X
- 1988
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
- 1988
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
Summary After a young woman (Jodie Foster) suffers a brutal gang rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.
Directed By: Jonathan Kaplan
Written By: Tom Topor
- 1988
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
- 1988
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
The Accused
65
8.0
Where to Watch
Summary After a young woman (Jodie Foster) suffers a brutal gang rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.
Directed By: Jonathan Kaplan
Written By: Tom Topor
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 Critic Reviews
65
67% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
33% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 Critic Reviews
65
67% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
33% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
An experience that is sometimes unbearable and always riveting. [14 Oct 1988]
A consistently engrossing melodrama, modest in its aims and as effective for the cliches it avoids as for the clear eye through which it sees its working-class American lives.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 User Ratings
8.0
86% Positive
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
14% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 22 User Ratings
8.0
86% Positive
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
14% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
The Accused is a 1988 crime drama directed by Jonathan Kaplan who also made "Unlawful Entry" which was a great film.... THE ACCUSED is basically about a gang **** of a young girl who was probably a bit high, bit drunk or both on the night but anyway the assault takes place at a bar or something called The Mill.. Kelly McGillis plays a prosecutor who helps Jodie Foster's character (Sarah Tobias) bring the suspects who **** her in to face trial and also the guys who clapped and cheered the **** itself. The actual **** scenes aren't very pleasant but it has great acting in this film especially from Kelly McGillis and even though Jodie Foster played the **** victim and did a good job I still don't understand why Kelly McGillis didn't receive an award also for her performance because she was beautiful and pretty cool and her acting was also great. The film has a pretty good story and is tense in some areas and the characters in the film are good and it doesn't rely on violence and if there is any present in the film it's to a low degree but sure some scenes may shock you especially the assault itself unless you like that thing. It's a clever film with a good story and as far as I'm concerned a classic and never gets boring no matter how many times you watch it. I liked Kelly McGillis in Top Gun (1986) but I also like The Accused and it's beautifully directed and Bernie Coulson who played Kenneth Joyce was also very good in The Accused and he testified helping put the guys guilty of criminal solicitation in regards to the **** away. It was great seeing Jodie Foster smoke a cigarette and dance in the backroom of the bar near the pinball machine but the **** scenes themselves were upsetting but all worked out well and justice was served. Also the chemistry between Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis was awkward in parts but it made the film more realistic and helped to develop the story more and see the frustration in Jodie Foster's face. Mostly the chemistry was great though and it worked so a must watch and a very powerful film!
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Wonderful courtroom drama. Jodie Foster nailed it with her role as a **** seeking justice. She deserved her first Oscar for this role. Kelly McGillis did a wonderful job playing Jodie's on-screen lawyer. This is such a heartbreaking film it made me cry and not want to stop crying. Jodie Foster gives one of the greatest performances of all time.
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Katheryn's summation was meant to be the final flourish, but McGillis gives a flat-footed performance. However, Foster overcomes McGillis' inertia, as the sweet-natured Sarah, a lonely little waitress who makes her home in a trailer park. Under her tight jeans and tough talk, she proves as fragile as a ballerina on a music box. Foster creates the ultimate victim without ever becoming a wimp, mixing dignity with defenselessness. The Accused must be acquitted of its misdemeanors if not for its good intentions, for this vibrant performance.
The great film that The Accused could have been is in there. So is Foster's lovely, measured work, the work of an actress at the top of her art, and this in a supposed "comeback." Yes, darker and more sadistic passages have burdened many lesser movies. But this one has ambition, and this one has this performance. It's a hard movie to like; it's an impossible one to ignore. [14 Oct 1988, p.E1]
The Accused is far from a perfect film, but it's got a terrific performance by Foster, a pretty good one by McGillis, and Lansing's knack for casting women's issues in a form that makes people go see them at the movies. [14 Oct 1988, p.49]
Foster and McGillis never quite make the transition from ideological mouthpieces to fully developed dramatic figures. [14 Oct 1988, p.C]
A preachy, empty story, enlivened by a great central performance and generous dollops of self-delusion, not the least offensive of which are Topor's and Lansing's quoted comparisons of their movie to the moral climate of the Holocaust. To paraphrase dear Joseph Welch, have they no shame? [14 Oct 1988, p.4]
Not a great first date movie - I think I saw it on a 3rd date - but it was really the first of its kind to really go there and seeks to hold onlookers accountable. I'm a bigger fan of McGillis than most of these critics - she wasn't all that icy. And Foster is just amazing. What a brave performance.
