The Fugitive (Special Edition) (DVD)

The Fugitive is probably one of the finest action thrillers ever made, and definately Harrison Ford's best movie. Based on the television series of the same name, the best thing about The Fugitive is that it never lets up the pace, moving along at a thunderous and often breathtaking level. With its quick pacing, rock solid storyline and superb acting this is a great cat and mouse film, with Harrison Ford playing the slipperly fugitive and Tommy Lee ...
...a particularly enjoyable performance as the annoyed and stressed out police officer.

Harrison Ford plays world renowned vascular surgeon Richard Kimble, who is charged with murder after his wife is found dead at home, despite his pleas that a one-armed burglar had in fact committed the crime. While he is being transported on a prison bus an accident occurs, leading to the bus overturning and Kimble escaping into the nearby woods. It ... more

The Fugitive is probably one of the finest action thrillers ever made, and definately Harrison Ford's best movie. Based on the television series of the same name, the best thing about The Fugitive is that it never lets up the pace, moving along at a thunderous and often breathtaking level. With its quick pacing, rock solid storyline and superb acting this is a great cat and mouse film, with Harrison Ford playing the slipperly fugitive and Tommy Lee Jones trying to track him down with limited success. Both Ford and Lee Jones are on top form throughout, with Jones giving a particularly enjoyable performance as the annoyed and stressed out police officer.

Harrison Ford plays world renowned vascular surgeon Richard Kimble, who is charged with murder after his wife is found dead at home, despite his pleas that a one-armed burglar had in fact committed the crime. While he is being transported on a prison bus an accident occurs, leading to the bus overturning and Kimble escaping into the nearby woods. It is up to US Marshal Samuel Gerald (Lee Jones) and his fellow police officers to track down Kimble, while Kimble must find out who killed his wife so as to prove his innocence.

The most enjoyable bits of the movie are the chase scenes between Kimble and Gerald, with each of them trying to outwit the other in a series of extremely entertaining set pieces, particularly the ones in the sewer and at the hospital. The scenes at the sewer, where Kimble takes a massive risk to escape the clutches of Gerald, are the highlight of the film, and have been paradoid and sent up in many television programmes. The hospital scenes are the most tense, particularly when it looks like Kimble will be caught but he somehow manages to escape, sometimes by the skin of his teeth. Ford is perfect for the role of Kimble, bringing intelligence and style to the role without being soppy and over-melodramatic. He knows what he has to do and doesn't let anyone or anything get in his way.

I feel that Tommy Lee Jones character Gerald has a lot more depth then at first glance; he looks like a troubled man but rarely gives anything away. Gerald is an extremely intelligent, diligent and at times humorous man, and is on occasions able to out-think and out-manouvere Kimble, even if Kimble still manages to escape his clutches. Jones won a deserved oscar for his role as Gerald, with his performance in The Fugitive taking him from a supporting actor to headline star. Rather then gunning for either Kimble or Gerald, I found myself rooting for both of them; for Gerald to find his man and for Kimble to find out the truth.

The film draws to a satisfying and tense conclusion which doesn't let the rest of the film down. Director Andrew Davies does a sterling job to keep this film lively and fast paced with great camerawork and chereography, particularly with the sequences in the forest as Kimble struggles through the wilderness. The film doesn't lack in story and depth, as it is not just a simple catch the fugitive movie, but a much deeper and interesting film, with the recurring flashbacks and nightmares that Kimble has over his dead wife showing this. Kimble must not only prove his innocence but find the person who murdered his wife as soon as possible. The intriguing hospital scenes where Kimble must go through a web of data and records show that this is not just a simple evade the police film, but much much more.

The Fugitive has led to many inferior sequels including the rather cumbersome U.S Marshals, which again starred Jones as the cop chasing the prisoner. Sadly though none of them have lived up to the adrenaline pumping and tense thriller that is The Fugitive. One of the best films of the 1990s.

 

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