Most people think they know the "McDonald's coffee case," but what they don't know is that corporations have spent millions distorting the case to promote tort reform. HOT COFFEE reveals how big business, aided by the media, brewed a dangerous concoction of manipulation and lies to protect corporate interests. By following four people whose lives were devastated by the attacks on our courts, the film challenges the assumptions Americans hold about "jackpot justice."
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Reviews
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Admirable film.
Absolutely Fantastic
Blistering performances.
Documentaries like this shows how important empathy and trying to understand things from the other side's point of view is. Sure, when people hear something ridiculous we are quick to jump the gun and come to an accusation. When I was in high school and heard of the hot coffee incident, I found the whole story to be dumb, and judged the victim as well. Now, getting more information on what really went down I actually feel for the old lady and wonder why she didn't get compensated more for the damages. Yeah, she dropped hot coffee on herself by accident, but it was the companies negligence that really did damages to the victim. The hot coffee incident is just the front and it delves into other incidents where victims stories got mislead and overblown by the media. Some of these stories made me upset and ticked off, especially when it came to the story about a woman that got raped, humiliated, physically damaged and locked in a cargo box. This documentary gives a in-depth view on how people with money and power can control and manipulate the message when given to the public. Sure, people can just try to sue people for some easy money. However even the tort reform can be taken advantage of by the people with power to take advantage of the poor or be used to run from their mistakes in a lot of cases. Even the people that know the system can try to get away, instead of paying for their crimes. I wouldn't be surprise if there is more people taking advantage of the tort reform over suing people in order to win some easy money. I give this movie an 8/10 because at few points it did seem to be biased. Besides that I think this is a informative documentary on perception and the court system.8/10
HOT COFFEE (dir. Susan Saladoff) This is a documentary about the woman who spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee on her lap, filed a crazy lawsuit and made millions. "Jackpot Justice", "Frivolous Lawsuits", "Disappearing Doctors", we all know about this one, but have we been given the true facts? This brilliant documentary carefully and methodically shows how Big Business and the Republican Party manipulated this story, and others like it, in an attempt to block citizens from seeking redress in the courts. In order to have any impact in the legislative and executive branches of government you must have access to millions of dollars, and this gives the Super Rich an unbeatable edge. In the judicial branch of government, money is not a factor. A jury of twelve ordinary citizens make the decisions, and 'the job creators' and 'the one percenters' are legally prevented from using their unfair advantage of cash to orchestrate the results. By the way, here's the facts on The McDonald's Case. In 1994 Stella Liebeck accidentally spilled hot coffee in her lap after purchasing it from a McDonald's restaurant and suffered third-degree burns in her pelvic region. Liebeck was hospitalized for eight days while she underwent skin grafting, followed by two years of medical treatment. Although McDonald's had over 700 other complaints concerning injuries due to coffee heated to over 190 degrees Fahrenheit, the company only offered Liebeck eight hundred dollars in compensation for her injury. In the end, both parties settled out of court for an undisclosed amount under $600,000. 'Greedy Victim' and 'Bleeding Heart Jury' are terms that certainly Do Not apply, but you wouldn't think so after listening to how Republicans were able to use this case to invent a bogus issue called, 'Tort Reform'. ABSOLUTE MUST SEE
It took me a few minutes after watching this "documentary" to remember that my mother used to visit friends or have them over, and they were all serving each other tea which they made by boiling water (212 degrees Farenheit...or 22 to 32 degrees hotter than MacDonald's coffee), pouring it into a flimsy teacup and handing it to each other. If any of the ladies had fumbled the tea onto their lap right after the boil, it would have left even worse burns than the old lady in the documentary suffered. I guess that would have been the fault of whomever was serving tea that day! This film was a good example of a public relations effort by the Democrat National Committee or the Obama re-election campaign, but its inability to deal with contrary views (other than as being summarized in a smarmy manner and thrown away as a paper tiger) shows how weak the effort was.
I wish every American could see this film to understand how their views can be manipulated by high paid corporate lobbyists. It also shows how important our court system is to all of us as long as it is kept clean and independent and not subject to outside influence through the campaign financing process. It is well researched and well produced. I am impressed. I have to commend HBO for this production. It is truly relevant and a great contribution to documentary media. I must say I would not have expected them to support such an insightful production that touches on a topic that exposes some of the worst examples of abuse by corporate America. What Halliburton did to its employee was truly outrageous. You will have to see the film to know what I am talking about.
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