Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Very good movie on the subject. I have no doubt most people watching it in '91 thought, 'Pinto'. Verdict was upheld for the plaintiff in '81 against an appeal by Ford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_Action_(film)

Production notes

The central premise of the film is roughly analogous to the controversy surrounding the Ford Pinto 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 request for comment, it reviewed not Ford but the entire new car market and was not used to make product decisions at Ford.[3][4] The document became known as the Ford Pinto Memo.[5]

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.[1]

The film received generally positive reviews. It holds a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 26 critics