She said it best when she told George that people quit talking when she walks in a room to see if she has anything to say. I'm not saying she didn't care about the plaintiffs in the case, but she cared more about herself, being important and looking good.
No, it's just another facet of why the job was important to her. If you've lived a life where everybody always told you how much of a failure you are, you start to believe it. Then, when you find out you're not such a failure, it's quite a good feeling, rather heady and intoxicating. So maybe that's one thing she was getting from the job that she didn't get anywhere else.
She didn't care that George was being left home to raise her kids.
I don't know how the real Erin Brockovich felt, but in the film, she clearly feels bad about being away from home so much. I don't think she really ever says it, but it is plain to see. And as for George being "left at home to raise her kids", George wasn't FORCED to do any of that. He chose to do it. And he makes it clear, in the film, that he works construction part of the year and saves up money so that he can spend the rest of the year at home, working from home. So it's not like he was really giving up a job or something major to do that. He volunteered to do it.
She didn't care when Ed said he was going to have to take out a 2nd mortgage on his house. Remember her reply? "So?" She didn't care whether Ed was inconvenienced or devastated financially, which was a possibility in this case because the outcome early on was not known for sure. Erin had never worked hard in her life...and had no idea what it was like for someone like Ed to work his entire life to accumulate a life savings...and to have a case like this jeopardize that lifetime of work. Nope..she just wanted what she wanted.
She says, "So?" meaning, "What's one person's mortgage or even one person's financially stability compared to a whole town full of sick and dying people who are going to continue to get sick and die and not have any way to pay their medical bills unless somebody steps in and exposes what's really going on and helps them out? What's one person's financial stability compared to that?"
She wanted to play with the big kids even though she did not go to school and go through the same life experiences the big kids did, i.e., she was a lawyer wannabe but couldn't accept the fact that she didn't have an education and wasn't on the same level as they.
Oh, I could go on and on about all the educated idiots I've run into, but I won't. And yes, I'm an educated person, so I'm not talking out of bitterness. Like a friend of mine said, who has a Ph.D in English, "Sometimes, I'm ashamed to admit I have a Ph.D because most of the Ph.D's I know couldn't pour piss out of a boot without the instructions being on the heel." "Same level"? Since when does having an education mean that you're better than everyone else?
She was offensive to those who had put in the time to be lawyers so they could play with the big kids. And, while I'm on that subject, if she had the "600" phone numbers in her head, did it ever occur to her that she SHOULD perhaps put them in the files? No..because this was one more way she could control the situation. Only she had the info...what if she got killed or hurt badly? The info wouldn't have been in the file, and someone would have had to start over on it. She didn't care. She felt this kept her in the drivers seat.
While I agree that she should've filed away their phone numbers somewhere, I don't think she left it undone solely so that she could be in the driver's seat. Being an office person myself, some things like that you don't even think of, because this is YOUR work, not somebody else's, so you do it YOUR way and it's hard to explain your methods to somebody else. I can't even begin to explain how many times I've gotten in trouble with my boss over that, but that's just how it is. It's not a control thing; it's a this-is-the-only-way-these-things-make-sense-to-me-and-so-that's-why-I-do-it-this-way type of thing.
Her own perception of her value was obvious when she asked Ed, "Did you tell them that" after Ed told her she was important to him on the case. She wanted constant ego-stroking, either from Ed or the plaintiffs to confirm her own perception of her value.
It's not an ego-stroking thing to expect your coworkers to treat you with respect. Ed had just told her that he was bringing in these people to work with her, without, by the way, even telling her that he was going to do that. I know he was the boss and all, but still, it would've been a common courtesy to at least warn her that it was going to happen. (As it was, it appeared that he was going behind her back and giving the work she had done to somebody else who was then going to get all the credit for it and most of the pay. I'd be hacked off, too!) When she was asking him, "Did you tell them that?", she was trying to be sure that they weren't just going to look down their noses at her and treat her like crap, which, by the way, they TRIED to do.
She didn't care that Ed thought she should dress more appropriately.
I found her cussing, screaming rants to be nothing but an additional indication of her instability and short fuse. She was basically a bully with boobs, who couldn't take one bit of criticism.
While I don't agree with her cursing like that, nah, she was just ballsy and assertive. So as far as "a bully with boobs" goes, I wonder: If Erin Brockovich had been a man instead of a woman...if, say, he was named Eric Brockovich...would you still think he was a bully? Chances are that, like most of our society, you wouldn't. In fact, chances are you and most of the rest of society would think that ERIC Brockovich was a strong, assertive, tells-it-like-it-is type of person and...dare I say it?...a HERO, even. But, somehow, when it comes to a woman displaying those same qualities, it's frowned upon. Why is that?
