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends a lot, but she became independent and more cared of her children.

The factor that Erin can be successful in results is her emotional empathy with the clients. She talked with every victim of the water pollution, and she worked day and night without the rest to help them. Moreover, she was brave to take the side against the hugh company in the court, assisting with Ed Masrey who is the lawyer. Although he is experienced lawyer, he lacks the ability to communicate with the client. In this point, Erin and Ed could make synergy effects combining empathy ability and knowledges in the law.

I was really touched because it is based on the true story, and can see Erin become the better person.

[Daeyoungkim]

Amazingly, the Movie Erin Brockovich is based on true story about a brave and responsibility woman, Erin Brockovich.
This movie teach us about the power of justice.

Erin has no job and money. She has only almost $20,000 debt, twice-divorced and lovely three children. she tried to get a job for their children. A day, she got a car accident, and visit a attorney, Ed Masry, to win her suit. To Erin`s sorrow, she did not get any money and lose the suit. So, she asked to Ed for getting job, and she worked at Ed`s office. After she has worked in Ed’s law office, Erin uncovered one of the biggest corporate mistake, PG&E dumbed poisoned the water at their Hinkley plant. The company just disembogues dirty water,Chromium 6, a known human carcinogen, into soil just for saving a little budget. It could cause serious results like animals’ death, children’s illnesses of cancer, women`s disease. However, PG&E tired to hide true and escape this problem without compensation. Erin’s efforts were never betray her and victims. Finally, they won the suit and PG&E apologized to people. This scandal has changed Erin`s life and she was also changed her life purpose.

This movie provides us with the invaluable opportunity and tell us what is purpose in life: Believe justice and helping others.

[Yuqing sun]

This movie tells the story of a strong-minded woman, Erin Brockowich, who had a measurable life but soon found her love -- finding justice for 643 sewage lawsuit plaintiffs. She did not accept the professional education of how to become a lawyer; she did not have great reputation in the legal industry; she even did not gain trust from her colleagues. However, unlike the professional guys who are arrogant and proud with shinny titles above their head, Erin can easily read people's mind and try to understand the clients' situation and, against all the odds, help them go through hardship.

I was so impressed by Erin because she use her own experience to teach us a lesson that we should always be brave. A bankrupt single mother with three children and two marriages can stand up and brave the wind. Why can't us? There is an old saying in China that we are not born with courage but neither are we born with fear. Courage is the most valuable thing for a person to achieve his/her value and conquer all the difficulties along the way.

Sometimes, people may be blinded by the short-term economic benefits brought by big enterprises, and therefor neglect further side-effect that pollution can bring. In recent years, environment pollution has become a social hit and a critical issue that needs to pay more attention on. Some Chinese people do not know the importance of preventing our land or air from polluted therefore leads to the heavy smog, by which Beijing was covered. After all , this is the only planet we can live on.

[YiminGu]

Erin Brockovich, featuring an unemployed single mother, strongly contrasts with last week’s movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, where we can smell the machismo through the screen. Starting work as a file clerk in Ed's office, Erin accidentally finds some files about a strange pro-bono case and starts to dig in. She fights through many obstacles to win a lawsuit brought by Ed Masry's law firm against PG&E.

Traditionally, females are considered to be the more peaceful gender which is better suitable for the tasks of raising children and dealing with housework, while men are viewed as the breadwinners who should take care of the financial problem of a household. Instead of complaining about the prejudice and the unfair treatment from the society, she stands up and fights violently back.

In China, women are always compared to water: water to the earth is what women are to their babies; water doesn’t have a fixed form and women have the most changeable expression; water’s tenderness melt iceberg into brook and women’s gentleness can be a latent power that changes groan into smile, anxiety into peace. With this bred-in-the-bone advantage, Erin walks through many difficulties that men cannot easily overcome.

“Women are never stronger than when they arm themselves with their weakness.” Constant dripping wears away a stone and permanent tenderness brings others to heel. With such a weapon, women like Erin can change the portentous into the propitious, turn hostility into friendship and convert sorrow into strength.

Teacher's note: This narrative of a woman's spirit is fascinating - and beautiful. I wonder, what is a man's spirit like? Thanks for posting.

--mike http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[Yumqqq]

Hello everyone! This is Yumqqq

Among all the movies that we've watched during the class, Erin Brockovich is the one that I like most so far. I didn't watch too many Julia Roberts' movies before, and I think the last one I watched is Eat, Pray, Love. In Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts has shaped a character that really inspires me. At the beginning, Erin is a woman with very bad luck. She has divorced twice, has 3 kids to raise, and she just lost her job with almost no money on her bank account. But she is also a quite brave woman who keeps looking for a job even after she has been turned down for several times, who later upholds justice for those whose interest have been seriously harmed by one of the most powerful companies in the US.

And the love story between George and Erin also moves me quite a lot. George seems to be a guy who is supposed to live a life free of worries, but he chooses to stay with Erin, and help her take care of the three kids. George always supports Erin's career, even though sometime he doubts himself for doing so, he chooses to come back to Erin at the end of the movie.

