Harrison Ford, a classic "everyman" actor, plays Dr. Richard Kimball, a respected vascular surgeon in Chicago. After a function one night, he returns home to find his wife murdered and the killer, a one-armed man still in the house. After a struggle, the killer escapes, and Kimball is subsequently charged, tried, and convicted of the murder.
We don't get to see the whole flashback of what happened that horrible bight; instead, we get only bits and pieces until we finally get the last one. The director teases us, as we want to know more about what happened, but he won’t let us. He’ll tell us when we get to find out.
Kimball, ever-proclaiming his innocence, is due to be executed, so he is sent, with several other convicts, to prison. The bus never makes it, crashing down an embankment and into the path of an oncoming train.
We know even before the crash that Kimball would survive, and he does. He makes his way through the brush and shrubbery to a river, and then to a hospital where he manages to bandage his small wound.
Meanwhile, U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard has taken up the hunt. He is to track down Dr. Kimball and bring him back to jail. But Kimball is one step ahead of him. Kimball is determined to prove that a one-armed man killed his wife. Can he do it before he is caught?
With every step he takes, Richard Kimball is always one step ahead of Gerard, and it seems that every time Kimball becomes complacent, the police are right there on his tail.
The tension and pacing of the story never let up, and the action never stops in this action-thriller that will leave on the edge of your seat for the whole two hour and ten minute running time.
Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison ford work well together, and feed off each other, even when they aren’t on screen together. It’s a shame Ford wasn’t nominated for this picture because he deserved to be. As action thrillers go, The Fugitive is one of the best. It is a taught, cat-and-mouse adventure where character development, terrific dialogue and superb acting take the place of fancy gimmicks, special effects and computer images.
Movies it was nominated with for Best Picture:
In the Name of the Father; The Piano; The Remains of the Day; *Shcindler’s List
Is the movie worth your time to watch?
9/10 28-01-07
Age at win: 46
Nominated for: Best Actor in a supporting Role, Marshall Samuel Gerard, The Fugitive
Nomination: 1/2 (acting), 1/2 (total); Win: Only
Tommy Lee Jones never lets his character wane in The Fugitive. And by that I mean he never lets up on his mission; he doesn't make the character come around too quickly, give up or do something to wreck the plot or pacing of the film.
Jones' Sam Gerard is on a mission to catch a murderer, a fugitive, and will stop at nothing to catch him. Jones lets his character joke around a bit, but he is always focused on the case at hand.
Tommy Lee Jones gives us a performance that is absolutely incredible. He isn’t the villain in the picture, like he is in many other films; rather, he is a side character trying to catch a fugitive and, later on, solve a murder.
All Jones’ Gerard cares about is catching his prey.
"I didn’t kill my wife!" Kimball yells at him.
"I don’t care," he casually replies. All Gerard cares about is catching a fugitive. It’s not his job to decide if he is innocent or not. But as the film rambles on, he starts to slowly realize that maybe Kimball really is innocent, and that solving the case may in fact help him catch his man.
28-01-07
