The Accused

Name: The Accused
Genre: Drama
Released: October 14, 1988
Duration: 111 min
Rating: 65
Cast: Ann Hearn, Bernie Coulson, Carmen Argenziano, Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis

1988

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Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Ratings

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The Accused

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: October 14, 1988 | R

Starring: Ann Hearn, Bernie Coulson, Carmen Argenziano, Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis, Leo Rossi, Peter Van Norden, Steve Antin, Terry David Mulligan, Tom O'Brien

Summary: After a young woman (Jodie Foster) suffers a brutal gang rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.

Director: Jonathan Kaplan

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 111 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Empire Rob Beattie

Foster is simply fantastic as the tough Sarah, unshakeable in her belief that justice has not been done and that she has a right to demand it. McGillis, from a slow start, builds beautifully and by the time the action has switched to the courtroom, she has shed her starchy persona for a true advocate's passion. Read full review

100

Judy Steed

An experience that is sometimes unbearable and always riveting. [14 Oct 1988]

Vincent Canby

A consistently engrossing melodrama, modest in its aims and as effective for the cliches it avoids as for the clear eye through which it sees its working-class American lives. Read full review

Bill Cosford

The great film that The Accused could have been is in there. So is Foster's lovely, measured work, the work of an actress at the top of her art, and this in a supposed "comeback." Yes, darker and more sadistic passages have burdened many lesser movies. But this one has ambition, and this one has this performance. It's a hard movie to like; it's an impossible one to ignore. [14 Oct 1988, p.E1]

Jay Carr

The Accused is far from a perfect film, but it's got a terrific performance by Foster, a pretty good one by McGillis, and Lansing's knack for casting women's issues in a form that makes people go see them at the movies. [14 Oct 1988, p.49]

David Ansen

It powerfully manipulates our emotions of outrage and revenge but tends to sacrifice human subtlety for polemics. It leaves the thin aftertaste of a TV movie. It doesn't help that McGillis give a dull, leaden performance, rendering her side of the story more perfunctory than it needed to be. Foster must carry the show alone; she seems to compact a lifetime of hard knocks into this furious, touching performance. [24 Oct 1988, p.74]

Sheila Benson

A preachy, empty story, enlivened by a great central performance and generous dollops of self-delusion, not the least offensive of which are Topor's and Lansing's quoted comparisons of their movie to the moral climate of the Holocaust. To paraphrase dear Joseph Welch, have they no shame? [14 Oct 1988, p.4]

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Steven1981

May 8, 2020

The Accused is a 1988 crime drama directed by Jonathan Kaplan who also made "Unlawful Entry" which was a great film.... THE ACCUSED is basically about a gang rape of a young girl who was probably a bit high, bit drunk or both on the night but anyway the assault takes place at a bar orThe Accused is a 1988 crime drama directed by Jonathan Kaplan who also made "Unlawful Entry" which was a great film.... THE ACCUSED is basically about a gang rape of a young girl who was probably a bit high, bit drunk or both on the night but anyway the assault takes place at a bar or something called The Mill.. Kelly McGillis plays a prosecutor who helps Jodie Foster's character (Sarah Tobias) bring the suspects who raped her in to face trial and also the guys who clapped and cheered the rape itself. The actual rape scenes aren't very pleasant but it has great acting in this film especially from Kelly McGillis and even though Jodie Foster played the rape victim and did a good job I still don't understand why Kelly McGillis didn't receive an award also for her performance because she was beautiful and pretty cool and her acting was also great. The film has a pretty good story and is tense in some areas and the characters in the film are good and it doesn't rely on violence and if there is any present in the film it's to a low degree but sure some scenes may shock you especially the assault itself unless you like that thing. It's a clever film with a good story and as far as I'm concerned a classic and never gets boring no matter how many times you watch it. I liked Kelly McGillis in Top Gun (1986) but I also like The Accused and it's beautifully directed and Bernie Coulson who played Kenneth Joyce was also very good in The Accused and he testified helping put the guys guilty of criminal solicitation in regards to the rape away. It was great seeing Jodie Foster smoke a cigarette and dance in the backroom of the bar near the pinball machine but the rape scenes themselves were upsetting but all worked out well and justice was served. Also the chemistry between Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis was awkward in parts but it made the film more realistic and helped to develop the story more and see the frustration in Jodie Foster's face. Mostly the chemistry was great though and it worked so a must watch and a very powerful film!… Expand

0 of 4 users found this helpful04

SAhe1

Aug 30, 2018

Wonderful courtroom drama. Jodie Foster nailed it with her role as a rape,victim seeking justice. She deserved her first Oscar for this role. Kelly McGillis did a wonderful job playing Jodie's on-screen lawyer. This is such a heartbreaking film it made me cry and not want to stop crying.Wonderful courtroom drama. Jodie Foster nailed it with her role as a rape,victim seeking justice. She deserved her first Oscar for this role. Kelly McGillis did a wonderful job playing Jodie's on-screen lawyer. This is such a heartbreaking film it made me cry and not want to stop crying. Jodie Foster gives one of the greatest performances of all time.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

LamontRaymond

Feb 27, 2018

Not a great first date movie - I think I saw it on a 3rd date - but it was really the first of its kind to really go there and seeks to hold onlookers accountable. I'm a bigger fan of McGillis than most of these critics - she wasn't all that icy. And Foster is just amazing. What a braveNot a great first date movie - I think I saw it on a 3rd date - but it was really the first of its kind to really go there and seeks to hold onlookers accountable. I'm a bigger fan of McGillis than most of these critics - she wasn't all that icy. And Foster is just amazing. What a brave performance.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

geewah

Jan 29, 2021

A brutal and engrossing film on the trauma involved in the act and subsequent effects of rape.
Foster thoroughly deserved her Oscar for her performance.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

sureyoung

Sep 3, 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, quotedAs 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.… Expand

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