 According to the film reviewer, what prevents Schlichtmann from winning the case in "A Civil Action"?
War and Pieces No movie in the last decade has succeeded in psyching out critics and audiences as fully as the powerful, rambling war epic The Thin Red Line , Terrence Malick's return to cinema after 20 years. But Malick, a certified intellectual and the Pynchonesque figure who directed Badlands and Days of Heaven in the 1970s and then disappeared, is in a different philosophical universe from Steven Spielberg. Or "This great evil: Where's it come from? They're central to Malick's vision of the story, however, and not specious. In the combat genre, the phrase "war is hell" usually means nothing more than that it's a bummer to lose a limb or two, or to see your buddy get his head blown off. A true work of art owes us more than literal horrors, and Malick obliges by making his theater of war the setting for nothing less than a meditation on the existence of God. He tells the story solemnly, in three parts, with a big-deal cast (Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, John Cusack) and a few other major stars (John Travolta, Woody Harrelson, George Clooney) dropping by for cameos. The centerpiece--the fighting--goes on for over an hour and features the most frantic and harrowing sequences, chiefly the company's initially unsuccessful frontal assault on a Japanese hilltop bunker. In the final shot, a twisted tree grows on the waterline of the beach, the cycle of life beginning anew.
 Facher keeps Schlichtmann preoccupied with distractions
 Facher is more qualified while Schlichtmann fumbles the testimony  Facher keeps Schlichtmann preoccupied with distractions  Schlichtmann betrays the confidence of his clients  Schlichtmann relies too heavily on a piece of evidence that is never allowed to be presented in court