The Accused (1988) User Reviews (127)

A hard film to watch

[walsh-22 · 7/10 · 29 June 2007]

It is very hard watching this movie because it is such a shocking story. A girl is gang raped by 3 men in a bar, where a crowd of male customers are shouting, clapping and cheering it on like it's a show.

Jodie Foster plays Sarah Tobias, the girl who is raped. She is not shown as this good virgin but someone who has made mistakes in the past and on the night she was raped but in no way deserved what happened to her. It is shown that before she was raped, she was drunk, had smoked pot, flirted with the men and even made a joke about taking one of them back to her trailer and sleeping with him in front of her boyfriend's face. It must have been a very demanding role for Jodie Foster to do, especially near the end of the film where we see a flashback of the rape and it is very realistic and goes a lot further than any other films about rape has. It must have been very hard for Jodie to do that sequence most of all. She is totally amazing in this role where her character comes across as tough but has a vulnerable side and doesn't have anyone to look out for her until Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) comes into her life.

Kelly McGillis does start off as cool but as the story goes on, we see a compassionate woman who wants to stand up for Sarah's rights and wants to right the wrong she did when she accepted a plea bargain for the charge of reckless endangerment with Sarah's rapists. She then decides the only way she can make up for it, is to prosecute the men who egged the rapists on and feels she can prosecute them using the charge of criminal solicitation which means the rapists will stay in jail for the whole sentence.

I liked the relationship between McGillis and Foster who are completely different people. Sarah is more loose, she's been arrested for drugs in the past, she smokes pot and drinks, she lives in a trailer park and is into astrology. Kathryn, on the other hand, comes across as squeaky clean, a goody-two shoes, conservative, educated in Law school, and is very middle-class. You wouldn't think these two could ever bond but they do over this case and end up caring for one another in a way neither thought they would.

The film is very graphic and leaves nothing to the imagination in the rape sequence and the language that is used. The language during the rape when the crowd is shouting 'Hold her down', 'needle-dick', 'poke that pussy' is very colourful and cruel. It shows these men have a total disregard of the feelings for women, particularly the callous way they talk about the rape as being a show Sarah put on and the rapists were only following her actions and don't have any reason to feel guilty for what they did to her.

It is a difficult film to watch but when the film ends, you have a positive feeling that justice has been served as the men who egged on the rape are just as bad and guilty as the rapists.

Powerful, Disturbing Stuff

[Bondfan-4 · 8/10 · 31 May 2000]

I saw this film with my girlfriend about a year after I graduated from college, where I had lived in the alpha-male, females-as-accessories environment of a fraternity house. While I know of nothing that went on in my fraternity that compares to the horrible events of this film, I was struck that some of the beer-fueled conversations I had with my fraternity brothers could have led to the same results with more likelihood than I realized at the time (or care to admit even to this day). Suffice it to say, I cried all the way home from this movie, as much from shame as anything else.

Twelve years later, I still cannot recall being as horrifyingly struck by a scene as I was during the rape scene at the end of "The Accused" -- and I definitely do not have the stomach to see it again. The movie, in my view, is exceedingly well-acted (Foster's Oscar was well-deserved) and well-told. It has the rare gift of touching the viewer viscerally for the entire duration -- discomfort being the feeling.

This isn't virtuoso film-making like "The Godfather", but at the same time I can think of no greater compliment for a movie than it truly opened my eyes to a new perspective that I was not mature enough to grasp on my own. I left the theater a different person -- how often can that be said?

Effective courtroom drama

[Samiam3 · 7/10 · 6 September 2010]

I don't watch many courtroom dramas. I've seen most of the great ones: 12 Angry Men, Witness for the Prosecution, To Kill a Mockingbird. Of all the ones that predate The Accused, Not many push as far into the red zone as this. As you go back through the decades of Hollywood cinema, films get more and more censored. In parts, The Accused is quite brutal. It would probably have seemed even more so to those who viewed it upon release 20 years ago. There are two trials in this movie. For the first, the accused persons have been charged with rape. For the second, the accused persons (different people) are charged with the crime of cheering it on (to put it in more casual terms). What the movie gives us a taste of is extremely inhumane, worse than murder even. That and two good actresses at the top of their game, results in a credible, involving courtroom drama. The screenplay is a tad over written in some places, so it's not a brilliant movie, but it is a fine specimen to sample for those who enjoy this genre.

No Male Bashing Took Place in this movie

[gamesoonly · 3 November 2004]

I was appalled by one reviewers comments on this movie, stating that a rape victim "got what she deserved". NO one, Woman or man, deserves to be raped, violated or harmed just because they were at the wrong place.

This movie is based on a true story, and the actors were very moving. People make mistakes, someone could be that upset and choose to behave in a manner not appropriate, yet when that Person chooses to stop and say NO, then No is it. No, Stop, Don't, these words do not mean, well, I ask for it. Anyone who thinks otherwise, I feel sorry for because they are sad, lonely and deprived of self worth.

Jodi Foster Is a great actress and puts all her strength in her roles. She is very talented and she and Kelly M. made this movie. Hopefully the person that had to endure this horrid act, is going on, with strength and success.

Gutsy film that is gut-wrenching

[view_and_review · 7/10 · 27 February 2020]

Many people think that Rosa Parks was to first to sit at the front of the bus and refuse to get up all those years ago in 1955. In fact, two other women had sat on the front of the bus and refused to get up before Rosa Parks. The problem is that one of those women was a pregnant teenager while the other was also less than the ideal poster child for a movement. A bus boycott and a cry for civil rights wasn't going to have the same impact if the impetus behind it was a person of less than stellar character. They needed a Mary Sue.

In the movie "The Accused" Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) was no Mary Sue. She was far from it, but that was not a justification for rape and the peanut galleryism that accompanied it.

Rightly or wrongly, in this society there are such things as good rape victims (meaning easy to prosecute the rapists) and bad rape victims (meaning difficult to prosecute the rapists). The good rape victim is one who is a conservatively dressed strait-laced woman minding her own business. A bad rape victim is a sexily-dressed, promiscuous woman prone to drinking and/or drugs and behaving in a provocative way.

Sarah Tobias was a bad rape victim.

She was sending all the signals that a lascivious man would need to act upon his lusts. She was scantily clad, entertaining the come-ons, giggling at everything the man said, smoking pot, drinking alcohol, and to top it all off; she did a sexy dance routine when no one else was on the dance floor. In the mind of the guy with no self-control: "she was asking for it." Whatever he, or anyone else, thought she was "asking for," she wasn't asking to be choked, pinned down, and forcibly raped by three men on a pinball machine. Only in the most depraved society would a woman be "asking" for that.

"The Accused" is a gutsy film that punches you in the gut. It equally tests your dedication to justice for Sarah and your despise of her actions leading up to the rape. "The Accused" doesn't hold back anything. It shows all the less than discretionary behavior of Sarah Tobias which makes you want to slap some sense into her at least. And it shows the despicably loathsome behavior of the rapists that make you want to protect Sarah and serve up some medieval style justice to her rapists. No, you are not spared. You will have to confront your feelings about the entire situation. And whether you feel comfortable about yourself and your opinions afterward or not, you will have some concrete thoughts and opinions.

The subject matter is hard to stomach, but the acting is first-rate

[Mr-Fusion · 7/10 · 6 May 2013]

One thing I found interesting about "The Accused" - a film that's famous for the vicious rape of a young blue-collar woman - is just how they chose to go about making such a movie. You know going in that there's a bad scene, and that the rest of the movie deals with the repercussions. But the film begins immediately after the atrocity went down. We open with Jodie Foster desperately flagging down a ride to make good her escape, and flow right into the doctor's examination of her ghastly welts, claw marks and bruising. The tone is set without any on screen violence.

Now, there's still a "bad scene" involved, but it doesn't happen until we've spent some time in the courtroom. It's a flashback, although the tension and foreboding have been ratcheted to obscene heights that it's still, to this day, beyond brutal (nauseating would be the better way to put it).

The whole of the movie is not easy to watch, and it's one that doesn't hold a lot of replay value. But the reason to recommend it (and I'm sure it has been for 25 years) is the performances from the two leads. Both are exceptional, but Foster won that Oscar for a reason. At the center of this movie are two women who are fighting; one for her side of the story to be heard (after her character assassination in the eyes of the public), and the attorney who's out to help her find justice.

"The Accused" is not as harrowing as "Leaving Las Vegas", but it's still no day at the beach. Regardless, should this movie ever come up in conversation, my recommendation will be based entirely on those performances from Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis.

7/10

Jodie's first Oscar

[Bored_Dragon · 7/10 · 30 June 2018]

For this role Jodie received bunch of nominations and six awards, including her first Oscar. In my opinion, her role of Nell deserves an Oscar much more than this one or her role in "Silence of the Lambs" and this is far from being her best movie, but it has really strong story and it's worth watching.

7/10

A fantastic film that teaches how sick and disturbed people can be and when they all need to be held accountable!

[tub51461 · 10/10 · 4 January 2020]

For years, I never seen this film because my family was so disgusted by it they didn't want me exposed or corrupted by the horror of the film's subject. Having said that, tonight, I decided I needed to see it.

Jodie Foster did a good job in her role as did many others in the movie. The entire movie was real and never overacted or underacted in any way. Each scene that was meant to be good was good and every pathetic experience that was meant to be pathetic was pathetic. I felt the horrors of Sarah's experience as the six men she encountered tormented her physically or mentally, including the Scorpion character. He may not have committed the act, but he was guilty as sin as an accomplice. The term soliciting is an understatement with that pathetic he-man. The actor Leo Rossi was good in his role. Served his horrible womanizing character to be one menacing son of a b----.

Powerfully Told Drama.

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 4 September 2013]

Jodie Foster plays Sarah Tobias, a small-town waitress with a bad reputation(and drug user) who is brutally attacked by three men in a bar, who were also being cheered on by some of the onlookers. Sarah is determined to convince the District Attorney on the case(Kelly McGillis) to bring it to trial, not just the three attackers, but the onlookers as well.

Powerful film is supremely well acted by Jodie Foster(Academy Award Winner)Film runs the risk of being crass exploitation, but is well directed, and again it is the sympathetic and defiant performance of Jodie as this wronged, violated woman that makes this film work as well as it does.

Not for the faint-hearted.

This movie is about more than rape

[alexfiles · 8/10 · 29 July 2004]

This movie is about more than rape. It's about societal views of rape and the objectification of the female in a patriarchal society. The actual courtroom drama portion is not prosecuting the rapists, but the men who cheered on and encouraged the gang rape of a woman in a public place. As you watch the movie, look at the image of the woman on the pinball machine; look at the friend who turned away; the boyfriend who expects the victim to "get over it;" the lawyer who thinks it's OK to cut a deal that removes a rape charge in order to get the rapists behind bars, without thought for the life of the victim afterward. Society is on trial here.

Not that much of a movie... but Foster's performance wins it all.

[shanfloyd · 7/10 · 28 March 2006]

Perfectly knowing that a lot of people would get inspired, personally relate or cite examples from this film, there is no reason to deny that except for the rape victim Sarah Tobias, all the other main characters, even attorney Kathryn Murphy, are written blatantly as stereotypical as they can be. Same can be said about the atmosphere, circumstances and the participators of the incident. The screenwriters have played only one masterstroke by showing the whole rape incident much later in a flashback, which perhaps helps us to relate better to the victim's emotions.

However predictable and blunt the film appears in its formation, it delivers it message right with the help of the outstanding (and Oscar-winning) performance of Jodie Foster. She just plays her part with so much passion that sometimes it would seem that she really IS the victim. I wonder how she could get such a driving force for her role which is so powerful and vengeful, yet so helpless and fragile. It is the performance of her career, Clarice Sterling doesn't even come in comparison. Her job in this film should be treated as educational material.

Graphic but necessary, brutal but truthful...

[ElMaruecan82 · 8/10 · 3 November 2021]

After watching Jonathan Kaplan's "The Accused" a second time after 28 years, I was wondering: has the film aged badly or has justice improved tremendously?

The film concludes with disturbing statistics about one rape occurring in the United States every six minutes and one out of four being collective. I guess it's a blessing that we live in a time where the consentement of a woman isn't put into equation when she solicits justice after a rape, anyway not when a case is so horrendous as Sarah Tobias, a young woman who entered "The Mill" to chill out after a quarrel with her boyfriend and left it ravaged both externally and internally.

I suspect it didn't improve much, but the most difficult part of that subject is that like any crime that results in the confrontation of two parties: some attenuating circumstances are being sought if not the victim's responsibility in the form of apparent consentement. In Sarah's case, that she was drunk, wearing provocative clothes and looking like a low-class bimbo didn't facilitate her quest for justice and even the women who took photographs of her mutilated body didn't show much empathy.

That was 1988, and the story based on 1983 real-life incident, 30 years after and the #MeToo era having come through, rape has extended to situations of abuse of power due to professional status or age, which makes the areas of consentement grayer and rape of the chief causes of feminism. But "The Accused" is simply about justice.

Sarah, magnificently played by Jodie Foster, has been sexually assaulted on an pinball machine by three men in a bar, under the cheers and acclamations of other inebriated men making a pornographic live spectacle out of a crime, pure and simple. And the film's greatest accomplishment was to show the crime, it was accused of voyeurism or sexual exploitation but no, this is a film that reveals an ugly side of the human mind, and in such a truthful way watching it can only be helpful for us, to reconsider our thoughts in a more empathetic way toward victims, real or potential ones.

And having the victim a trailer trash type of girl not as articulate and educated as a student or a nurse, a smoker, drinker and a liberated girl might incline some loose minds to find excuses for the assaillant. "The Accused" is the antidote to such poisonous thoughts. When Assistant D. A. Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) make deals with the defense and replace the term 'rape' by 'reckless endangerment' to avoid the trial, preserve one of the accused's honor, and let them serve a mild sentence, it gives you an idea about how the legal system works.

But like the best trial films, a line is drawn between justice and legality. After the verdict, Sarah feels cheated by her defendant and finds herself harrased by one of the men who literally orchestrated the operation by taunting the second and the third rapist (creepily played by Leo Rossi), resurrecting Sarah's trauma but also allowing Kathryn to have her own epiphany. It's one thing to charge rapists, but what about those who encouraged them? As the film goes to its foregone climax, the real points stops to be Sarah's responsibility but the one of the other men who kept cheering, clapping and calling the turns.

As Kathryn points it out during the trial, as a moral as it is, one can't be convicted for witnessing a rape and turning his face away, but cheers might constitute a form of participation, hence accessory. That question sheds a new light on the previous sentences and Kathryn is put in the situation where her own career is at stakes, which is the narrative arc that accompanies Sarah's own: to be recognized as a victim of rape. It's not a matter of nobility but of principles and also a necessity to prevent such crimes to happen again.

The film is sober in tone and ordinary in its structure because the subject is so important it couldn't be distracted by "originality" or some twist, Kenneth Joice (Bernie Coulson) who's the boy who called the police and watched the whole thing isn't even a last-minute witness and is showed from the very start. However, the film showcases the extraordinary talent of Jodie Foster who won the Oscar, and it's probably deserved because it was perhaps the hardest role she ever had. McGillis deserve praises, as for the accused ones, that they felt sick during the shooting of the climax tells you how willing everyone was to show the reality of rape in its ugliest form.

And I remember watching the film at 11, I had to cover my eyes during the climax because it felt truly like an horror film, which it was. The most brutal part isn't just the gang rape but the sheer terror on Sarah's eyes, the way the camera shows her POV, and the cries and shouts around making "The Mill" a hell an absolute hell on earth for Sarah, putting into perspective Kenneth's dilemma to betray his best friend Bob (Steve Antin) by calling what he done by its name.

Writer Tom Toper deserves accolades for not turning the film into a battle-of-the-sexes thing, but a simple matter of justice for Sarah and redemption for those who didn't help her, whether Kenneth or even Kathryn who sold her for the first verdict. It also shows the role of peer pressure in such cases, especially through the last man who assaulted her because his virility was being ridiculed.

Within its normal look, "The Accused" might be the ultimate film about rape because it not only questions the causes without accusing the victim but it also raises collateral issues that can be extended to other crimes, and it's not afraid to show the whole thing, so if people can't stand watching it, maybe if they witness it someday, they will know the right thing to do.

a serious and troubling study of sexism at its worst

[mjneu59 · 6/10 · 1 November 2010]

The shocking true story of a bar room gang rape is lifted from the headlines to become, with dramatic license, a serious and troubling study of sexism at its worst, when the victim herself is accused of 'asking for it'. Jodie Foster offers a courageous performance as the tough but vulnerable Sarah Tobias, whose behavior on the night of the crime was certainly provocative, but as the flashback re-enactment shows all too clearly no amount of provocation could justify such a brutal response. Up until those final scenes the film is a well-crafted but largely conventional topical drama, with lots of predictable bonding between Foster and her conscience stricken attorney Kelly McGillis. But the attack itself, teasingly saved until the final reel, is so graphic and degrading it obliterates the memory of everything that happened earlier. The scene is pure exploitation, but it serves a purpose, putting audiences in the same, ugly position as the cheering onlookers in the bar, who in many ways were even guiltier than the rapists themselves.

Jodie's brain

[don_agu · 4/10 · 22 April 2004]

The same year Jodie Foster got an Oscar for "The Accused" Meryl Streep was nominated for "A Cry In The Dark" Both films climax in a court room. Look at Jodie and look at Meryl. Jodie (don't get me wrong she's always been one of my favourites) but her intelligence, her brain, overshadows her character's predicament. Her "anguish" in the witness box lacks the emotion it requires because there is something about Jodie that tells us, she is really on top of it. She is acting, beautifully, but acting. Meryl, on the other hand, is heartbreaking in the witness box in "A Cry In The Dark" the intelligence of the actress doesn't come to interfere with the character's. The actress is in total control. Jodie is a very good actress, Meryl is a genius. At the centre of "The Accused" is Jodie's brain, so compelling in "Silence of the Lambs" so distracting in "The Accused"

Amazing Performances Raise Rough Film.

[tfrizzell · 6 July 2002]

One of the roughest films ever produced that is pure misery to sit through due to its realism and Jodie Foster's striking Oscar-winning performance. Foster stars as a sexual victim who tries to get prison sentences imposed upon the men who cheered on her gang rape at a sleazy roadhouse. Foster is far from being an angel herself and every little thing in her past seems to come back and haunt her. A great supporting turn from Kelly McGillis (who plays Foster's lawyer) just adds to Foster's show-stopping role. Not a film I love, but a good film that displays the seemingly ungodly cinematic talents of Jodie Foster. 4 stars out of 5.

A Now-Classic Assault Story

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 4 November 2015]

After a young woman (Jodie Foster) suffers a brutal rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor (Kelly McGillis) assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.

First of all, is this Foster's worst haircut ever? Yes. The answer is yes. But that is really beside the point.

We know the classic story: someone is assaulted and then their personal life, their alcohol habits, their outfit come into question. That story is well-known. But this film takes it a step further: what about those who witness a crime and refuse to stop it, possibly even encouraging it? An interesting legal question, to be sure. But how will it play out in court? And does the way it plays out in the film mirror how it would go in real life? I suppose these are some philosophical, legal questions.

Kind of TV-movie-ish

[David N. · 7/10 · 17 March 1999]

Jodie Foster's performance is good and the gang rape scene at the end of the film is horrific, but the whole movie has the unfortunate feel of a made-for-TV movie. As Jarvis Cocker of Pulp sang, "A movie made for TV, with bad dialogue, bad acting, and no interest. Along with no story and no sex."

Actually, I don't feel the movie was THAT uneventful (I just wanted to squeeze in the Pulp reference, to tell you the truth.) But the difficult subject matter is rendered tame with a boring court case and lots of "You can't win this trial!" dialogue between Kelly McGillis and her bosses. What's worse, the conclusion of the case of the case is never in doubt. Yawn.

The movie is best when it focuses on how Sarah reacts to the rape. She is a fragile woman who acts braver than she is, and her struggle with the rape is rendered clearly and plainly on Foster's face and in her mannerisms. The scene in the record store is uncomfortable and disconcerting, as it should be.

McGillis, though, isn't believable as the prosecutor. She is too bland, too unconvincing; she seems like a calculated attempt at a strong woman character. She never exists as anything more than "the lawyer."

This could have been a very powerful film, one that conveys the pain and anguish of such a terrible crime. As it is, I had to settle for a few powerful moments and some toothless filler.

Provocative and insightful

[BDeWittP · 7/10 · 30 March 2019]

The Accused, the only film I've seen about rape, has some very important messages about the crime and the victims. No matter how a woman is dressed, how sexy she may look, or how flirtatious she may be, she has the right to say no and be respected. Also, if you encourage and applaud a crime, like rape, you are just as responsible for the crime as the assailants.

