Post by petrolino on Sept 2, 2017 0:07:25 GMT
The legal thriller 'The Accused' is a powerful social document written by novelist and playwright Tom Topor in which Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) is assigned the case of waitress Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) who was gang-raped in a bar while onlookers actively encouraged the crime. In order to reach the requirements for prosecutions to be be made, Sarah must learn to trust and confide in her lawyer which proves extremely difficult. The case is complex but proves a watershed in the American justice system.
'The Accused' was a hugely controversial film at the time of its release, igniting a global debate about the possible dangers of exploitation film entering mainstream cinema. It's expertly constructed by director Jonathan Kaplan, intelligently scripted by Topor, and performed to within an inch of its life by a cast that includes seasoned character actors Carmen Argenziano, Leo Rossi, Ann Hearn, Peter Van Norden, Tom O'Brien, Tom McBeath and Scott Paulin, as well as talented newcomer Bernie Coulson. Such was the split among audiences who saw this movie, Jodie Foster was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, yet the film received no other Oscar nominations. Within Foster's multi-layered performance there are changes in Sarah's voice, her power of movement, her body language and her thinking; a combination of Foster's talent, commitment and unerring conviction ensured she became the first woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for a movie with no other nominations in 28 years - the last being Sophia Loren in Vittorio De Sica's harrowing war drama 'Two Women' (1960). Controversy has never been far in Foster's career; her second Oscar came for 'The Silence Of The Lambs' (1991) which proved no less controversial and was picketed live by rights groups stationed outside the Academy Awards broadcast.
'The Accused' has a jarring music score from experimental composer Brad Fiedel who uses off-beats and synthesiser drones to emphasise the darkness. The soundtrack is augmented by several songs from Gina Schock of the Go-Gos. 'The Accused' is a riveting courtroom drama about the horrors of day-to-day life and one woman's constant struggle to make ends meet. Check it out.
"The future - or her career, at least - was looking bright when one day two men forced their way into her New York apartment and raped her at knifepoint. Just divorced after a disastrous two-year marriage, Kelly McGillis took refuge in drink, tranquillisers, therapy - and her acting. For the next few years, she dedicated herself to her work, and it seemed as if she could do no wrong: Peter Weir's 'Witness', in which she starred alongside Harrison Ford, was a critical and commercial hit in 1985; the next year, 'Top Gun' was a massive box-office smash, and 'The House On Carroll Street', in which she played an idealistic journalist on the McCarthy blacklist, released the year after and directed by Peter Yates, was also well received. The release of Jonathan Kaplan's 'The Accused' in 1988 was met by a storm of controversy, generated mostly by the explicit - some said exploitative - gang-rape scene. But the film's message about the social and legal questions surrounding rape was clear. When she was asked in a TV interview why she had done the movie, she "couldn't lie", she says. "I couldn't disassociate my life from the reason I did that movie. I was a victim myself, and believed it was important to give victims a voice. I wouldn't have felt that way had I not been the victim of a violent crime." Having broken her silence about her ordeal, McGillis went on to become a regular speaker at Rape Crisis Centres. But she was subjected to further torment. "I got a lot of criticism for coming out and saying that. A lot of people said I'd just done it to get publicity, but, if anything, it hurt me more in the long run. A lot of people went, 'Oh, yeah, she's that victim girl.'" Although the film's subject was close to the bone, she maintains that it was not an attempt to work through her own trauma. She doesn't subscribe to the notion of acting as a form of soul searching. "That's neurotic, to use acting as therapy. That's kind of strange to me." Nor does she believe that a film with a serious agenda, such as 'The Accused', is necessarily of any more value than, say, 'Top Gun'. "I don't know which is more important. There's a great value in allowing someone to go to the movie theatre and not think about their screaming kids back home, or the fact that they don't have a job, or enough money, or whatever burdens they have." She concedes that some roles may be more harrowing to play than others. When, two years ago, she starred on stage in O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra, she found that the experience made her a "scary person" for a while. Trying to "get in touch with those darker sides of yourself", as she puts it, can be frightening."
- Lindsay Baker, 'A Woman Of Substance'
- Lindsay Baker, 'A Woman Of Substance'
Kelly McGillis & Jodie Foster in 'The Accused'
'The Accused' was a hugely controversial film at the time of its release, igniting a global debate about the possible dangers of exploitation film entering mainstream cinema. It's expertly constructed by director Jonathan Kaplan, intelligently scripted by Topor, and performed to within an inch of its life by a cast that includes seasoned character actors Carmen Argenziano, Leo Rossi, Ann Hearn, Peter Van Norden, Tom O'Brien, Tom McBeath and Scott Paulin, as well as talented newcomer Bernie Coulson. Such was the split among audiences who saw this movie, Jodie Foster was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, yet the film received no other Oscar nominations. Within Foster's multi-layered performance there are changes in Sarah's voice, her power of movement, her body language and her thinking; a combination of Foster's talent, commitment and unerring conviction ensured she became the first woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for a movie with no other nominations in 28 years - the last being Sophia Loren in Vittorio De Sica's harrowing war drama 'Two Women' (1960). Controversy has never been far in Foster's career; her second Oscar came for 'The Silence Of The Lambs' (1991) which proved no less controversial and was picketed live by rights groups stationed outside the Academy Awards broadcast.
Jodie Foster on Jonathan Kaplan
'The Accused' has a jarring music score from experimental composer Brad Fiedel who uses off-beats and synthesiser drones to emphasise the darkness. The soundtrack is augmented by several songs from Gina Schock of the Go-Gos. 'The Accused' is a riveting courtroom drama about the horrors of day-to-day life and one woman's constant struggle to make ends meet. Check it out.
