Customer Reviews

The Accused

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis star in the unforgettable 1988 film "The Accused". Its plot of a young woman, Sarah, getting raped and struggling to get past it is emotional through every second. Its hardhitting scenes, namely the rape scene, hold enough power to hit audiences' hearts like nothing else. Such events express truth in the court system about rape cases. It teaches audiences that it's difficult to convict rapists, even with a lot of evidence. The emotional stance of the film is true. The trauma and fears during and after is expressed to the fullest. Every struggle keeps audiences interested in every event, leading to a surprising conclusion. Its certain graphic scenes were necessary to film to show the issue's depth. The details prove that the writers researched rape to its fullest, which deserves them tremendous respect.

Jodie Foster's Oscar winning role (Best Actress) as Sarah is one of her career bests. She performs with every drop of heart and soul that adds to the film's powerful message. Kelly McGillis's role as Sarah's determined lawyer is wonderful. However, she was wrongfully overlooked by the Oscars for Best Actress. As a real-life rape victim, she used her own life experiences as influence for her performance quality. It resulted highly powerful. All other actors, major or minor, also performed their roles wonderfully.

"The Accused" is a great film for everyone to watch. This is sure to touch many viewers for a long time. Afterwards, keep the film playing for a few more seconds after it ends. The rape statistics shown are interesting, yet shocking.

The Accused is a excellent movie about how a woman is treated after being raped. Kelly McGillis and Jodie Foster make a great team. Foster plays a gang-raped survivor looking for justice in hyprocritical world where men are not held responsible for their actions. Foster received a well-deserved Oscar as her fearless performance of Sarah. There is a graphic rape scene towards the closing of the film that is to be expected since the main theme of this film is about the outcomes of a terrible and vicious rape. Unfortanely, females are still considered "damaged goods" when something this hineous occurs. McGillis's character seeks justice from the men who raped her in a downtown bar and even goes after the men who watched and cheered on the rape and did nothing to stop it. A powerful and superb film all around. This film will force you to see the truth and make you want to change the legal system. Not recommend for younger viewers.

This film is pretty much a run of the mill made for TV flick up until the startling, graphic rape scene. However this distinction must be made. First, TV movies just weren't made about this subject until after this film came out--it opened many doors, and for that it should be applauded. Second, Jodie Foster gives an excellent performance and provides an unflinching look at how rape can ruin a victim's life.
Also, this film deserves credit for portraying the victim as a strong willed character who is far from perfect-and it sends the message that flirting with someone does NOT mean that you deserve to be raped. And I applaud the fact that this film doesn't take the extreme view (hello Lifetime channel) that all men are pigs who either enjoy victimizing women or don't see anything REALLY wrong with doing so. On the contrary, this film has many likeable male characters (even one who helps the victim with her case, despite the fact that one of his friends raped her).

Though it's not perfect, there are many redeeming qualities to this ground breaking film.

Jodie Foster became an actress to watch with this movie. This movie is definitely influenced by early Law & Order. First a movie about a crime, then a movie about society's responsibility in the crime.

Jodie Foster is a fiery independent woman who goes to a local bar after a fight with her boyfriend. She has mischief on her mind but when a group of frat boys decide they will not take no for an answer, they rape her on the pinball machine.

She then faces further humiliation of the police and the degradation of trial where she, the victim, is put on trial. After the perpetrators are acquitted, the prosecutor (Kelly McGillis) puts the spectators on trial. This movie says that not only are the people who commit the crime responsible but those who stand by and encourage it to happen.

Tom Topor wrote the outstanding screenplay. He also wrote the play and screen adaptation of Nuts, another great courtroom drama. His heroine is not a clean cut responsible person but a flawed woman trying to make a living and a life. This is more realistic than other films that would have a perfect Sarah.

Jodie Foster gives a well deserved Oscar winning performance. This was her coming out party. She was no longer a child star or a sensation. Kelly McGillis gives her best performance of her career. She also should have been nominated but Foster overshadowed her.