The unfairness of the legal system is very clear here: rape victims are just that, victims. Just because a woman may have dressed provocatively, or flirtatiously, doesn't mean she asked for it or deserved it. The rapists and the onlooker are the ones at fault. The unfortunate truth is, the legal system and the society doesn't always see it that way.

Jodie Foster, in what is unquestionably the finest performance of her career, plays Sarah Tobias, the victim of a brutal gang rape. Sarah is no angel, she drinks heavily, smokes marijuana, and has a live-in boyfriend who's a drug dealer. She's somewhat inarticulate, doesn't appear to have much formal education, and speaks her mind bluntly when expressing her anger.

Kelly McGillis, in another convincing performance, plays Deputy District Attorney Katherine Murphy. Murphy is a smart and talented DA who does sympathize with Sarah, but has become somewhat inured to the flaws of the legal system. She wants the rapists incarcerated, but doesn't seem to want to pull with both hands because she doesn't believe Sarah will make a strong enough witness.

The crime is plea bargained down to a lesser charge of reckless endangerment. Sarah is justifiably outraged for two reasons: it was not reckless endangerment, and she never got to testify in court. It is only after Sarah is verbally harassed by one of the onlookers (against whom Sarah retaliates in her own fit of rage in a scene where I won't reveal the details), that McGillis's character begins to see things clearly: the victim has a right to be heard and have her day in court.

"I can offer that to you now," she later tells Sarah, "the deal won't matter because the the rape will go on record." She decides to prosecute the onlookers who encouraged the rape for Criminal Solicitation. This is perhaps the greatest message in the movie: if you not only don't step in and stop a crime, but actually encourage it, you are still an accessory and guilty of a criminal act.

Her superiors in the District Attorney's Office are, at first, against this: but McGillis persists. She knows the three men did encourage the attack and kept it going. It is really refreshing to watch her transition from indifference during plea bargaining to having full empathy and finally fighting like hell for a powerless victim who can't fight for herself.

All of this doesn't mean The Accused is a masterpiece, but is a well written, well crafted movie. The brilliant performance of Jodie Foster carries the film, and it left me thinking and very satisfied. It is a movie that gives the members of society a chance to examine their consciences. No means no.

Accused-Contemporary Subject For Our Times ****

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 29 September 2009]

Jodie Foster hits a home run in her Oscar-winning performance in this outstanding film.

Foster epitomizes the low class girl,coming from a broken home and rapidly going nowhere at all in her totally dysfunctional life.

When she is brutally gang raped at a bar, the onus is put on her. Her miserable life, her dress, her drinking, her use of drugs shall all be used against her in a trial.

She is angered when her attorney settles for a lower plea, but is up to the task when the former realized her mistake and will now prosecute those who provoked the brutal attack by their screaming and encouraging the participants.

The rape scene is self is brutally staged but unfortunately that what was needed here.

This hard-hitting drama reflects a tragic social issue of our times.

Partially Based on a True Story

[Uriah43 · 7/10 · 28 October 2018]

Partially based on a true story, this film begins with a young woman named "Sarah Tobias" (Jodie Foster) running out of a nightclub onto a nearby road in an attempt to flag down a passing motorist to escape from the men who had just gang-raped her. From there the scene shifts to a hospital where she then has to endure the humiliating experience of a rape examination. It's during this time that she is introduced to a woman by the name of "Kathryn Murphy" (Kelly McGillis) who works for the District Attorney's office there in Washington state and needs to know if there is enough evidence available for her to initiate a criminal trial against those who took part in the rape. But it doesn't end there as, a little while later, she also has to consider whether to prosecute some other men who cheered the rapists on. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting film which bore a loose resemblance to an actual case that happened in Massachusetts in 1983. Be that as it may, from what I understand the rather graphic rape scene proved to be quite traumatic for some of the actors involved and for her performance Jodie Foster was awarded an Academy Award for Best Actress. That being said, while I thought that this was a pretty good film, I recommend it for mature audiences only.

Listen again..."A person is guilty of criminal solicitation if he commands, induces, entreats or otherwise persuades another person to commit a felony-"

[hitchcockthelegend · 9/10 · 2 June 2013]

The Accused is directed by Jonathan Kaplan and written by Tom Topor. It stars Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis. Music is by Brad Fiedel and cinematography by Ralf D. Bode.

