Directed by: Jonathan Kaplan
Starring: Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis, Bernie Coulson, Leo Rossi, Carmen Argenziano, Woody Brown
The Accused would be a simpler movie and likely a less effective one if it were the story of a raped woman seeking justice against those who assaulted her one night in a dive bar with a half-dozen onlookers cheering on the rapists. There are no easy answers. Women even now are reluctant to report a rape because of the tendency to blame the victims. What were they wearing? Were they intoxicated? Did they somehow "cause" the rape with "provocative" behavior? In The Accused, entire sections of the trail of Sarah Tobias' (Foster) rapists involve dissecting Sarah's behavior. Assistant DA Kathryn Murphy (McGillis) plea bargains the criminals to a light sentence and that was supposed to be that.
Sarah, however, does not feel justice was served. She never had the chance to tell her story. Kathryn decides to prosecute those who stood by and cheered under the charge of criminal solicitation. The rapists didn't need much egging on, but Kathryn thinks it's a way for Sarah to explain the horror that happened to her. Shortly before going to the bar with a friend, Sarah has a fight with her loser live-in boyfriend, smokes a joint, and goes to the bar to have some drinks. She is intoxicated when she hooks up with a random guy at the bar, who wants to things to go further quickly. When Sarah resists, he throws her down on top of a pinball machine and rapes her. Others follow, until Sarah finds a way to flee in terror with no one having called 911 or even attempted to stop her attackers.
Because Sarah is rough around the edges and not necessarily heroic or even likable, The Accused takes on another dimension. It isn't a movie of the week. The rest of the characters don't carry the weight Sarah does, and the Jodie Foster performance earned her first of two Best Actress Oscars. The strength of The Accused finds that Sarah, for all of her faults, is worthy of justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment