Ohjaus:
Andrew DavisKuvaus:
Michael ChapmanSävellys:
James Newton HowardNäyttelijät:
Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore, Joe Pantoliano, Andreas Katsulas, Jeroen Krabbé, Daniel Roebuck, L. Scott Caldwell (lisää)Suoratoistopalvelut (3)
Juonikuvaukset(1)
Tohtori Kimble joutuu syytteeseen vaimonsa murhasta. Kimble vakuuttaa viattomuuttaan, mutta todisteet puhuvat toista ja oikeuden päätös on kuolemantuomio. Kun Kimbleä viedään vankilaan, hän onnistuu paeta. Hänen ainoa tavoitteensa on nyt saada kiinni todellinen syyllinen, mutta sen hän voi tehdä vain, jos onnistuu piileksimään poliisia... (Warner Home Video Fin.)
(lisää)Arvostelut (10)
Hands down, the best thriller of the 1990s. Andrew Davis, an otherwise mediocre director, must have been kissed by the muses for days while filming. Very well deserved six Oscar nominations.
()
Without a single superfluous shot, this action thriller functionally updates the Hitchcockian “innocent man on the run” formula. Mainly, The Fugitive has incredible momentum. Even before the opening credits roll, Kimble is sentenced to death and we root for him even though we have no visual proof that he didn’t actually commit the crime until the fortieth minute. We really don’t have a choice thanks to Harrison Ford, who is simply a likeable guy, and to the fact that the film’s pace leaves no time for explanation. The duel of “heart surgeon versus federal agent” is rarely balanced, and if the film occasionally allows a bit of humour, we laugh with the investigators, but never at them. The fair distribution of attention between the hunter and the hunted allows the full use of a parallel montage, which superbly rhythmises the film. Starting with the prologue, when we see the present and the past instead of two events happening concurrently, the primary means of giving the plot dynamics consists in cutting between two separate actions. Furthermore, the storylines of Gerard and Kimble also differ stylistically, as can best be seen in the chase under the tunnel (the intensity of the music, the length of the shots, the agitation of the camerawork) – from this scene it is also indicated that the only way out for Kimble is to cooperate with the man who is mercilessly at his throat (coordination of styles). The film is also very consistent in the way it distributes information and the degree of knowledge that it conveys to us in relation to one of the two central characters. Depending on the needs of the narrative, we sometimes know more than Gerard, sometimes more than Kimble – we are constantly kept in suspense and convinced that the hero is only a few steps ahead and his capture is imminent. Like The Silence of the Lambs, The Fugitive works very deliberately with genre formulas with the aim of creating suspense and surprise – several scenes are constructed to make us think, based on our experience of similar scenes in other films, that Kimble is going to be arrested – in one case the police are after his landlady’s acquaintances; in another, Gerard runs up a different staircase than the one Kimble is descending. With its thrilling pace, precisely plotted turning points and superb build-up through cliffhangers, which don’t cause the film to collapse into notional series episodes, The Fugitive manages to simultaneously develop the characters and convince both us and Kimble/Gerard that each of them actually means well (the scene with the boy and the x-ray in the hospital, the important and graphically demonstrated fact that Gerard doesn’t negotiate, which aids our appreciation of the different approach that he takes toward Kimble, with whom he is willing to communicate). As a kid, I watched The Fugitive over and over again on VHS. Many years later, I still find it just as great and I haven’t seen it for the last time. There are few other films like it. 90%
()
(vähemmän)
(lisää)
A tense thriller that runs like a Swiss clock. Unfortunately, though, the outcome is very easy to figure out. 9/10
()
Yes, this it what it’s supposed to be like! A brisk thriller whose fatal magnetism is based on a miscarriage of justice and all its energy from a well-directed rush. It's beautifully tangled, thrilling at every moment, and Harrison Ford is... well, just as likable as Harrison Ford can be. But the real stuff is the rough "hunter" performed by Tommy Lee Jones, a man with a tough face, harsh practices and a fair approach. This film has everything a first-class thriller should have. Top class.
