After a fundraising event, Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) is called into the operating room to save someone’s life. He drops his wife, Helen (Sela Ward), off at home and heads into work. Upon his arrival home, he finds Helen dead, murdered by some unknown subject. With the evidence stacked against him and his story somewhat unbelievable, Richard Kimble is sentenced to death by lethal injection. With U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) hot on his trail, and before he is put to death for a crime he did not commit, he must do everything he can to clear his name and bring his wife’s killer to justice. Becoming The Fugitive is not the ideal way to save face, but in Kimble’s case, it is the only way.
I was told before, during and after The Fugitive that the first half of the film is slow and somewhat boring, I could not disagree more. The abundance of writers and director Andrew Davis start audiences off in the middle of the action. They become instantly involved in Kimble’s story and the trauma he faces with the loss of his dear wife. The story is paced wonderfully thanks to an incredibly well-written script. Even with some downtime and much of the story based on dialogue, the audience never finds time to be bored or disengaged due to the stellar performance by Ford and Jones and the constant prodding at the compelling story. The story is constant and the script never veers from the multidimensional path that Kimble is on throughout the film.
Harrison Ford is, without a doubt, a wonderful actor. He brings vibrant, beautiful life to each and every role that he portrays, and he does a wonderful job of playing the role of Richard Kimble. His portrayal of the stern but honest and generous doctor is flawless. Alongside him is the equally talented Tommy Lee Jones. Lee plays the hard nosed, seasoned U.S. Marshall, but, he, at the same time, is the comic relief. His sarcasm is often used to defuse the tension in the film as not to stress out the audience too much. His humor is simple, but it gets the job done and helps to lighten the mood and keep audiences level headed through the intense debacle that is Kimble’s life. The two feed off of one another, they react to one another’s facial expressions, and their dialogue is engaging, humorous (when necessary) and enlightening.
Three writers, Jeb Stuart, David Twohy and Roy Huggins, create a script that drops audiences into the thick of the story immediately, while slowly unfolding the rest of the story up until the final moments of The Fugitive. Ford and Lee’s ability to feed off of one another and deliver nearly perfect performances allows audiences to appreciate the pacing of the film and each and every detail of the script. From the opening moments, audiences are able to connect with Dr. Richard Kimble, and this allows them to further appreciate what Stuart, Twohy, Huggins and Davis develop and are able to accomplish with their story. It took me more than twenty-five years to see The Fugitive for the first time, and that was time wasted. The Fugitive has stood the test of time and still presents itself to audiences as being incredibly competent and entertaining.
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