The Pelican Brief (1993)

A law student uncovers a conspiracy, putting herself and others in danger.

Director:

Alan J. Pakula

Writers:

John Grisham (book), Alan J. Pakula (screenplay)

Stars:

Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Julia Roberts	...	Darby Shaw
Denzel Washington	...	Gray Grantham
Sam Shepard	...	Thomas Callahan
John Heard	...	Gavin Vereek
Tony Goldwyn	...	Fletcher Coal
James Sikking	...	FBI Director Denton Voyles (as James B. Sikking)
William Atherton	...	Bob Gminski
Robert Culp	...	President
Stanley Tucci	...	Khamel
Hume Cronyn	...	Justice Rosenberg
John Lithgow	...	Smith Keen
Anthony Heald	...	Marty Velmano
Nicholas Woodeson	...	Stump
Stanley Anderson	...	Edwin Sneller
John Finn	...	Matthew Barr

Storyline

Two Supreme Court Justices have been killed. Now a college professor, who clerked for one of the two men and who is also having an affair with one of his students, is given a brief by her that states who probably wanted to see these two men dead. He then gives it to one of his friends, who works for the FBI. When the FBI director reads it, he is fascinated by it. One of the president's men who read it is afraid that if it ever got out, the president could be smeared. So he advises the president to tell the director to drop it, which he does. But later the professor and the girl were out and he was drunk and when he refused to give her the keys, she stepped out of the car. When he started it, it blew up. She then discovers that her place has been burglarized and what was taken were her computer and her disks. Obviously, her brief has someone agitated. She then turns to her boyfriend's friend at the FBI. He agrees to come meet her but before he does, someone shoots him and takes his ...

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Plot Keywords:

aerial camera shot | murderess | president | fbi | professor | 

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Taglines:

From the author of "The Firm" and "The Client" and the director of "Presumed Innocent" and "All The President's Men."

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for momentary language and some violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 December 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Pelican Brief

Filming Locations:

Spanish Plaza, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$16,864,404, 19 December 1993, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$100,768,056

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$195,268,056

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

141 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Voyles' greeting to Darby Shaw, "So you're the little lady that started this great brouhaha", is likely an allusion to President Lincoln's famous (apocryphal) greeting to Harriet Beecher Stowe (who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin"): "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war".

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Goofs

In the videotape the oil and gas lawyer Curtis Morgan leaves for his wife, he says that he lifted an incriminating memo from the desk of a lawyer at White and Blazovitch dated September 28th. But when Gray Grantham calls around confirming the facts before running the story on the memo, he says it was dated April 11th.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Justice Rosenberg: Any of those signs got my name on 'em?
Gray Grantham: Quite a few.
Justice Rosenberg: What do they say?
Gray Grantham: The usual: Death to Rosenberg, Retire Rosenberg, Cut off the oxygen.
Justice Rosenberg: [laughs] That's my favorite. Of course you, Mr Grantham, did pretty good by me your last time out: Rosenberg equals the government over business, the individual over government, the environment over everything. And the Indians? Oh, give 'em whatever they want.
Gray Grantham: Well with all due respects sir, that wasn't my line, that was a quote.
Justice Rosenberg: From one of your...

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Connections

Referenced in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)

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Soundtracks

One Way Street
Written by Mike Darby and Irene Sage
Performed by Irene and The Mikes

User Reviews

Scary political thriller works due to good script, fine performances...

JULIA ROBERTS is a damsel in distress when she writes a brief, theorizing what and who was behind the murder of two Supreme Court justices. DENZEL WASHINGTON is the investigative reporter who sees some merit in her theory and reluctantly decides to offer his help in tracking down the bad guys.

It's based on a terrific John Grisham thriller and given a well crafted script, good performances and taut direction from Alan J. Pakula. I'm not a fan of either Roherts or Washington, so for me to praise this movie shows you how suspenseful and entertaining it is as a thriller.

The overrated Julia Roberts is a huge box-office star who never once appealed to me despite her enormous popularity and Denzel Washington is a competent actor who sometimes does extra fine work--but neither one would win a popularity poll with me.

So, with that personal bias showing, I still give THE PELICAN BRIEF a respectable rating because it does what it sets out to do--it keeps you hooked until the ending after a few unexpected plot twists totally in keeping with this kind of story where the heroine is in peril because she knows too much.

Well worth a view.