Movie Assignment

For the movie assignment, I chose to watch Erin Brockovich. This movie is riddled with conflict, many of them internal. I’m going to start with the internal conflicts because it’s the first type of conflict presented in the movie. There is the conflict within Erin herself. She talks about how she wanted to go to medical school and ended up marrying young and having children. This is a reoccurring theme throughout the movie, Erin’s reality conflicts with what she feels her potential is.

As the movie progresses, Erin has many other internal struggles that she goes through. She struggles with her pride when she asks Ed Masery about an advance on her paycheck. Although she needs the money to survive, her pride makes her reluctant to take the money he offers. As she gets to know George (the neighbor) better, she struggles with whether to trust him or not. Although she wants to trust him and depend on him, she is hesitant because she’s been let down so many times before. Erin finds herself torn between her family and her job that is requiring her to spend so much time away from home. She loves her children and considers them a priority but she feels like she’s finally filling her potential with the role she has played in the case. Her job and her relationship with George are also conflicting. She knows that George is a good man and that he makes her happy but to hold on to that, she would need to let go of her job that is also fulfilling.

Some of the other characters also have internal conflicts in the movie. Ed Masery is conflicted with wanting to do what is right for the plaintiff versus what he knows is a sound business decision. Mrs. Jensen (the main plaintiff in the movie) is conflicted wanting to believe the best in people and believing the cold hard facts. When Erin presents the facts she’s uncovered about PG&E, Mrs. Jensen is reluctant to accept them because she can’t believe that the company would discard her family’s health.

There are also a few more obvious external conflicts in the movie. Erin and George have different view points when it comes to spending time with her family. He feels that a job is a job and she feels her job is more important than that. There are the conflicts between the lawyers and plaintiffs and among the plaintiffs themselves. Erin and Ed Masery negotiate over what her work is worth. This conflict is the most ironic one. Erin is so used to being sold short when it comes to her worth that she automatically expects it when Ed Masery discusses her bonus at the end of the movie. Instead, he’s realized her potential, respects her dedication and hard work, and decides to increase her bonus to a much higher amount than she original expected. The end of the movie resolves another conflict Erin has experienced. She brings George with her to tell Mrs. Jensen about her very large settlement and allows him to see what she found so important about her job.