Beth and Michelle step outside their usual comfort zone for Erin Brockovich, Steven Soderbergh’s dramatization of the fight against PG&E over the poisoning of Hinkley, California. Before discussing the film, they examine the real contamination, the families who continued suffering after the settlement, and the environmental disasters that corporations are allowed to hide in communities without the money or political power to fight back.

Erin begins as a broke single mother who is underestimated because of her clothes, education, divorces, and refusal to behave politely. What makes her indispensable is not a law degree but her ability to listen. She remembers every family, every diagnosis, and every detail because the residents never become paperwork to her. That trust allows her to accomplish what the more polished attorneys cannot, even while the work costs her time with her children, strains her relationships, and forces her family to share the burden of doing what is right.

Erin Brockovich easily passes the Castellini Test, but its feminism extends beyond having capable women at the center of the story. It exposes how women, poor families, and rural communities are expected to absorb consequences while powerful men and corporations walk away. The settlement cannot restore lost health or rebuild Hinkley, but the film insists that ordinary people still matter—and that sometimes the most radical act is remembering every one of them.

Links to things we mentioned:

EPA Superfund Site Search

Vulture Interview Erin Brockovich Q&A