Back in the days of channel surfing, collecting films on VHS, recording films onto VHS tapes, and cable TV, if I saw a movie like The Fugitive playing on the TV, I would drop everything and watch it hands down. No matter how many minutes into the film it is, I would still watch it. I do long for the time where streaming services like Netflix were just an afterthought in the back of someone’s mind. The Fugitive is one of those universally beloved films. Whatever scene you jump midway into while zapping through channels, you know it is this film and you must watch it. It’s so identifiable and I mostly remember each scene and moment so vividly because I have seen it so many times. Music too. I never get bored of it. The Fugitive is just so damn good. If you see it playing, you watch it just to remind yourself how tight and brilliant it is. It has every successful quality that makes it such a terrific thriller that just makes you just want to bask in its greatness. And also show it to whoever you’re maybe watching TV or movies with. Or if you’re just by yourself.
The first time I watched The Fugitive was with my dad and we rented it on VHS from the Apollo rental store near Clapham Common, London (today the building where it was located is now a post office). I believe it was also a school night when I first watched it. I was maybe a little too young to see the film and I didn’t really know how violent and non-kid friendly it was until I told my teacher about it. But my wonderful and great father, who passed away in 2008, along with my mother were very lenient and liberal about the films my brother Adam and I could watch. With some exceptions of course, which were a big no no. I was a fan of Harrison Ford because I had seen him in Star Wars and then also Indiana Jones plus the Jack Ryan films, I was kind of hooked on him and I just wanted to see every film he starred in that I could get my hands on. I remember before the movie (I do miss the days of the trailers and ads before the films on VHS) they showed an ad for other films with Harrison Ford that you could watch on VHS. For example, Frantic and Blade Runner. Two films I did watch eventually in my late teens/early twenties. It amazes how you can watch The Fugitive again and again and it still holds up brilliantly. There is an essence of relevancy around it that has made it stay in the movie zeitgeist. It’s a thriller, a chase movie, a mystery film, but it also has something to say about the flawed American justice system, police work and corporate greed. It also amazes me how many Oscar nominations it got, and Tommy Lee Jones was awarded with a Best Supporting Actor award. It got nominations for Cinematography, Editing, Sound and even Best Picture. A film like this is never going to get a Best Picture again in this day and age, not in 100 years. And that is incredibly sad. But I am glad Tommy Lee Jones went home with an Oscar, cause his performance as US Marshal Sam Gerard is extraordinary and it’s one of my top favourite movie performances of all time. He should have at least two Oscars in his possession. There were some films after the release where he did play the guy chasing someone for whatever reason. Thrillers like Double Jeopardy, The Hunted, and the spin-off/sequel to The Fugitive: US Marshals. A film where Gerard is the main character.
The Fugitive was directed by Chicago native Andrew Davis, who had previously collaborated with Tommy Lee Jones on the brilliantly fun action film Under Siege. The screenplay credits include Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, Leviathan) and David Twohy (Pitch Black, Below) and from what I gather there was a lot of rewriting on set with even Tommy Lee Jones personally changing some scenes to fit how his character should sound. Like for example, two memorable scenes: the “I… don’t… bargain” scene and the fantastic “I don’t care” scene. Both those moments just get to the point of who Sam Gerard is and gives the audience a firm understanding of that. You don’t need pages of dialogue. Harrison Ford plays Dr Richard Kimble, a vascular surgeon working and living in Chicago who is accused of murdering his wife Helen played by Sela Ward (Jo Danville from CSI NY). He proclaims his innocence and says a man with a ‘mechanical arm’ was the culprit. But as there is no forced entry, they had a gun in the house with his prints on it and that Richard Kimble would be the sole beneficiary to Helen’s fortune if she passes. This is enough for the not so dedicated and thorough Chicago homicide police detectives to book Kimble and he is put on trial. His defence attorneys do a terrible job in defending him as the prosecution uses circumstantial evidence and a 911 call where Helen says a man is trying to kill him and says Richard which is enough for the prosecution to mistakenly convict him. The judge sentences Kimble and he will be executed at a later date. But the fates stepped in for Richard in the form of prisoners performing a hapless prison bus escape that results in one of the greatest train wrecks ever portrayed on film. Wounded and without many friends to turn to, Richard Kimble puts his smart brains to use to find the one-armed man who killed his wife. While always putting himself in dangerous and tense situations where he is surrounded by many police officers. Sam Gerard and his crack team of wonderful characters are always one step behind him. Though over the course of the search for Kimble, Gerard becomes curious as to why Kimble is doing what he is doing and does his own parallel investigation into the murder of Helen.
