Real women wear flannel: Charlize Theron as Josie Aimes in North Country. Courtesy Warner Bros.
In Niki Caro’s North Country, Charlize Theron plays Josey Aimes, a young mother of two who takes a grungy, thankless job in an iron mine in northern Minnesota. While the pay is better than at her previous job in a beauty salon, Aimes’s new male co-workers are a slobbering pack of Neanderthals; angry that she’s doing a man’s work, they start harassing her with taunts before resorting to outright assault. Hurt and alienated, Aimes enlists a disgraced but sympathetic lawyer (Woody Harrelson) to take the mining company’s executives to court for sexual harassment. The film’s soundtrack features wall-to-wall Bob Dylan (Hibbing, Minnesota’s most famous son), a hint, should you need it, of the film’s left-liberal politics.
North Country isn’t a great film, but it’s an earnest one, and the latest example of an enduring cinematic tradition: the female whistleblower movie. Always based on a true story, these pictures generally transform pretty-faced actresses into legitimate thespians; award nominations are practically handed out at the crafts services table. Here, a brief guide to this hard-won genre.
Sally Field as Norma Rae. Courtesy Fox Home Video.
Norma Rae (1979)
Star: Sally
Field
History lesson: In the early
’70s, Crystal Lee Sutton was fired
from her job at the J.P. Stevens
plant in Roanoke Rapids, North
Carolina (where she was making
$2.65 an hour folding towels) for
trying to unionize its employees
(all figures U.S. dollars). The
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile
Workers Union won the right to represent the
workers at the plant on Aug. 28,
1974. Sutton became a paid organizer
for the ACTWU.
The Hollywood version: In
1978, Norma Rae (Field), a hardworking single
mother employed at a southern U.S. textile mill,
decides to unionize her co-workers at the behest
of a New York labour organization. Obsessed with
the cause, Rae holds pro-union meetings and incurs
the fury of the community and her employers.
She is ultimately vindicated when the factory
workers vote in favour of a union.
Soapbox moment: Rae stands
on a table in a deafening factory and, in order
to spur her co-workers, holds up a sign emblazoned
in black marker with the word UNION. One by one,
her fellows turn off their machines in solidarity.
Legal payoff: In 1977, Sutton
was awarded $13,436 in back wages
and her job was reinstated by court
order.
Critical payoff: Sally Field
won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and the Best Actress
prize at Cannes. Norma Rae also earned
a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture.
Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood. Photo Twentieth Century Fox/Getty Images.
Silkwood (1983)
Star: Meryl Streep
History lesson: In 1974, 28-year-old
Karen Silkwood, a fun-loving employee
of Kerr-McGee’s Cimarron Plutonium
Recycling Facility in Cimarron, Oklahoma,
began to question the company’s appalling
safety standards. She threw herself
into union work — becoming the first
female union committee member in the
plant’s history — and began to surreptitiously
investigate the company. On her way to an interview
with a New York Times reporter,
Silkwood died in an unexplained auto
accident.
The Hollywood version: Silkwood
(Streep), a fun-loving employee of
Kerr-McGee’s Cimarron Plutonium Recycling Facility
in Cimarron, Oklahoma, begins to question the company’s
appalling safety standards. She throws herself
into union work — becoming the first female union
committee member in the plant’s history — and begins
to surreptitiously investigate the company. Meanwhile,
her domestic life falls into disarray:
Silkwood’s boyfriend (played by Kurt Russell) leaves
her and her best friend (Cher) reveals she’s in
love with her. On her way to an interview with
a New York Times reporter, Silkwood dies in an
unexplained auto accident.
Soapbox moment: Silkwood
is contaminated by plutonium. Alarms go off.
She is subjected to a painful and humiliating
cleansing, her nude body rubbed raw.
Legal payoff: Silkwood’s
father filed a lawsuit against Kerr-McGee
on behalf of Karen’s children, alleging
that the company was responsible for her radiation
contamination. Kerr-McGee settled the
lawsuit in 1986 for $1.3 million, without actually
admitting liability.
Critical payoff: Five Oscar
nominations. Cher won a Best Supporting Actress
Golden Globe.
Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich. Photo Bob Marshak/AFP/Getty Images.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Star: Julia Roberts
History lesson: In the early
’90s, in the small, desert town of Hinkley, California,
Pacific Gas and Electric discovered that it had
contaminated the town’s water supply with a highly
carcinogenic substance. Residents became suspicious
when the utility tried to buy up their homes
at exorbitant prices. In 1992, ex-beauty queen
Erin Brockovich, a clerk at a small law firm,
convinced her boss to take on the residents’
suit against PG&E. A superstar L.A. firm
was hired to assist with the case. The issue
was settled through arbitration, with the plaintiffs
(650 residents) kept out of the process.
The Hollywood version: Brockovich
(Roberts), a sassy but down-on-her-luck
mother of three, gets a clerking job
at a law firm, where she takes it upon herself
to investigate a case involving pollution in Hinkley,
California. She travels to the town
on her own initiative and then persuades her employer
to take on the case. After much anguish, Hinkley
residents come out with a $333-million award; Brockovich
herself pockets $2 million.
Soapbox moment: Brockovich tells
a group of careless big-city lawyers
that the bottles they’re drinking from have been
filled with water from the contaminated site.
Legal payoff: In 1996, PG&E
settled the Hinkley case for $333 million. The
lawyers received 40 per cent of the settlement;
Hinkley residents were billed an additional $10
million in expenses.
Critical payoff: Five Oscar
nominations. Roberts bagged
an Oscar, a Golden Globe and an MTV
Movie Award.
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