After Sarah Tobias (Foster) suffers a brutal rape in a road side bar one night, prosecutor Kathryn Murphy (McGillis) takes up the case to bring the perpetrators to justice. Including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.

Criminal Solicitation.

Some have bemoaned The Accused as being a TV movie type production, while the thematic edge of Sarah Tobias being a "good time gal, even slutty", has caused consternation in highbrow circles. What garbage!

Depressingly based around an incident that occurred in Massachusetts 1983, The Accused is still a powerful film watching experience over twenty years after it was released. It finds Kaplan and Topor refusing to sweeten the meal, it is what it is, uncompromising in detail whilst casting sleazy like shadows over the justice system and the marginalisation of Sarah Tobias. In fact, as an observation of the law, with its plea bargains and shifting around of character judgements and actions, it's a potent piece of cinema.

Foster is terrific and completely deserved her Oscar win for Best Actress. She has Sarah as tough and demonstrative in her belief that justice has not been served, that because she likes a drink, a tug of weed and a flirt with the boys, she is fair game to be ganged raped whilst others cheer on like Neanderthals. The energy and raw emotion shown by Foster is fantastic and a lesson in acting that budding actresses should study. McGillis was overlooked for praise, but she also is wonderful, brilliantly written by Topor, Kathryn Murphy in McGillis' hands builds from a weary cynic at the beginning to a force of nature later in the courtroom. The scenes there between Foster and McGillis are enough to shatter your heart.

Opening the film with a scene that sees Sarah screaming and fleeing from the bar, her clothes torn, the makers rightly show the actual rape at the end of the film in flashback form. It's harrowing and devastating, and the point where the picture achieves all the goals it set itself. If you are sitting there thinking about TV production value or predictability? Then quite frankly you really haven't been paying attention. 9/10

I don't know how she filmed that scene. It's so graphic in content and looks horrifying

[Neptune165 · 7/10 · 18 March 2023]

I understand that they were trying to show the horror of rape, but if you read what happened to the lady that the movie is based on it doesn't really play out the same way as it does in the movie. It was almost glamorized in a way. I wish they had not put the scene in the movie at all or had skipped the graphic parts of it. I feel bad that she was worried about the men. It seems really strange to me. Yet I can kind of understand it as it might actually be more uncomfortable for them to do what they had to do to a young woman. The more I think about I think showing rape scenes of this kind to show the horror of rape never works. It almost downplays it or even can do the opposite of what it's intended to do by glamorizing it as some kind of fun activity to some people, Like some kind of extreme porn for addicts.

Ritual of Ruination...

[higherall7 · 9/10 · 8 June 2021]

When we played Baseball, some of the older boys would bring up their sexual conquests, real or imagined. There were those who would avidly remark about their discoveries with 'pussy' and girls they knew who were unfortunate enough to have 'a train run on them'. Being barely ten, and knowing about little more than Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories and The Wonderful World of Disney, these terms were unfamiliar to me. Innocently enough, I asked what these terms were. The older boys from Saint Clair Street were astounded and delighted that a good to excellent student such as myself knew nothing about these matters. At last it was apparent that they knew something that I did not know. While chuckling, they asked me probing questions to see whether or not I could figure out what they were talking about on my own.

The mysteries of 'pussy' were fairly easy to assimilate into my understanding. But the term 'running a train' on a girl seemed like something you would mention in a sex joke, but could not possibly bear any relationship to real life. I will not go into all the details of my discussion of this with my older brothers in Baseball. Once I got the concept that this term referred to overpowering a woman and reducing her to the level of human sexual spittoon, I was sure nobody in their right mind would ever humor such an idea and shelved it. But this term kept popping up like a shadow you cannot entirely escape. It reared its ugly head again in a film entitled STRAW DOGS (1971) directed by Sam Peckinpah and finally the term 'running a train' became graphically clear to me as described in Nathan McCall's bestselling memoir MAKES ME WANNA HOLLER (1995). It is a strange human practice that ranks up there with lynching defenseless black folks and storing their vital organs and body parts in Mason or pickle jars. I am sure that you have heard of other similar weird practices, so I won't go into that.

