The Fugitive - PG-13
Common Sense Note
Parents should know that kids will see disturbing scenes of a murderer's assault, plus some shooting, stabbing, and bloody fist fighting. The protagonist is forced into numerous life-threatening situations. He survives a bus crash/train wreck and jumps from a dam into raging water.
Families who see this film might discuss why being scared by films (or theme park rides and haunted houses) can be fun. Is it because we really long to experience dangerous situations, or is there another reason?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Scott G. Mignola
It appears that Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), a respected vascular surgeon, has killed his wife in their upstairs bedroom. He claims that a one-armed man did it, but the physical evidence isn't in Kimble's favor. Tried and sentenced to death by lethal injection, he's loaded onto a bus with a handful of other convicts being transferred to the Illinois State Penitentiary.
The bus never reaches its destination. An uprising causes it to crash and gives Kimble an opportunity. He escapes and, relentlessly tracked by a team led by U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), sets out to clear his name by finding the real culprit.
Based on the 1960s TV series of the same nameThe Fugitive isn't some cheap knockoff riding the coattails of its respected predecessor. Gripping literally from the moment it starts, this is a sterling example of how action pictures should be made.
Clever storytelling and editing build the suspense. Director Andrew Davis, a cinematographer and Chicago native, frames his city beautifully through panning aerial shots. Throw in a moving score and a script so tight that it squeaks and you'll have some idea why it was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar (there's no shame in losing to Schindler's List). The only use of sensational effects is a train derailment so convincing that you'll suspect the filmmakers crashed a real train to get the footage. They did.
Harrison Ford makes the character of Dr. Richard Kimble particularly sympathetic, as he did with wounded cop John Book in the 1985 drama Witness. Seeing him tracked cross-country through hospital corridors and a winding Illinois sewer system, we never forget that he's a man devastated by his wife's death. Strange to say about someone fleeing the law, but Kimble can actually serve as a role model of sorts for older kids. A loving husband, a caring surgeon who more than once risks his life to help others in need, he uses his wits to nonviolently steer the law toward the man they're really after.
Tommy Lee Jones, whose role as Kimble's wisecracking pursuer won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, reprises his role in the disjointed follow-up U.S. Marshals. Skip that one in favor of another good thriller, like Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.
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ViolenceDisturbing scenes of a murderer's assault. Some shooting, stabbing, and bloody fist fighting. |
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LanguageA few mild expletives. |
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Social BehaviorWhile the protagonist breaks jail and runs from police, he also risks his life to help others in need and non-violently steers police to the real killer, using his wits. |
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