''Class Action'' is a 1991 American

legal drama Legal drama, also called courtroom drama, is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in wh ...

film directed by

Michael Apted Michael David Apted (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was an English television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the ''Up (film series), Up'' documentary series from 1970 to 2019). He later di ...

Gene Hackman Eugene Allen Hackman (January 30, 1930 – ) was an American actor. Hackman made his credited film debut in the drama ''Lilith (film), Lilith'' (1964). He later won two Academy Awards, his first for Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Actor for ...

and

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (born November 17, 1958) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of ''West Side Story'', and went on to appear in the 1983 film '' Scarface'' as Al Pacino's character's si ...

star;

Larry Fishburne Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. Throughout his career, he has gained recognition for his roles on stage and screen as militant and authoritative characters. His accolades include six Emmy Awards, a Tony ...

Colin Friels Colin Friels (born 25 September 1952) is an Australian actor of theatre, TV, film and presenter. Early life Friels was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland.Interview with Colin Friels, ''George Negus Tonight'' (ABC Television), 26 August 200 ...

Fred Dalton Thompson Freddie Dalton Thompson (August 19, 1942 – November 1, 2015) was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor, and radio personality. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States senator from Tennessee f ...

, and

Donald Moffat Donald Moffat (December 26, 1930 – December 20, 2018) was a British-American actor with a decades-long career in film and stage in the United States. Moffat began his acting career on- and off- Broadway, which included appearances in ''The ...

are also featured. The film was entered into the

17th Moscow International Film Festival The 17th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 8 to 19 July 1991. The Golden St. George was awarded to the Soviet-German film '' Spotted Dog Running at the Edge of the Sea'' directed by Karen Gevorkian. Jury * Oleg Yankovsky (Soviet ...

Plot

The story is about a

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

concerning injuries caused by a defective automobile. The suit takes on a personal dimension because the injured plaintiff's attorney, Jedediah Tucker Ward, discovers that the automobile manufacturer's attorney is his estranged daughter, Maggie Ward. Jedediah Ward is a liberal

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

lawyer who has based his career on helping people avoid being taken for a ride by the rich and powerful; he's pursued principle at the expense of profit, though he has a bad habit of not following up on his clients after their cases are settled. Jed's daughter, Maggie, has had a bad relationship with her father ever since she discovered that he was cheating on her mother, Estelle, and while she also has made a career in law, she has taken a very different professional route by working for a high-powered corporate law firm and has adopted a self-interested political agenda. Jed is hired to help field a lawsuit against ARGO, a major auto manufacturer, whose Meridian station wagons have a dangerous propensity to explode on impact when the left turn signal light is activated. While his research indicates that he has an all but airtight case against them, the case becomes more complicated for him when he discovers that Maggie is representing the firm he's suing.

Cast

Production notes

The central premise of the film is roughly analogous to the controversy surrounding the

Ford Pinto The Ford Pinto is a subcompact car that was manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company in North America from 1970 until 1980. The Pinto was the first subcompact vehicle produced by Ford in North America. The Pinto was marketed in three bo ...

and its fuel tank design. A 1977 article in '' Mother Jones'' alleged Ford was aware of the design flaw, refused to pay for a redesign, and decided it would be cheaper to pay off possible lawsuits. The magazine obtained a cost-benefit analysis that it said Ford had used to compare the cost of repairs (Ford estimated the cost to be $11 per car) against the cost of settlements for deaths, injuries, and vehicle burnouts. The memo in question was actually prepared by Ford in response to a

NHTSA The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation, focused on automobile safety regulations. NHTSA is charged with writing and enforcing Feder ...

request for comment, it reviewed not Ford but the entire new car market and was not used to make product decisions at Ford. The document became known as the ''Ford Pinto Memo''.

Locations

Scenes of the film were shot in the restaurant of the

Beach Chalet The Beach Chalet is a historic two-story Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, located at the far western end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The building is owned by the San Francisco Recreation & ...

Ocean Beach, San Francisco Ocean Beach is a beach on the west coast of San Francisco, California, United States. Bordering the Pacific Ocean, the beach is 3.5 miles long, and it is known for its strong currents, surf culture, foggy weather in the late spring and summer, ...

and show historic 1930s murals of San Francisco life by Lucien Labaudt.

Reception

''Class Action'' opened at #4 in its opening weekend with $4,207,923 and ended with a domestic gross of $24,277,858; a worldwide total of $28,277,918 was made and the film was a moderate box office success. The film received generally positive reviews. It holds a 77% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

from 26 critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it has a score of 58 out of 100 based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

References

External links

* * * * * *
Interview with Producer Robert Cort and writers Carolyn Shelby and Christopher Ames on the film's 20th anniversary
at Abnormal Use {{DEFAULTSORT:Class Action 1991 films 1990s legal drama films 1991 thriller films American legal drama films American thriller films Class action lawsuits American courtroom films 1990s English-language films Films about lawsuits Films directed by Michael Apted Films scored by James Horner Films set in San Francisco Interscope Communications films 20th Century Fox films 1991 drama films Films produced by Scott Kroopf Films about father–daughter relationships 1990s American films English-language thriller films