Erin Brockovich is a absolutely fighter in life, and her personalities are also quite attractive. She kind of gives me signal that even may be at the bottom of the life, at a time when one feels so lonely, one should not give up on himself/herself, and work hard.

-Yumqqq.

[RayXiao]

In the movie, what catches my attention and leads to her success is Erin's three characteristic traits: caring, devoting, concentrated.

She first devoted her whole heart into the PG&E case because she cares about people. She cares, and she wants to protect and make things right for those who are harmed but innocent. I believe this power majorly come from her mothering nature as well as her personality. During her investigation, what deeply changed her was the Jenson family, from whom Erin saw pain, suffering, and yet in the suffering they still have hope, and faith in life. I could feel what Erin feels. Watching a family as such suffer what they never deserve could light up one's anger towards those who deserve justice.

She cares, therefore she devotes. She devotes herself into the case, expecting to make a change with her best effort. Were it not for being devoting, Erin could never have pulled these things off. Working overtime relentlessly, investigating numerous families, figuring all sorts of ways to dig up materials and evidences. These evidence gathering could take a team of investigators much more time, but for a devoting Erin, she never feared and never stopped, and kept on with her work even though family burden slow her down sometimes. She is willing to sacrifice for the greater good of a group of strangers. Innocent strangers.

Last but not least, Erin is concentrated. Her work ethic is unparalleled. No matter what is in her way, she always has a plan to step over it, or go around it. Remembering almost every phone number, every family member, and even the illnesses for those members takes a great deal of time and dedication. But Erin's concentration on work, on caring people and on seeking justice get her through those thick and thin.

Erin's story is inspiring. She builds every brick for her success.

Teacher's note: Thank you author for a thought piece that describes the growing level of commitment which Erin displays throughout her story. When a character grows or changes, this is referred to as the "character arc". I'd agree that Erin has a pronounced character arc in this classic film. Finally, I like how you characterize Erin's relentless devotion to her task, how she never deviates along the pathway. I like this essay.

--mike http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[zuhui]

How does Erin's life change during the course of the story?

At the very beginning of the story, I think Erin is a poor and bad emotional single mother, but full of responsibility for her three children. She looked for jobs on newspaper and went to different interviews but got rejected very times and very unfortunately she also got car accident. At that time I think she is the worst luck person in the world. But things always happened in a way that you can't predict. Because of this accident she met her lawyer and also her boss in the future. After a series unsuccessful experience about the car accident, Erin started to work in the law corporation. She started to learn things and found a serious problem about P&GE company. She started to focus on this issue and started to gain people's respect. She insisted with what she was looking for and tried to use every method to get the evidence. All the hard work gets paid. Finally, she succeeded in this case, and her life changed a lot, new life is saying hi to her.

What character traits help her to become successful.

I think there are two main character traits on her make she successful.
The first one is the persistence. We can find out on her about persistence in her whole life, not only about her job and position but also about her children. No matter how bad the situation is, she never let her children live badly. And even she got fire by her boss, she still keeps everything about the case she insisted on. Also, during the case process, her boyfriend decided to break up with her but she still can not give up her job she wants to help more people to save more lives. In her world, nothing about money.
The second one is her bad temper. She is always hard, and never make concession. Her bad temper helped her a lot during the case process.

Why are Erin and Ed Masrey well-suited for each other?

Ed is her boss, he is a really professional old lawyer and have good idea and strategies about the case, but he was sometimes consider about the benefit and that may lead him to give up the case. And another thing is he sometimes don't know how to get close to his clients, sometimes he made time embarrassing. The last point is that he is not hard enough to deal with different situations. These aspects, Erin can perfectly fit in and to make those perfectly work out. Erin is a bad temper woman, and Ed can get control of her bad mood sometimes. So these two people are perfectly arch to work together.

Write a setup/opinion of Erin Brockovich.
I never watched this movie before and this time you made me fall in love with it crazily. I love this woman and love this story. It makes me feel that I need to fight and work for something Meaningful. It inspires me a lot!

[Xiaoyu]

How does Erin's life change during the course of the story?
What character traits help her to become successful?
Why are Erin and Ed Masrey well-suited for each other?
Write a setup/opinion of ERIN BROCKOVICH.

This movie really cheer me up. Erin is a unremitting woman who raise 3 children by herself and did well on her job. As a girl, I'm not a lawyer and I will not meet any as tough situation as Erin faced in the movie, but I do appreciate her persistence. As for me, I think a single mom's life must be tough, let alone 3 children!

I think Erin and Ed well-suited for each other because they are two totally different people. Ed is a typical lawyer in the U.S. Serious, focus on cases, maybe sometimes care about money. But Erin can understand their clients' feeling and struggle for their lawsuit.

What makes Erin did her job is her family. She is a great woman. She did everything for her family and people who suffer from the pollution. She finally realized that she can rely herself to make a living but not anyone else. I appreciate that I could have an opportunity to watch this movie!

Thank you!