()
We could enter into a several day long debate on the topic of “How the hell could routineer of all routineers, Andrew Davis shoot something so ingeniously simple and simply ingenious?" but it would make no sense, because even Mulder and Scully would have searched in vain for the answer to the greatest mystery of the nineties. So, it’s best not to worry and just to comes to terms with the fact that this has better pace than anything else in that decade (not only) in this genre. I’d be hard pushed to root for any main protagonist more than for Richard in his gripping journey to clear his name. There’s just one mistake: the catchy theme tune is seriously underused throughout the movie, we hear it maybe just twice.
()
Although not surprising, this legendary thriller is still gripping, thanks to its cast, believable characters, absence of nonsensical plot twists, and a fast pace that keeps the viewer engaged until the end. Overall impression: 80%.
()
The Fugitive has an exemplary pace and plot development, and Harrison Ford is excellent in his role, behaving like a surgeon rather than a professional convict with the physical condition of an athlete in the overwhelming majority of cases; he triumphs with his cunning, wit, and determination. His counterpart is also consistently outstanding. Tommy Lee Jones fits the role of a tough and ambitious police officer perfectly, and the Oscar rightfully shines on his shelf. No matter how impossible it may seem, you do not relax for a minute with this film. The beginning is among the most gripping things you can see in cinematography. The train accident is very realistically shot, and there are plenty more gems like that. Andrew Davis is a capable creator, unfortunately, he doesn't always make a good film.
()
A film worthy of its own stylistic and systemic analysis like no other from the 1990s. The definition of perfection of the popular concept of the manhunt, it’s unique both in its surgically precisely escalated plot, where the rhythm of the alternating scenes with the fugitive, the hunter and the key flashbacks is perhaps as melodic and balanced as any Mozart symphony, and in the development of the three-way battle itself (the falsely accused, the pursuer and the real culprit), who strategically chase each other, and have an unprecedented impact on the aforementioned escalation (first the pursuer goes after the accused, then the accused begins to search on his own for the real culprit, thereby drawing some of the pursuer's attention to him, and by the end the culprit is chasing the accused to avoid full disclosure). The performances of Ford and Jones are of course excellent and the music is top-notch, but The Fugitive is above all an absolutely stunningly constructed narrative that doesn't let up and plays with the viewer's expectations brilliantly, both on the level of the whole story and individual scenes (withholding crucial information to temporarily mislead the viewer into believing a threat to the hero like in Silence of the Lambs). A true gem of a film.
()
Nineties action movies aren't my bloodline, with a few exceptions, because they operate on the cult of the stars, which for me is terribly outdated. Then again, I love the lack of green backgrounds and the honest special effects. The Fugitive doesn't start off badly at all, Ford's beard works, the death of the woman is handled by the character with pleasant grace instead of a lengthy meltdown, and the action scenes are suitably spectacular, that boom ratatata boom locomotive blown up, that rrrrr helicopter over there, quite fun. Not to mention that Davis has no idea how to film contact action and the battle in the el train, for example, feels like a theatrical staging of a rape. Plus, I was pretty annoyed in the first half that it was somewhere around February, just cold as a doghouse, and yet he kept squelching through the water. I know he's determined and strong, but I’d like to see any strongman who bathes in two-degree water and then falls asleep in the woods in the same clothes who doesn't catch a cold. However, the first half at least maintains a steady dramatic arc, while the second half completely shits on that factor, because this one has Ford borrowing "just a few bucks" from a buddy and then setting up a sublet and walking around in a tweed jacket despite not having any income. He's probably murdering pensioners. Plus, given the first half, where the story unfolded in the simple space of a few hours, it seems a little unfair to me that the film doesn't warn us that its ending takes place about a year after Kimble's escape, and we know virtually nothing about what he was doing during that entire time. The villain is a complete idiot. What else do you say about a guy who thinks that if he beats the shit out of the guy who just publicly criticized him, everything will probably be ok. Thank god for Tommy Lee Jones. In this movie, the delectable asshole and his whole hunting party led by Pantoliano (who must have been raised by negroes somewhere, I mean, black people... oh no, again) is terribly alive, realistic, intersperses serious phases with various off-the-wall jokes and in the movie people laugh at them, basically I'd just rather the movie be about them.
()