Needless to say, this movie is about a woman who becomes the victim of a gang rape. Though her prior behavior before the incident could have been considered flirtatious or as the fellows would say in my neighborhood a kind of 'teasing', it is of course ridiculous nonsense to even suggest that any woman asks to be publicly humiliated and brutalized and then jeeringly cast aside like a piece of trash. But it only goes to show how little is really known about the vagaries of human sexual motivation and human sexual response. I could go on and on about this, and I am sure you could too, but to what possible beneficial end? Let's just say that the complexities and various undertones and dimensions of this subject are given a fair and adequate representation.

Jodie Foster gives an excellent performance as waitress Sarah Tobias. Kelly McGillis, herself a victim of sexual assault, was also offered this role, but did not care to relive or put on display her own trauma. I personally believe she serves better playing the prosecuting attorney, Kathryn Murphy, demonstrating her strength of character and intelligence in obtaining justice for Sarah Tobias. Foster, being of somewhat smaller physical stature, conveys more vulnerability in the role. There were half a dozen other big name actresses considered for these two parts, including Kim Bassinger, Jennifer Beals for the Tobias role, and Geena Davis, Jane Fonda, and Ellen Barking for the Murphy role, but considering the fulsomeness of the subject it seems to me the casting of the principals pretty much shook out for the best. Some of the male leads deserve mention, such as Bernie Coulson in the role of Kenneth Joyce and Leo Rossi as Cliff "Scorpion" Albrect, but for once, this exercise in misogyny puts the emphasis on the wits and resourcefulness of the women.

This is not the kind of movie you'll be watching annually around Easter or Christmas. When I first viewed it, I found it made me somewhat ashamed to be a member of the male sex. Just as when I viewed Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004), it made me ashamed to be a member of the human race. Director Jonathan Kaplan handles the rape scene with clinical precision and ramps up the shock value so that it has a traumatizing effect on even the actors involved. It can be noted that after Jodie Foster won the Academy Award for this role, she found her career really took off and was back on track. But let's not forget that Cheryl Araujo, upon whom the character of Sarah Tobias was actually based, was ostracized by her community in New Bedford, Massachusetts. After fleeing for anonymity with her family to Miami, Florida, she died tragically in a car accident. That her life was in effect ruined by her experience with gang rape, should be something to give everyone pause.

A courageous attempt to make a serious film about a troubling subject matter

[Joxerlives · 7/10 · 12 February 2013]

The Accused came at a time when attitudes towards sex crimes was very much changing. It is commendable that it is actually so even handed, Jodie Foster's character goes to the police who believe her and their investigation is faultless. After we get into the courts things get trickier, Kelly McGillis DA must balance the demand for a trial with the appeal for a plea bargain which will spare the victim the ordeal and have more certainty of a conviction. Is she right or is she wrong? Once we get to the part where they start to prosecute the other bar patrons for cheering on the rapists you're really placed in a moral quandary, should these men be prosecuted even though they placed no part in the crime? Did they in a dark and noisy bar having been drinking all night even realise what was going on?

Goes without saying that we have terrific performances from Foster and McGillis (whatever happened to her? with this, Top Gun and Witness she was a massive star in 1980s but then just seemed to stop making films altogether?). It's a brave decision in that Foster's character to basically be the DA's nightmare witness, admitting that she was drunk and drugged, had been dressed provocatively and dancing suggestively with her attackers (her strengths are that she has visible injuries and reported the crime immediately). The rape scene itself is horrible (never actually watched it, just fast forwarded through)but necessary to bring home the enormity of the crime.

The ending is pretty downbeat and somehow a little disappointing although what did we expect?

A good film although hard to watch

Dominating Performance...Average Film

[LeonLouisRicci · 5/10 · 1 June 2012]

Gang Rapists are brought to Justice, but what about those Loathsome, Wretched, Disgusting Bystanders who Vicariously and by Proxy take part in the Assault. This is the Theme here and Caring, Sensitives will have Little Doubt that it is Sinful if not Illegal.

Jodie Foster's Oscar Winning Performance is, arguably, Justified because She no less then Dominates every Scene. However, this is partly Due to the Weakness of the Film as a whole. The Men Accused, Trial, and backdrop of the Movie are all so Flat, Uninteresting and Unremarkable it Weakens the Exposition and the actual Rape Scene seems Exploitative.

A Social Sickness ("a rape is reported in the US every 6 minutes") that certainly is Ineffectually Addressed and Approached is in dire Need of Our Attention and Consultation.