The Accused (1988)

The last post I published was for the movie Pieces of April, and dealt with a Hollywood crush for Katie Holmes which was never fully realised, jump now to a Hollywood crush of the genuine variety - Jodie Foster. I can literally watch anything Jodie Foster is in, she is quite simply genius on a killer set of stems, her body of work a testament to the power of cinema and the DNA of Hollywood Royalty.

Loosely based on the 1983 case of Cheryl Ann Araujo, The Accused tells the story of Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster), a victim of a gang rape which happens openly at a bar. She manages to escape, but the battle has only just begun, as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, justice is a right she will need to fight for. With the help of her attorney Kathryn Murphy (Kelly Mcgillis), Sarah sets out to get the justice she deserves. 

The tagline for the film says it all, "The First Scream was for Help. The Second is for Justice"...

The Accused would be Jodie Foster's first Best Actress win at the Academy Awards, it would also be her breakthrough role (at the age of 26) into adult cinema (this is after all, someone who had been working steadily since the age of 3 and who had made up to 50 movies by time she went to college) - as is often the subject of many a True Hollywood Story, the transition from child star to adult actress was not an easy one. 

The role of Sarah Tobias was one she had to fight for, it was widely circulated around Hollywood, Kelly McGillis was offered the role of Sarah but wanted the role of the attorney instead (having been a victim of rape a few years before), many other actresses of the time were also offered and vied for the role (including Madonna, Diane Lane, Bridget Fonda, Ally Sheedy, Uma Thurman, to name a few) - it is not an appetizing role, the rape scene is a brutal affair, unglamorous and taxing for any actress, the first in your face depiction of the crime of rape up to that point.

Jodie was by no means the first choice particularly because she was not viewed as sexy enough, but she would get the role and she was a deserving winner of the Oscar (sexy, tough, traumatised, raging - it is a jaw slacking performance), hers was the only nomination for the movie.

It's an excellent piece of movie history, demonstrative of the power of cinema, not simply for entertainment purposes, but as a source of statement and discussion, furthering the cause of woman's rights in it's own way, the way of art.

  

So that makes No 66 (out of 530 movies to watch, that means I am now 12.45% to target, one eighth of the way, only 464 to go :)!

nuff said...