As I mentioned before, The Fugitive is many things. One thing it is, the film is a great tourist video for the city of Chicago. The city is itself is a character. A big sprawling metropolis haystack for this needle Richard Kimble to hide in. Andrew Davis being from Chicago captures every aspect of the city beautifully in the same way John Landis did when making The Blues Brothers. Michael Chapman’s cinematography is nice and does a good job in capturing the scale of the chase and the action. Particularly in the scenes in the dam where Richard does a big Peter Pan jump into the water to save his own life, plus the train crash sequence and the chase through the St Patrick’s Day parade. A scene I don’t think they had proper clearance for and a scene they couldn’t shut down and fill with movie extras. Michael Chapman, who passed away in 2020, has worked on many great films with some of them being my favourites. Taxi Driver, The Lost Boys, The Last Detail and of course this film. He even was the cinematographer on Space Jam. The Fugitive is also a superbly edited film. The pacing on this is flawless. A lot of big blockbuster and action films these days are so bloated and unnecessarily long, they feel longer than they are and need to be. The Fugitive is over two hours long but doesn’t feel it. There is no excess fat on the film’s narrative. In the first 19 minutes before Tommy Lee Jones shows up, you get everything you need to know in that short amount of time. Who Richard Kimble is, how he is as a husband and a doctor at work, how he is unfairly treated by the police and the prosecution, flashes of the brutal murder of Helen and then tops it off with a great train wreck. The train wreck is filmed with a mixture of miniature models and a real train. They could only afford to shoot it in one take although they planned weeks ahead. The epic train wreck in JJ Abrams’s Super 8 is glorious too, but there is a bit of CGI used in that moment. This movie has 6 editors credited and they do extremely fine work in keeping you invested. The Fugitive is also packed with fantastic characters, both lead and supporting. Gerard’s team which includes Bobby Biggs (Daniel Roebuck), Noah Newman (Tom Wood), Erin Poole (L. Scott Caldwell) and Cosmo Renfro (Joe Pantoliano) and they are a fun and eclectic bunch. It’s believable that this team has gone on many hunts and they are a tight unit. They are a family. All their scenes together are some of my favourites and helps bring some levity to the piece. There is great casting in this. You got established actors giving awesome performances and then you have young up-and-comers like Jane Lynch and Julianne Moore commanding the scene with their presences. They both I believed had larger roles that got cut, but they are small but vital roles. Harrison Ford’s performance as Richard Kimble is one of his best and it doesn’t get discussed enough. Even if some of the films weren’t greatly memorable, he still did solid work acting wise in the 1990s. You immediately sympathise with Kimble and want him to succeed in evading Sam, the other deputy marshals and the police and find the real killer. You feel all this, even when the film is being a bit of a trickster in making you think that he maybe did kill his wife. We know he didn’t do it, but it isn’t until later in the film where we are explicitly shown that. The 1998 sequel/spin-off US Marshals is a solid late 90s action film that is easily digestible and satisfying like a good cheap airport novel that’s a gratifying page turner. There’s a lot more of Tommy Lee Jones as Gerard and also his team, plus a pre-Tony Stark Robert Downey Jr. This time around they are chasing Wesley Snipes who plays a government agent who is the fugitive on the run. The writing and the character development is rudimentary and not as profound as it is in The Fugitive. Wesley Snipes and even Robert Downey Jr don’t have much to play with in US Marshals, the film is catered to Tommy Lee Jones and co. That’s really who you paid to see. Not a bad film, a decent watch with good action. The plane crash sequence in the film is well done. Having said that, The Fugitive is the better film. The dynamic between all the characters work. The pitting of Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford together was a genius bit of casting. Despite not having many scenes together, they both equally hold the movie together with their charisma and acting prowess. I was a big Men In Black fan, so I also wanted to see this film because of Tommy Lee Jones who is still one of my favourite actors.
The Fugitive is one of my favourite films of the 1990s, it’s in my Top 50. You get your money’s worth. There’s some good filmmaking that elevates it above your average and digestible action thriller flick from the 90s. It’s one of those films that holds up very well and it still makes me feel like more genre films like it should be nominated at award shows, like the Oscars. The Fugitive is anchored by a thrilling story, amazing set pieces and two great and wonderful performances from Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. You owe it yourself to watch it.
- Anders
4.5/5
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