The Accused is a powerful movie to educate the ignorant world about the law. The movie focuses on the fact that it is not only a crime to commit a rape, but it also a crime to induce, persuade, and convince a person to continue or and commit a rape. The second thing that this true story focused on was, no matter how you dress, how you act, how many lovers you've had, how you talk, or where you live, you deserve a fair trial, fair treatment, and justice like anyone else. The most brilliant thing about this film is they showed the actual rape scene. Once you see it, you have a whole new perspective on things. You sympathize for the victim even more. You also realize that she didnt ask for it what so ever. This really took place in a small town back east, but some details were changed as with all based on a true story films. The woman was actually gang raped on a pool table, not a ping ball machine. Thing movie was not a male basher. I.E. kennenth joyce, the good guy who reported the rape. He witnessed the rape, knew they were raping her, and felt sympathy for Sarah Tobias. It was just a trashy bar full of desperate guys who behaved badly and were criminals. Smiling, lifting eyebrows, and dancing, does not mean a woman is asking to get raped. She was the victim and was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Another senstitive subject for me is these big shot defense attorneys who tear a person's character apart. They dig up past mistakes that a person made and try to make a jury think that the victim deserved it, or asked for it. Being premiscuos in the past has nothing to do with the NO MEANS NO LAW. It's your body, you can say no. Foster is a brilliant and talented actress who does not agree to roles that are meaningless. She takes her acting career seriously which is why she diagreed to Hannibal. She would not play a role in a film with no imagination or meaningful insight, i.e. pure violence. Hannibal turned out to be a horrible film anyways. Fosster knows what she is doing! Her roles are strong women, who have a lasting influence on the viewers. I.E silence of the lambs. The Accused is no exception. It's a movie I saw when I was a teeneager and never have forgotton what it stood for. During a famous rape case recently, a cab driver told me "the victim had numerous lovers, she was a bad girl." I wanted to tell him to rent the accused because bottom line, if a person is raped, it's a crime and the victim deserves as much sympathy as anyone else. Justice does not discriminate. It isnt suppose to. Only the defense attoryneys try to turn everything upside down. I was so angry when the lawyers kept saying "these men had sex with Sarah Tobias and no one knew it was a rape." Then when you see the actual rape. "Hold her down? Cover her mouth" Take turns" Um does that sound like consented sex to you? I don't think so!! They knew exactly what they were doing. Even the spectators knew. Once you've seen this movie, you'll never forget it. It's no wonder Foster won an Oscar for this movie.

Based on a real-life incident, Jonathan Kaplan's hard-hitting drama is an eye-opener, examining a woman's right to exhibit her sexuality, and still not be physically violated against her will. Oscar winner Foster is riveting in a gritty, largely unsympathetic role, and McGillis provides an ideal counterbalance as a somewhat sheltered lawyer whose social conscience gets re-awakened. Absorbing from start to finish, "The Accused" is definitely not for kids or the squeamish.

I use this movie with clients to teach the implications of sexual assault, and the importance of standing up and doing the right thing. Very entertaining, but intense. Not for a G audience

Jodie Foster won an Oscar for her portrayal of Sarah, a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks, who is gang raped in a bar after a drunken night out. Foster delivers a mesmerising performance as the traumatised victim fighting for justice against a system that has labelled her as 'worthless' due to her previous lifestyle. Kelly McGillis plays the district attorney who initially lets Sarah down and agrees to a plea bargain that Sarah doesn't want. When the realisation hits of what she has done, she decides to fight and ensure the perpetrators of this brutal rape are brought to justice.
This is never an easy film to watch. The crime is too violent and the emotions too raw for that. The audience is left with a feeling of unease at the brutality of the crime and at the judicial system that is supposed to protect the innocent. It is however, a compelling film due to the outstanding performances of the lead actors and it cannot fail to touch and move the most hard hearted of viewer.

This movie starts immeadiately after a rape occurs, and follows the victim (Jodie Foster) through medical care, interaction with her friends and family and through the court system. "The Accused" in the film's title actually refers to the victim (Foster) whose charcter and history is the issue for most of the film, instead of the rape.

Foster gives a fine, nuanced performance as a working class woman. Most court room films end up being fairly anticlimatic. This film has a huge ending by showing the actual rape at the end of the film instead of the beginning. Foster's performance here is searing.

Anyone who does not understand how a women can dress suggestively, get drunk and still be raped really needs to see this film.

By exploring the relationship between a rape survivor (Jodie Foster) and her attorney (Kelly McGillis), this 1988 film holds the medical and especially legal professions accountable for their detachment in sexual abuse cases. McGillis, playing fierce courtroom competitor Capt. Kathryn Murphy, starts out viewing the case of Sarah Tobias's sexual assault by three men in the back of a crowded bar as just another showcase for her negotiation skills. She makes a deal to put Sarah's attackers in jail under a lesser charge rather than taking the case to court, a decision with which Sarah vehemently disagrees but regarding which she is given no choice. When Sarah lands in the hospital-again-after retaliating against one of the men who cheered on her attackers while she was gang-raped, Capt. Murphy begins to see what her deal-making has cost the strong-willed Sarah, and her detachment from the case instantly dissolves. She can't do anything to reverse the results of her earlier negotiation, but she decides that she can prosecute the men from the bar who incited, witnessed and encouraged the rape. It's a case that seems like it can't be won-how can you bring criminal charges against spectators of a crime? And-a deeper question of the film-how can you win any sexual abuse case in which the provocatively dressed, hard-drinking victim "had it coming"?
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