Richard: Presumed Innocent

Presumed Innocent is an interesting movie.  It is full of action, anticipation, and keeps the audience constantly thinking at every turn.  From the start of the movie, it was thought that Rusty was innocent but several events and assumptions in the film made the audience and other characters question whether or not he was truly innocent. 

One scene in the movie that questions his innocence was the scene where Rusty walks into the office of Horgan.  All the people in the office points fingers to him that he might not be innocent.  This was the first scene where the audience questioned his innocence because we started to see previous small details that might just add to evidence of him being guilty.  The fact that we already knew that he had a sexual encounter or relationship with Carolyn kind of made them accusing him look true.  When the flashback was shown, it also made it seem as though he might be capable of doing something like killing her. 

Another scene was when in court when the jury found out Rusty requested that the phone logs between him and Carolyn be basically ignored.  This allowed the audience to reflect back to when he was telling his partner about the phone calls from her apartment to his house.  This made him look even more suspisious because they were actually on the night she was murdered.  The fact that he wanted those ignored made it seem as though he was trying to cover up for something.  He just looked even more guilty. 

Another incident was when Rusty’s friend pulled out the cup that had been used to get his finger prints in the case.  His friend said he took the glass.  This made the audience believe that even his own partner did not trust him, so why should we.  At this point, all the evidence actually did point to him. 

The mise-en-scene for the scene for the scene where Rusty was in Horgan’s office is good to analyze to see the slant of the scene.  Lighting key played a key role in this scene.  The scene is very dim compared to the rest of the movie.  Rusty walks into the office that is dim.  This gives the audience the feel that maybe something “shady” is about to happen.  When something is dim or rooms are dim, we tend to think about something is being discussed privately.  This is the feel that Rusty probably got as well as soon as he walked into the room.

Another element that is important is density.  The density in this scene is interesting.  We see that it seems congested or tight, almost like there is no escape.  Rusty walks into a scene that almost appears to hit a dead-end because of the spacing behind the officers that are accusing him. 

Another element would be character proxemics.  When Rusty walks into the office, we see a tremendous amount of space between the accusing officials and Rusty.  This gives the audience a sense of separation and gives light to a new suspicion.