Presumed Innocent (1990)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Alan J. Pakula

Writers (WGA):

Scott Turow (novel)
Frank Pierson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

27 July 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Sometimes it's dangerous to presume.

Plot:

When the woman deputy prosecutor R.K. Sabich had an affair with is murdered the prosecutor asks him to lead the investigation. When Sabich digs too deeply he finds himself framed for the murder.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Prosecutor | Suspect | Attorney | Lawyer

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Harrison Ford	...	Rusty Sabich
Brian Dennehy	...	Raymond Horgan
Raul Julia	...	Alejandro 'Sandy' Stern
Bonnie Bedelia	...	Barbara Sabich
Paul Winfield	...	Judge Larren Lyttle
Greta Scacchi	...	Carolyn Polhemus
John Spencer	...	Det. Lipranzer
Joe Grifasi	...	Tommy Molto
Tom Mardirosian	...	Nico Della Guardia
Anna Maria Horsford	...	Eugenia
Sab Shimono	...	'Painless' Kumagai
Bradley Whitford	...	Jamie Kemp
Christine Estabrook	...	Lydia 'Mac' MacDougall
Michael Tolan	...	Mr. Polhemus
Madison Arnold	...	Sgt. Lionel Kenneally

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:15 (original rating) (cut) | UK:18 (video rating) (uncut) | South Korea:18 | New Zealand:PG | Argentina:18 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:16 | Norway:15 | Singapore:M18 | Sweden:11 | USA:R | Canada:A (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

Allendale, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Mirage

Trivia:

The ending was given away in an episode of "The Kids in the Hall" (1988).

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): A reporter thrusts a small tape recorder in front of Sandy Stern outside the courthouse, and it is possible to see that there is no tape in it. Although this is a mistake, it may be a mistake by the character holding the tape recorder, not the filmmakers.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Rusty Sabich: [voiceover] I'm a prosecutor. I'm part of the business of accusing, judging and punishing. I explore the evidence of a crime and determine who is charged, who is brought to this room to be tried before his peers. I present my evidence to the jury and they deliberate upon it. They must determine what really happened. If they cannot, we will not know whether the accused deserves to be freed or should be punished. If they cannot find the truth, what is our hope of justice?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Ten (2007)

Soundtrack:

MacNamara's Band

These Lawyers Keep Writing Novels

It used to be doctors that boasted about the literary artists that rose from their ranks -- William Carlos Williams, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Michael Crighton, Frank Slaughter. (Frank Slaughter?) Now it's coming to be lawyers. Back in 1959, "Anatomy of a Murder" was a lonely best seller. Lately there has been a cascade of more or less autobiographical books about lawyers from the likes of Turow and Gresham. And the movies inevitably follow the bucks, I mean the books.

I wish Turow had used a little more imagination in cooking up the names for his characters, especially since they seem designed to represent a little microcosm of ethnic identities. I guess Sabich is properly Polish, and Horgan irretrievably Irish, and lawyer Stern can be a Jewish lawyer who looks and speaks like a Puerto Rican. Polhemus may be a little unusual but not everyone can claim a hyphenized national allegiance.

The attempt is weak with the Italian characters, though. Molto? Too much for me to believe. And Della Guardia is plumb wrong. La Guardia is an occupational name, meaning "guard," pretty much like "Steward" in English. But "de la" indicates a place name, like "von" in German or "van" in Dutch. "Della" and "Guardia" are a mismatched couple. "From the guard"? It would be like an Italian novelist making up a character name like "Cookson" or "Bakerson." The animal doesn't exist.

Oh -- the movie? It's okay. It rolls along in its sexy, suspenseful, stereotypical way, an efficient example of how to reconstruct in an unidentifiable manner a story already familiar from "The Big Clock" and "No Way Out" and "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and a couple of others.

Harrison Ford mopes efficiently through his part. I like Brian Dennehy a lot better as a nice guy than a heavy. Raul Julia is reassuring, almost comforting, in the role of Ford's defense counsel. If I were to be tried for murder I would want him and his underplayed confidence and his big dark gentle eyes to represent me rather than the skulky guilty-looking Ford. Bonny Bedelia is okay. Greta Scacchi is a knockout, so to speak, so it's a double tragedy when she gets her head bashed in. John Spencer is always reliable -- or was. He died a month ago. Too bad, a reliable New Jerseyish everyman.

It's worth catching but not worth commenting further on.