THE ACCUSED

THE ACCUSED
1988 111mins. Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Rated: R
Cast:
Jodie Foster…………………………………..Sarah Tobias
Kelly McGillis……………………………….D.A. Kathryn Murphy
Bernie Coulson………………………………Kenneth Joyce
Leo Rossi…………………………………….Cliff Albrect
Ann Hearn……………………………………Sally Fraser
Carmen Argenziano………………………….D.A. Paul Rudolph

The saddest thing about The Accused, a harrowing movie about a female rape victim’s crusade to bring her attackers to justice, is not only that it was based on a real case, but that the lessons of the ensuing trial have yet to be learned. In 1983, twenty-two-year-old Cheryl Araujo was raped by four men at a bar in New Bedford, MA. Although the four attackers were eventually convicted of rape, the treatment of Araujo by the defendants’ attorney brought overdue scrutiny to the all-too-common tendency to blame female victims of assault. There was more than a little prejudice thrown on Araujo when claims about her promiscuous behavior began circulating. Tragically, Araujo was killed in a road accident in Miami two years before the release of The Accused. The film, however, is a potent one that helps to keep Araujo’s subsequent activism for the rights of rape victims alive.
Wisely and justly, The Accused doesn’t begin by showing us what happened in the bar. Few people actually know exactly what happened and the film is too responsible to make conjectures. It simply begins with the rape victim, here named Sarah Tobias, running out of the bar screaming and takes off with the known facts.
Still, this is a film with a strong warning to make. The case of Cheryl Araujo was a landmark in the struggle to end the blame-the-victim mentality. That battle is far from over but that case was the first major breakthrough.
Ever since she proved herself in Taxi Driver at 14, Jodie Foster was honored with roles that not even some adult actors could handle. Her Oscar-winning performance as Sarah Tobias was one of the hardest to pull off. Director Jonathan Kaplan had hoped to cast Sigourney Weaver, then Kim Basinger, and finally Molly Ringwald until finally giving Foster a shot. Seeing the film, Kaplan’s initial hesitation is hard to comprehend. Foster’s performance here is one of her best.
Sarah is a troubled young lady. She speaks through bottled-up emotions and only starts to open up after her attack. For the first time in her life, people are trying to help her. An inspection of her home life is revealing of the neglect she has faced all her life. Her live-in boyfriend is a moocher that never listens to her. She guzzles down alcohol for breakfast and smokes pot regularity. Her life is so reckless that even her attorney (Kelly McGillis) is worried at first.
As D.A. Kathryn Murphy, Kelly McGillis embodies the strength of an independent woman. She is a crusader for justice and seems to make a point of not being married. Despite her stumble into legal games, she is sincere about helping Sarah.
Sarah has to learn to be independent too and is off to a good start when she kicks her good-for-nothing boyfriend out of the house. But she hasn’t any good role models. Her mother, it is hinted during a phone conversation, has never learned to be independent and has led a life of suffering as a result. Sarah can either go in the direction of her mother or that of D.A. Murphy.
The Accused also gives insight into the strains that the case brought into the community but it keeps ethnicity out. This is unfortunate because the friction that the Araujo trial created in the mostly Portuguese-American community where she lived is of relevant social significance. The film’s one shortcoming is the anglicizing of her attackers, a move that robs the film of a second layer of profundity.
The locals’ response to the trial is mixed. The film avoids the cliché in which the whole town is hushed or set against Sarah. But neither are the witnesses eager to help her. Their main interest is protecting the business and bar that employs them. Inevitably, some are unsympathetic to Sarah while others were simply too drunk to remember.
The case of Cheryl Araujo was distinct from that of Kitty Genovese in that while there were ample witnesses to both attacks, the witnesses in the Araujo case did not fail to react because of diffusion of responsibility, but because of a conscious lack of concern. The real villains of the story, however, are the witnesses who cheered on Araujo’s attackers.
For Sarah, the real horror begins after the first trial when she becomes the target of harassment by her attackers’ friends. A truly frightening confrontation occurring at a record store demonstrates how the mismanaged trial not only failed to deliver a just sentence to Sarah’s attacker but also sealed her already tainted reputation in town.
At times, The Accused follows the familiar formula of courtroom dramas, complete with a well-meaning attorney selling their soul. For once, however, this matters little. This is an intense and emotionally gripping story that needs to be told. There are plenty of powerful movies about the legal system, but The Accused has a unique angle that isn’t addressed nearly enough.
Jodie Foster’s performance, of course, is enough to keep us attached to Sarah’s ordeal. Her heartbreaking testimony during the second trial is Foster’s single best moment on the screen, and only the coldest of viewers can resist being moved to tears. What’s really unique about Foster’s performance is that by the end of the movie, we don’t feel as if we’ve seen a performance (even though we have seen a monumental one), but, rather, that we’ve come to know Sarah Tobias really well and that, despite her mistakes in life, we care enough about her to demand justice on her behalf. Almost single-handedly, Foster creates an exciting and compelling film that ranks among the best of the often white-washed 80s.
Even during the flashback based on a witness’s memory, The Accused strays from the known facts very little. Even when it does venture a little further from them than it should, the movie remains honest about their presentation and that is the key to why The Accused is so effective. The brutality of the assault is presented without glossy camera tricks or manipulation. Everything in the film is a sincere representation of a true case that brought attention to a leak in our judicial system that we still haven’t finished repairing.