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claudia_vz86
15 years ago
"If Erin Brockovich had been a man instead of a woman...if, say, he was named Eric Brockovich...would you still think he was a bully? Chances are that, like most of our society, you wouldn't. In fact, chances are you and most of the rest of society would think that ERIC Brockovich was a strong, assertive, tells-it-like-it-is type of person and...dare I say it?...a HERO, even. But, somehow, when it comes to a woman displaying those same qualities, it's frowned upon. Why is that?"
Here here! Well said, rickyfan. Couldn't have said it better myself.
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michelle-moran
14 years ago
Totally true!!!
I've worked in the litigation field (as a paralegal) for 15 years. As I explained to someone who was getting out because she couldn't hack it, "you don't go into this job to help people. If you want to help people, become a nurse. You go into this field because you like to argue, beat the crap out of people and be right. And women in the field have to be twice as smart and be twice as strong to be successful." It's all about kicking ass and taking names. Being a push over will not get you anywhere, especially in litigation.
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heathentart
15 years ago
rickyfan,
Wonderful job!! You elucidated all the arguments I wanted to make. Bravo for stating it all so clearly and logically.
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oaksjm
15 years ago
If a man tries to act like Erin in his office he gets sued for harassment instantly and he does not look like a hero. He looks like Ari Gold from Entourage.
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sherbaum1985
11 years ago
While I don't agree with her cursing like that, nah, she was just ballsy and assertive. So as far as "a bully with boobs" goes, I wonder: If Erin Brockovich had been a man instead of a woman...if, say, he was named Eric Brockovich...would you still think he was a bully? Chances are that, like most of our society, you wouldn't. In fact, chances are you and most of the rest of society would think that ERIC Brockovich was a strong, assertive, tells-it-like-it-is type of person and...dare I say it?...a HERO, even. But, somehow, when it comes to a woman displaying those same qualities, it's frowned upon. Why is that?
Because it's not lady-like. Remember how Ed said something to her about charm school right after she berated the other female lawyer with the phone number scene? Women today are going further and further away from the image of being ladies and becoming more and more dominant. It's evident in the way it's "humorous and cute" to see a guy get yelled at by his wife or girlfriend but if a guy yells at her then he's an a**hole. Just watch an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond!!! Poor Ray gets emasculated every freakin' episode and it's supposed to be funny to us?! Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that there's a professional way to handle things and in this movie Erin clearly didn't do that.
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Dark_Star1
9 years ago
While I don't agree with her cursing like that, nah, she was just ballsy and assertive. So as far as "a bully with boobs" goes, I wonder: If Erin Brockovich had been a man instead of a woman...if, say, he was named Eric Brockovich...would you still think he was a bully? Chances are that, like most of our society, you wouldn't. In fact, chances are you and most of the rest of society would think that ERIC Brockovich was a strong, assertive, tells-it-like-it-is type of person and...dare I say it?...a HERO, even.
No, I would have thought - and with ample justification - that she was an arrogant, condescending, self-absorbed dick, instead of an arrogant, condescending, self-absorbed bitch.
In that scene where she was first introduced to the legal reinforcements played by Peter Coyote and Veanne Cox, it's true that they initially misjudged her and completely underestimated her ability. So yes, it's quite understandable that her feathers would have been ruffled and she would have been offended. But to their credit, they almost immediately recognized that they had seriously underestimated her, and they clearly were very impressed and recognized that she was a very talented and valuable asset to the team.
They immediately tried to make amends, apologize, and get off to a new start. The mature, professional thing to do would have been to accept their olive branch, and move on. After all, they were on the same side, and they were making a sincere attempt to establish a productive and mutually respectful professional working relationship. Because that was what would have been in the best interests of the client, and that's what is supposed to come first.
But no. Instead of meeting them halfway and accepting their acknowledgment that they had been wrong about her and that she was a woman of considerable ability, and their attempt to start with a fresh approach, she just threw it back in their faces and treated them like crap. I don't think there's anything "strong and assertive" about that at all, whether it's coming from a male or a female - it's childish, insecure, self-absorbed, and whiny. It wasn't about the job they were trying to do for the clients, or working together as a team - it was all about her poor hurt feelings, and teaching people a lesson. That was the point where I lost a great deal of respect for the character she was playing, and i never really got it back.
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