Review of Guilty by Suspicion (1991) by Rodney E — 14 Jul 2009

In my kick to collect as many Robert De Niro movies as I could, I stumbled upon Guilty by Suspicion with no idea what it was going to be about. The central premise is the government "witch-hunt" where they went after many people in Hollywood who may or may not have had ties to communism. The movie is obviously very one-sided (considering it's Hollywood that made this movie), as the government is made to be the puritanically evil and obtuse villain. That may have been true to some extent at the time, but the movie doesn't really go into the reasons for the paranoia and "witch-hunt" in the first place.

The movie starts with the government badgering a supposed-communist (an excellent Chris Cooper), and he ends up naming all of his friends as potential communists. One of his closest friends is Robert De Niro's character. The rest of the movie follows him and how all of his friends and work associates react to his being named as a potential communist. The climactic scene has De Niro standing up to the government in the courtroom, which emboldens his other friends to stop taking the government abuse and stand up for themselves as well.

There are many powerful scenes throughout the movie, but more than a few scenes tend to drag a bit. That's to be expected from this kind of drama, though. The strong performances from almost all of the cast (even George Wendt!) keep the movie interesting enough during even the heaviest dialogue.