The Fugitive Movie Review
Copyright (c) 1993, Bruce Diamond
All rights reserved



        Ŀ
          THE FUGITIVE:  Andrew Davis, director.  Jeb Stuart and   
          David Twohy, screenplay.  Stars Harrison Ford, Tommy     
          Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Jeroen Krabbe, Joe Pantoliano,     
          and Andreas Katsulas.  Warner Bros.  Rated PG-13.        
        

          If you'll pardon the steal from a network car commercial (as
     sexist as it is), this ain't your father's Richard Kimble.
     [BORING LECTURE MODE ON] "The Fugitive," starring David Janssen
     as Dr.  Richard Kimble, ran on NBC from 1963-1967.  For four
     years, the American viewing public watched fascinated as Kimble
     pursued the one-armed man, the man who killed his wife.  The last
     episode racked up nearly 75% of the TV viewership that night, a
     record for a regular network series that wasn't surpassed until
     "Dallas" ran its "Who Shot J.R.?" episode in the early '80s.
     [BORING PONTIFICATION MODE ON]  I was never a David Janssen fan,
     an unlikely action hero as far as I was concerned.  From "Richard
     Diamond," to "The Fugitive," to "Harry O," Jannsen always struck
     me as dry, stiff, and humorless.  He was surprisingly effective
     as Kimble at times, though, reacting with compassion to the
     people he met in his travels.  He became a nomadic do-gooder,
     like a latter-day Wandering Jew or Flying Dutchman, doomed to
     roam the vast wasteland for a weekly wrong to right, a moral to
     uphold.  [BORING MODE OFF]  So like I said, this *ain't* your
     father's Richard Kimble.

          Harrison Ford is Dr. Richard Kimble from the word go.  No
     having to take time to settle into the role -- we're with him
     right from the start, caught up in his ease with the role and the
     believability of the situation.  In fact, we're *so* comfortable
     with him we really don't need the constant repetition of his name
     during the first five minutes (during a pharmaceutical function
     and a police interview).  The repetition almost strikes you as a
     chant, deliberately inserted into the script to invoke the spirit
     of the original series.  But that's all that I can really find
     wrong with THE FUGITIVE, besides one weak blue screen effect
     during the train wreck sequence.

          (And if *that's* all I can find wrong with the train wreck,
     then you know I'm really stretching to find things to criticize.)

          The train/county jail bus wreck that frees Kimble is
     spectacular -- one of the most harrowing and realistic staged
     accidents ever seen.  Rather than do it in miniature, with
     models, director Andrew Davis (UNDER SIEGE, 1992) decided to
     stage a full-scale wreck, with Harrison Ford jumping off the bus
     at the very last second via the afore-mentioned bluescreen
     effect.  (Come to think of it, the sequence could have been a
     cleverly-rigged rearscreen projection.)  It hardly matters,
     though, as exciting as this scene is.

          Onto the train wreck location comes U.S. Deputy Marshall
     Gerard (Lt. Gerard in the series), scene-stealingly played by
     Tommy Lee Jones (the best thing about Davis' UNDER SIEGE).  Jones
     sets his character right away, as immediately comfortable in his
     role as Ford is as Kimble.  Gerard is a tough taskmaster,
     single-mindedly set on tracking his fugitive ("Let this be a
     lesson, boys and girls.  Don't argue with the big dog."), but the
     audience can tell he cares for his people by the way he goads and
     jokes with them.  "What are you doing?" he asks one, and gets the
     reply, "I'm thinking." "Well, while you're at it," he says,
     "think me up a cup of coffee and a chocolate donut with those
     little sprinkles on it." Another time, he tells another member of
     his team to go help with building security, and adds "but don't
     let them give you any s*** about your ponytail." These asides
     sound more ad-libbed than they do scripted, but the one of the
     scriptwriters, Jeb Stuart, also wrote DIE HARD, which was filled
     with Bruce Willis' quips and asides.  Perhaps it's just a gift
     that his dialogue sounds so natural.

          Aspects of the storyline are updated for the '90s (Kimble's
     car phone call log holds a piece of evidence; the one-armed man
     wears a prosthetic; Kimble searches computer records to track the
     killer), and this time, the motive for the murder is *much* more
     sinister (and perfectly plausible, according to a medtech student
     friend of mine).  The spirit of the original series remains
     intact.

          You know, it's odd that three excellent thrillers are
     released so close to each other, especially during the summer
     season.  Add THE FUGITIVE to your same must-see list that
     contains THE FIRM and IN THE LINE OF FIRE.  Is it as good as
     these other two thrillers?  Hell, it's *better*!

     RATING:  10 out of 10.
