Hoo : The Fugitive

                The 1993 Andrew Davis film The Fugitive is a chase thriller that stars Harrison Ford. Ford plays Richard Kimble, a surgeon framed for the murder of his wife by a friend with the agenda of peddling a new prescription drug. The interesting part about this film is that the audience is not informed of Richard Kimble’s innocence until later in the film. Until it is explicitly revealed through a flashback that he is innocent and that a one-armed man really did in fact murder his wife, it is left up to the audience to decide whether or not they think he is innocent. Until the point where the audience is given this piece of information, there are little hints left by the filmmaker suggesting that Kimble is an innocent man. The first of these major hints occurs when he escapes form the bus transporting him to prison. Kimble is given the opportunity to either do what Is ‘right’ and save the life of the corrections officer who was stabbed by another inmate or go for the more selfish opportunity of escaping. He of course goes to save the life of the officer and drags him out of the wreckage, something the other officer would not even do. This demonstrates that Kimble has an even sounder moral compass than an officer of the law.

               

Kimble is confronted with another moral dilemma when he sneaks into his former work place, a hospital. As he is about to exit the hospital, he sees that his one exit point is blocked by a horde of cops. He then holds off on his departure and hangs back. He then observes a swamped hospital staff that was not properly attending to a young boy. A doctor then requests him to send this boy to another department in the hospital. His inclinations as a doctor then kick in and he looks at the boys charts and realizes that he needed surgery. It is a convincing portrayal of a doctor as “Harrison Ford indulged in intensive research for his role as a physician. He accompanied actual doctors on their rounds, socialized with them, and watched them prepare for surgery” (Pfeiffer 208). He then made the proper adjustments to the boy’s charts and sent him into surgery. His actions actually ended up saving the boy’s life. Kimble was presented with another moral dilemma and ended up again making the non-selfish decision to help another person despite the risks. The easier route for Kimble would have been to simply send the boy where the doctor requested him to and gotten the hell out of there. Instead he chose to help the boy. This benevolent decision hints at his innocence. A man who murdered his wife would have no problem with sending the boy into the wrong wing for the sake of his escape. Kimble’s innocence is suggested through this scene.