Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Fugitive (1993) - Ford runs fast in Davis' overrated action thriller

4/07/2019

The Fugitive (1993) - Ford runs fast in Davis' overrated action thriller

♥♥♥

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Harrison Ford is running next to a train in motion on this effective poster, which screams high-octane thrills, for Andrew Davis' The Fugitive

Dr. Richard Kimble is wrongfully convicted the death penalty for the murder of his wife, - but then he escapes!

The Fugitive is written by Jeb Stuart (Lock Up (1989)) and David Twohy (Waterworld (1995)), based on the same-titled 1963-67 TV-series by Roy Huggins, and directed by Andrew Davis (Under Siege (1992)).
The film has an enviably simple narrative thrust to begin with, which I feel is later dissolved by the simplistic cat-and-mouse story that follows, which also gets thick several times; SPOILER as when Kimble's death row bus crashes onto train tracks and is immediately in collision with a train.
Jeroen Krabbé (Sahara Sandwich (1991)) is good as Kimble's deceitful doctor friend, SPOILER but why he and the one-armed man Sykes killed our hero's doctor never becomes clear to me. The smartly handled action pace and James Newton Howard's (Nightcrawler (2014)) great score does a good job of overshadowing the weak points in this massive hit.

Related posts:

Andrew Davis: Collateral Damage (2002) - Good anti-terrorist Arnold vehicle derailed due to 9/11

1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 44 mil. $
Box office: 368.8 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 8.38 times its cost)
[The Fugitive premiered 29 July (California) and runs 130 minutes. Shooting took place in North Carolina and in Chicago, Illinois from February - May 1993. The train crash used a real train in a single take and cost 1 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 23.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it held the #1 spot in the subsequent 5 weeks, then spending another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#3), ending up grossing 183.8 mil. $ (49.8 % of the total gross) from a reported 44 mil. tickets sold domestically, where it was the 3rd highest-grossing film of the year. It was the first major US film to screen in China in decades, but regrettably its international gross numbers are not made public. It was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning for Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones (Cobb (1994))). It lost Best Cinematography (Michael Chapman (Gotham (1988, TV movie))) to Janusz Kaminski for Schinder's List, Sound Effects to Jurassic Park, Film Editing to Schindler's List, Score to John Williams also for Schindler's List, Picture to Schindler's List and Sound to Jurassic Park. It also won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations, 1/4 BAFTA noms and other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this one. Davis returned with Steal Big Steal Little (1995). Ford returned with an uncredited cameo in Jimmy Hollywood (1994) and as a leading man in Clear and Present Danger (1994). Jones returned in the flop sequel U.S. Marshals (1998), which is actually a bit better than the original film.The film was remade in India as Nir Nayam (1995). Leslie Nielsen starred in the parody Wrongfully Accused (1998). The Fugitive is certified fresh at 96 % with a 7.94/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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4/07/2019

The Fugitive (1993) - Ford runs fast in Davis' overrated action thriller

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