The Accused **** (1988, Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, Bernie Coulson) – Classic Movie Review 6091

Jodie Foster won a Best Actress Oscar for delivering an edgy, exceptional performance as Sarah Tobias, the victim of a gang rape seeking justice with the help of ice-cool attorney Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) in director Jonathan Kaplan’s gritty and edgy 1988 courtroom drama thriller about sexual responsibility from the producers of Fatal Attraction.

Certainly the film works excitingly on the level of provocative entertainment, while provoking much thought and controversy about its subject matter. The film’s sincerity cannot be doubted, but it was widely criticised for portraying the rape so graphically and voyeuristically.

Showing her versatility, Foster gives two contrasting performances as the long-haired lustful Sexy Sadi before she is attacked, then the short-haired serious woman after. Kelly McGillis supports loyally in a solid, much less showy turn.

Also in the cast are Bernie Coulson, Ann Hearn, Steve Antin, Tom O’Brien, Peter Van Norden, Carmen Argenziano, Lee Rossi, Woody Brown, Scott Paulin, Tom Heaton and Stephen E Miller.

It is shot by Ralf Bode, produced by Stanley R Jaffe and Sherry Lansing, scored by Brad Fiedel, and designed by Richard Kent Wilcox.

Tom Topor’s screenplay is based on the 6 March 1983 gang rape that at Big Dan’s Bar in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It is the first orchestral symphonic score by Brad Fiedel, renowned for his electronic scores in The Terminator and Fright Night.

McGillis declined the role of Sarah Tobias, after suffering a violent sexual assault in 1982 by two men who broke into her apartment, and sought to play Kathryn Murphy. McGillis, then hot after Top Gun (1986), insisted Foster be given a screen test.

McGillis came out as gay in 2009, and Foster in 2013.

Foster won a second Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and has two other nominations – for Taxi Driver (1976) and Nell (1994).

By 2018, Kaplan’s most recent movie as director is Brokedown Palace (1999).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6091

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