Directed by: Alan J. Pakula
Starring: Harrison Ford, Raul Julia, Greta Scacchi, Bonnie Bedelia, Brian Dennehy, Paul Winfield
Rusty Sabich is the assistant district attorney of Kindle County charged with the murder of his colleague Carolyn Polhemus, with whom he once had an affair. He appears guilty. His fingerprints are all over a glass found in her apartment. The blood type from semen taken from her diaphragm matches his. There was a phone call from his house to her the night of the murder. Sabich swears he is innocent and is a victim of a frame-up by political rivals who will be prosecuting the case. Since those charged with crimes are entitled to their day in court, the cornerstone of the American legal system is that Sabich is presumed innocent until proven guilty. In the minds of the public, Sabich could be written off as guilty, but the prosecution has to prove its case.
Harrison Ford stars as Sabich and plays him as both an innocent man wrongly accused and as a possible murderer. He is intense, so much so that his boss DA Raymond Horgan (Dennehy) says, "You always had the cork in too tight." He also obsesses over the beautiful, but self-serving Carolyn. She dumps Rusty after he refuses to run for DA against Raymond, thus thwarting her plans for rising power in the office. Rusty, like a lovelorn teenager, continues to pursue Carolyn to no avail. Did this lead to murder? Could his obsession have taken a wrong turn that night in her apartment? Rusty, who was initially chosen to lead the investigation, also makes moves that make his guilt even more apparent.
Sabich is defended by Sandy Stern (Julia), a brilliant courtroom strategist who doesn't want Rusty to testify. He believes the jury would be swayed in the wrong manner by his testimony. Stern believes it will give the prosecution the motive they had been lacking since there was no evidence that Rusty and Carolyn ever had an affair. Julia relishes his scenes and does especially great work in his cross-examination of the medical examiner who performed Carolyn's autopsy Equally brilliant is Paul Winfield as Judge Little, who frankly reminds all parties who is in charge in his courtroom. Bonnie Bedelia is supportive as Rusty's long-suffering wife who knew of her husband's infidelity. "She's dead and you're still obsessing," she frets to Rusty.
Presumed Innocent never fails to be compelling. It is a superior example of a courtroom procedural. Courtroom dramas are inherently suspenseful because someone's life is at stake and at the whims of evidence and possibly unreliable witnesses. Then, there is the unpredictability of the jury, which may see things differently than anyone else. If you don't believe that, then think about the OJ Simpson murder trial. When the murderer is revealed, it is somewhat surprising but also isn't, so it wouldn't qualify as a swerve thrown in to shock us. The clues were there, but no one took time to see them. Anchoring this is Ford, who finds himself in a situation that he can never truly free himself from. "There is a crime, there is a victim, and there is punishment," he states in voiceover narration at the end. We know exactly what he means.
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