The Fugitive (1993)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Andrew Davis

Writers (WGA):

Jeb Stuart (screenplay) and
David Twohy (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

6 August 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

A murdered wife. A one-armed man. An obsessed detective. The chase begins.

Plot:

Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of killing his wife, must find the real one-armed killer while avoiding Marshal Sam Gerard.

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Surgeon | Murder | Chase | One Armed Man

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 10 wins & 19 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. July 11	8:00 PM	AETV
Sun. July 12	12:00 AM	AETV

Cast

Harrison Ford	...	Dr. Richard Kimble
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Samuel Gerard
Sela Ward	...	Helen Kimble
Julianne Moore	...	Dr. Anne Eastman
Joe Pantoliano	...	Cosmo Renfro
Andreas Katsulas	...	Sykes
Jeroen Krabbé	...	Dr. Charles Nichols (as Jeroen Krabbe)
Daniel Roebuck	...	Biggs
L. Scott Caldwell	...	Poole
Tom Wood	...	Newman
Ron Dean	...	Detective Kelly
Joseph F. Kosala	...	Detective Rosetti (as Joseph Kosala)
Miguel Nino	...	Chicago Cop #1
John Drummond	...	Newscaster
Tony Fosco	...	Chicago Cop #2

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for a murder and other action sequences in an adventure setting.

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Polish | Spanish

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (2001) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Netherlands:12 | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Brazil:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | UK:12 (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) (1994) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Ireland:12 | Norway:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG-13 (Certificate #32575) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

203 N. LaSalle Street Building, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The dam used in the exterior shots is Cheoah Dam, Tapoco, Graham County, North Carolina, USA. The dam can be viewed clearly from North Carolina State Highway 129, just north of the town of Tapoco, NC.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: As the train wreckage comes to rest Kimble is hiding under a small trestle bridge. A shot up at the wreckage shows a crew member's face above the trestle. This error was corrected for the most recent DVD release of the film, after the director noticed it. The crew member reappears on the Blu-Ray disc version of the film.

Quotes:

Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard: Look on your maps if you wanna know how to get there!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Best! Movies! Ever!: Hospitals (#1.13)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Tahiti Tahiti

One of the Great Thrillers!

There is a kind of magic when a superb cast, a truly gifted director, and a literate script with equal parts 'over-the-top' action, riveting suspense, and rich characterization, come together. The end result attains a luster that only grows through the years, as new audiences, through DVD and VHS, experience the same excitement we felt, viewing it on a theater screen. In the last decade, only a handful of suspense films could be called 'great'...and on top of the list is THE FUGITIVE.

Based on the popular David Janssen TV series, the film faithfully follows the same premise; a doctor is accused of his wife's death, but escapes before his execution, and tracks down the 'one-armed man' responsible for the murder, as a driven law officer attempts to recapture him. Being a big-budget film, however, the scale of everything is expanded...Dr. Richard Kimble is now a brilliant vascular surgeon, at a major Chicago hospital; the handicapped killer is a dirty ex-cop working on orders from crooked board members of a billion-dollar pharmaceutical firm; and the lawman is no longer a solitary police lieutenant, but a deputy United States Marshal, and his team of agents! While some fans of the original series complained that the 'intimacy' the series had was lost, director Andrew Davis only used the 'bigger' aspects as plot elements, placing the focus, wisely, on the dual stories of Kimble's search, and Gerard's pursuit.

Despite the esteem the film has achieved over the years, Harrison Ford has gotten a bad rap for his very understated performance as Richard Kimble. While Tommy Lee Jones certainly had a far flashier role (earning him an Oscar as 'Best Supporting Actor'), Ford's intent wasn't to play 'Indiana Jones', but a man whose whole life was dedicated to his career as a surgeon, and his wife (played, in flashbacks, by the lovely Sela Ward). Seeing his wife brutally murdered devastated him (his scene in the police interrogation room, going to pieces, was largely improvised on the set, and displays some of his finest acting). His search for the killer was not the confident quest of an action hero, but based on uncertain, spur-of-the-moment decisions made by a desperate man, whose medical background was his only tool. Fear does not lend itself to flashy theatrics...

Jones, as Marshal Sam Gerard, on the other hand, was a seasoned veteran, the best at what he did, and pursuing a fugitive was 'old hat' for him. With a confidence bordering on arrogance, he ordered people about like chess pieces, multi-tasked without breaking a sweat, and still could charm with a wicked smile and sarcastic remark. Of COURSE he wins the audience's heart!

Featuring some of the most spectacular action scenes ever recorded on film (the train/bus wreck that frees Kimble, the dive off a dam into the churning maelstrom of the reservoir), as well as two slam-bang fistfights when Kimble finally gets 'justice', THE FUGITIVE still is remembered primarily for the suspenseful Jones/Ford 'cat-and-mouse' chase, cross-country, and the grudging respect that grows between them...which, ultimately, was what the TV series was best remembered for, as well.

There is magic, here!