Review of The Accused (1988) by Sureyoung — 03 Sep 2020

As one of those films so-called as born with a silver spoon, The Accused, directed by Jonathan Kaplan, starring Kelly McGillis and Jodie Foster, has left the strongest impression on audience for decades, as it is the first mainstream film dealing with the gang-rape issue in the USA, quoted in the film as “In the United States of America, a rape is reported every six minutes. One of every four rape victims is attacked by two or more assailants.”.

Most of the film’s merits have counted on Jodie Foster’s extraordinary performance. She’s as good as it gets in terms of both revealing her innermost struggle with restraint and concealing her outrage with nonviolence. What exactly happened on Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) can’t be articulated from the opening scene, in which, at night, an obvious rape victim is running out of a sleazy bar with herself shouting hoarsely. Then, as most melodramas goes, she meets Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis), the assistant district attorney who will take her case. And as most human beings will do, when Sarah is showing her physical and psychological trauma, sympathy and compassion will rain cats and dogs. However, something in the film seems wrong. Her attire, deportment, temper, disposition, personality, demeanor, diction, tone, accent, hairdo, wisdom, all of them are low enough to affect Kathryn’s emotion against her. Unsurprisingly, Sarah is that kind of flapper who smokes dope, is often drunken, likes to hang around. Although she has a decent job as a waitress and a boyfriend as a drug dealer, her previous conviction on drug possession charges, and to be worse, her drinking on the night of the crime which has made herself a seemingly coquette, have involved Kathryn in a dilemma that she’s not confident in Sarah and chances of the final winning, not to mention that one of the rape suspects is a young fraternity man who’s born with a silver spoon so that a good lawyer is served for him. As a Chinese film critic who’s never been involved in a lawsuit, I’m unfamiliar enough to explain the compromised plea bargain offered to those three men who have brutally gang-raped Sarah, and who, as a result of the agreement of charges as “reckless endangerment”, get off on a lesser charge so that the prospect of parole is quite generous. Outraged as she is, Sarah feels betrayed, – apparently, at that night, when being raped, cheer, whistle and howl are collateral from those onlookers who are rubbernecking, so furiousness is fastened, and fastness is farther. Humiliation and rage of Sarah has outbroken and resulted in a car crash due to the insulting encounter with one of those onlookers who’s exceptionally nagging and teasing. This turning point in the film has provoked the natural-born sense of justice of Kathryn as a female D. A., therefore she’s determined to convict the onlookers who would be guilty of “criminal solicitation”. By being informed of that Jodie Foster's Best Actress Oscar win was this film's only Oscar nomination, undisputedly, The Accused is not as good-looking as you may expect. In fact, at the time of the film's release, the film was highly controversial because of the gang-rape scene. It was the longest, most graphic, and most realistic depiction of a sexual assault in cinematic history. Between flashbacks and the chronological order, the gang-rape is detailed daringly, close to the end of the film.

With the pivotal testimony from Ken, the ultimate win of the lawsuit has not only sentenced three instigators into the prison, but also blew away three rapists’ odds-on escape by crafty scheme. It’s a film that has an intense anti-rape stance and condemnation of rape culture overall. However, it’s not a film that questions the system, on the contrary, it defends the system, makes a pitch for it, blow its own horn. Briefly speaking, as a frivolous woman as she looks in the film, Sarah, potentially regarded as being served right, is impossible to win the lawsuit if the system is not suitable. The stormy criticism about the gang-rape scene has indirectly testified the film’s hypocrisy and inappropriateness though the movie got a positive review overall. In fact, many stars turned down the script because the gang-rape scene was too explicit and exploitative. The argument could be made, however, the movie is based on a real incident that did happen in real life. After all, maybe there is value that showing the audience what really happened can make them feel the pain and humiliation a rape must have caused. Although The Accused is unpleasant, it was also potent.