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As one of those films so-called as born with a silver spoon, The Accused, directed by Jonathan Kaplan, starring Kelly McGillis and Jodie Foster, has left the strongest impression on audience for decades, as it is the first mainstream film dealing with the **** issue in the USA, quoted in the film as “In the United States of America, a **** is reported every six minutes. One of every four **** victims is attacked by two or more assailants.”
Most of the film’s merits have counted on Jodie Foster’s extraordinary performance. She’s as good as it gets in terms of both revealing her innermost struggle with restraint and concealing her outrage with nonviolence. What exactly happened on Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) can’t be articulated from the opening scene, in which, at night, an obvious **** victim is running out of a sleazy bar with herself shouting hoarsely. Then, as most melodramas goes, she meets Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis), the assistant district attorney who will take her case. And as most human beings will do, when Sarah is showing her physical and psychological trauma, sympathy and compassion will rain cats and dogs. However, something in the film seems wrong. Her attire, deportment, temper, disposition, personality, demeanor, diction, tone, accent, hairdo, wisdom, all of them are low enough to affect Kathryn’s emotion against her. Unsurprisingly, Sarah is that kind of flapper who smokes dope, is often drunken, likes to hang around. Although she has a decent job as a waitress and a boyfriend as a drug dealer, her previous conviction on drug possession charges, and to be worse, her drinking on the night of the crime which has made herself a seemingly coquette, have involved Kathryn in a dilemma that she’s not confident in Sarah and chances of the final winning, not to mention that one of the **** suspects is a young fraternity man who’s born with a silver spoon so that a good lawyer is served for him. As a Chinese film critic who’s never been involved in a lawsuit, I’m unfamiliar enough to explain the compromised plea bargain offered to those three men who have brutally **** Sarah, and who, as a result of the agreement of charges as “reckless endangerment”, get off on a lesser charge so that the prospect of parole is quite generous. Outraged as she is, Sarah feels betrayed, – apparently, at that night, when being ****, cheer, whistle and howl are collateral from those onlookers who are rubbernecking, so furiousness is fastened, and fastness is farther. Humiliation and rage of Sarah has outbroken and resulted in a car crash due to the insulting encounter with one of those onlookers who’s exceptionally **** and teasing. This turning point in the film has provoked the natural-born sense of justice of Kathryn as a female D. A., therefore she’s determined to convict the onlookers who would be guilty of “criminal solicitation”. By being informed of that Jodie Foster's Best Actress Oscar win was this film's only Oscar nomination, undisputedly, The Accused is not as good-looking as you may expect. In fact, at the time of the film's release, the film was highly controversial because of the **** scene. It was the longest, most graphic, and most realistic depiction of a sexual assault in cinematic history. Between flashbacks and the chronological order, the **** is detailed daringly, close to the end of the film.
With the pivotal testimony from Ken, the ultimate win of the lawsuit has not only sentenced three instigators into the prison, but also blew away three rapists’ odds-on escape by crafty scheme. It’s a film that has an intense **** stance and condemnation of **** culture overall. However, it’s not a film that questions the system, on the contrary, it defends the system, makes a pitch for it, blow its own horn. Briefly speaking, as a frivolous woman as she looks in the film, Sarah, potentially regarded as being served right, is impossible to win the lawsuit if the system is not suitable. The stormy criticism about the **** scene has indirectly testified the film’s hypocrisy and inappropriateness though the movie got a positive review overall. In fact, many stars turned down the script because the **** scene was too explicit and exploitative. The argument could be made, however, the movie is based on a real incident that did happen in real life. After all, maybe there is value that showing the audience what really happened can make them feel the pain and humiliation a **** must have caused. Although The Accused is unpleasant, it was also potent.
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
National Board of Review, USA
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
