O'Connell: The Fugitive

Richard Kimble’s innocence and moral virtue play a large role in the film’s driving, emotional storyline, as his personal integrity must be firmly established to keep the character in the audience’s good graces. Both sympathy and respect for Kimble are necessary to retain the film’s representation of a wrongfully accused man attempting to make things right. Pfeiffer identifies these attributes as they affect the film’s atmospheric and underlying concepts:

“The audience, which is used to rooting for Ford in any number of other films, instantly feels a sympathy for his character, which is essential in such an emotional story. We have to feel Kimble’s frustration, fears, and anguish so that his final triumph is all the more satisfying.” (Pfeiffer 212)

Many scenes throughout the length of the film reestablish Kimble’s respectable character as something of a reminder of his righteousness, or atonement for the less consequential misdemeanors he is forced to commit. Just as he is in the process of escaping from his imprisonment, Kimble attempts to save the young injured prison guard from the bus wreck before the train hits it. When placed in such a precarious position, his selflessness shining through demonstrates more of how this man should not be so quickly deemed guilty, especially so in regards to the other inmate and the older prison guard, who abandon the injured guard and Kimble in the wreckage. The contrast this provides show the audience that Kimble holds the moral high ground in contrast to his “fellow murderer”, as well as to the apparent authority figure who both abandons his junior in an act of self preservation, later glorifying himself in his account to the investigators later. This reinforces all of Kimble’s virtues of selflessness, courage, and his indefatigable sense of justice.

Kimble’s heroism in this scene also reimposes his character’s highest motivation, the pursuit and capture of his wife’s true murderer. This unselfish motivation drives all of his actions, as Kimble is not simply on the run from the law, but seeks a higher objective than his own freedom, which is simply a byproduct. Were he simply concerned with his own freedom, he could have fled across country, or left the nation. However, he instead returns right back into the belly of the beast to pursue his goal at his own risk. This goal is not even simple vengeance, as we see in his first conflict with the murderer in the traincar. He does not kill him, he instead decides to incapacitate him and leave him handcuffed for the police to find, and continues to tear away the web of lies that led to his wrongful imprisonment. Kimble’s innocence and strength of character are reestablished in multiple scenes throughout the film, and are integral to the fundamental qualities of the film.