Welcome to yet another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!
Today I'm revisiting a film I've seen numerous times, one that's oddly grown on me leaps and bounds since I first saw it in the theater in 1993.
The Fugitive, directed by Andrew Davis and starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, is of course based on the 1960s TV series of the same name, itself inspired by true events involving a physician wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. Dr. Richard Kimble (Ford, in a criminally underrated performance) comes home one night to find his wife bludgeoned to death and the one-armed man responsible still in the house. The assailant escapes, leaving no trace, not even a forced entry at the door, and all remaining signs point to Kimble as the murderer. Sentenced to death, Kimble nonetheless escapes police custody during a bus/train accident, and goes on the lam to prove his innocence, pursued relentlessly by a crack team of US Marshals.
I said at the start that this film has grown on me considerably over the years, but don't get it twisted, I enjoyed it quite well on the first viewing as action-thriller entertainment. At seventeen though I wasn't able to appreciate just how well-made and beautifully acted this film really is. Amid a pretty crowded summer that included Jurassic Park and In the Line of Fire, two movies that blew me away at that age, The Fugitive was perhaps a hair too clever and understated for my young eyes. But as the years have worn on and my tastes have become more sophisticated, this film has become one of my favorites of 1993.
I think the main reason for that is the filmmakers' choice to create a two-handed thriller with essentially a double protagonist. In a lesser film Kimble would be pursued by a ruthless, inscrutable lawman, who would in turn be the de facto villain. But the character of Deputy Sam Girard, embodied perfectly by Tommy Lee Jones (who'd go on to win an Oscar), gives Kimble an equal to play off of. Nor did they fall into the trap of making Girard a bumbling, easily outsmarted cop. Kimble and Girard are each brilliant strategists, and thus Kimble's quest for the truth and Girard's quest to fulfill his duty are a tautly played chess match. Another stroke of genius was the choice to surround Girard with likable, believable fellow officers with whom he has an easy rapport. When Girard makes his first appearance we assume he's a bastard cop, particularly as he mocks Kimble's status as a doctor. But as we're introduced to his team we get the sense that he's a thoroughly decent fellow just doing his job, and moreover excelling at it. Our sympathy is always with Kimble, but we can't help but marvel at Girard's detection skills.
Throughout the film Kimble stays just a few steps ahead of the Marshals and thus the suspense never lets up, but even better, Kimble leads the officers closer and closer to the truth with each encounter. Girard tells Kimble in their first meeting (during the famous dam sequence) that he doesn't care if Kimble did or didn't kill his wife. But as he uncovers more about the case and Kimble's motives for coming back to Chicago instead of say, fleeing the country, his dialogue and body language tell a different story. Throughout the film Girard becomes more and more suspicious of the Chicago PD's official position on Kimble's guilt.
Director Andrew Davis stages all the action without being overly flashy and without it dominating the story. While The Fugitive has a few action-driven sequences, particularly the train crash, it's much more about the detective story aspect. The two leads each uncover vital information at key points, revealing them to the audience in ways we don't anticipate. Perhaps inspired by a similar scene in Silence of the Lambs, we get not one but two false alarms where it looks like the jig is up for Kimble, only to become a bait and switch. This puts us right in his paranoid frame of mind and lets us feel just how close he is to getting caught.
The Fugitive earned seven Oscar nods but only took home the one for Tommy Lee, while Ford was sadly overlooked for the Best Actor category. While not a showy performance though, Ford's is a wholly believable, internalized turn that I guess just didn't stand out next to Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, Daniel Day-Lewis in In the Name of the Father, or Liam Neeson in Schindler's List. Still I couldn't picture anyone but Harrison Ford playing this part; his performance is note-perfect for this film.
Over the decades The Fugitive has improved for me with each viewing; it's a truly great summer blockbuster that punches way above its action-thriller weight class. The two leads are ideal opponents and the deviously crafted script is a masterclass in ratcheting up tension. Sprinkle in some memorable supporting characters and you've got yourself one helluva movie.
I give The Fugitive **** out of ****.
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