Fun and Stupid

The Fugitive (1993) – Richard Kimble is a respected surgeon with a beautiful wife. One night his wife was attacked and killed. Is the good doctor the killer or the mysterious one-armed man that he claims attacked both him and his wife? The federal Marshall in charge of bringing Kimble back after an escape doesn’t care one way or the other. His job is to put him back in jail.

Directed by Andrew Davis

Starring Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Joe Pantoliano, Julianne Moore

Why I Liked It – The interplay between Ford and Jones, even when the characters aren’t together, is fun.

I remember watching the original “The Fugitive” on black-and-white TV back in the ‘60s. Essentially, the story is the same as the one in “Les Miserables”. While Kimble and Valjean differ in their guilt of the crime of which they are accused, they are decent men trying to right a terrible wrong. Meanwhile, Gerard and Javert are two peas in a pod. Certain of the correctness of their pursuit and equally relentless. As Gerard succinctly puts it in one of the highlight scenes of the movie, when it comes to the innocence or guilt of his fugitive, he simply doesn’t care.

With all of that in mind, I found the movie a little tedious. There’s more than enough “chasing” for a movie that centers on that chase. There’s a wreck involving a bus and a train, a couple of things blow up along the way, but the story strikes me as thin. Neither of the main characters learns anything about themselves. There’s no growth. Both characters do stupid things over and over and over again. Gerard’s persistence resembles that of a bloodhound, but it’s a cartoon bloodhound. In the end, he accepts he was wrong with a shrug and a smile. Is there any sign that he has learned some caution for future pursuits? There’s no evidence of that. He’s a one-trick pony at the beginning and the same at the end. Dr. Kimble faces a challenge to his comfortable, orderly life. Staying ahead of one of the mythological furies in Gerard should challenge him to grow and call reserves he didn’t know he had. Instead, we get a fugitive who stays one step ahead of his pursuer as much by the foolishness of the pursuit as by his own guile. There’s plenty of luck, good and bad, to keep them apart.

Is there plenty of good fun to be found here? Yes. But the movie spends way too much of its time, talent, and energy in the “Check your brains at the door” territory. Given the concept and the cast, there was a lot left on the table.

Rating – *** Worth A Look