Monday, April 28, 2014

Miller Presumed Innocent Blog



Michael D. Miller
Prof. Mary McCay
22 April 2014
Presumed Innocent
Rusty Sabich’s (Harrison Ford) innocence is undermined on several occasions in the film, Presumed Innocent. The scene in the film when Rusty Sabich has just been confronted in Raymond Horgan’s (Brian Dennehy) office and the evidence is laid out that the primary suspect in the case is Rusty. Rusty exits the office and walks down the hallway followed closely by Tommy Molto (Joe Grifasi) who accuses him of murdering Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi). Rusty responds by backing Molto against the wall and pointing his finger in his chest as he emphasizes, “Yeah, you’re right. You’re always right.”

The visual elements of the scene are two characters in a tight frame in a medium proxemics. The closeness of the two characters suggests that the topic of the conversation is accusatory.  The character Sabich (Ford) is taller that Molto (Grafisi) and Sabich is violating his body space physically and by pointing his finger in his chest. The two characters are observed in the foreground which leads the viewer to believe that the conversation is crucial to the story plot and confrontation with high emotions. The low key lighting and shadows on the two characters suggests that the confrontation is dark in nature, possibly secrets to hide or doubt. The background is a cold dimly lit office area that could be interpreted as a cold and callous environment, all serious business is conducted in this space.
The telephone call log from her home reflects a telephone call made from Rusty’s home on the night of the murder, which we later learn was made by his wife Barbara Sabich (Bonnie Bedelia). Rusty further complicates the matter when he tells Det. Lipranzer (John Spencer) not to worry about the telephone records. Rusty explains to Lipranzer that he had called her a number of times during the month prior to her murder. The prosecution could certainly take this information and make it look a lot worse than it really was. A grown man coming to grips with rejection and obsession with a woman he had an affair with. Lipranzer tried to console Rusty and that the phone calls could easily be explained away as work related. Rusty knew better and he would rather avoid the embarrassment altogether rather than lie to protect his good name.    
During the case preparation, Sabich and his attorney interview Rusty’s former boss and District Attorney, Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy). When asked about the events leading up to Rusty’s involvement in the murder investigation of Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi) by Alejandro “Sandy” Stern (Raul Julia), Horgan said that he would testify that Rusty insisted on taking on the case as opposed to what really happened when the case was forced upon him by Horgan. Rusty becoming visibly upset and feels betrayed by the obvious lie that Horgan was preparing to tell that could prove detrimental to Rusty’s future.
The scene when Rusty meets with Det. Lipranzer (John Spencer) on the ferry. During their conversation, Det. Lipranzer reveals the glass that was taken as evidence from Polhemus’ residence and dusted for fingerprints. The glass had been signed back into evidence by Molto. He said that he was prepared to give it to anyone who asked, but no one ever asked so he threw it into his desk drawer.     
Det. Lipranzer: How ya doin'? Christmas Present.
[takes out glass which was key piece of evidence that went missing during the trial]
Rusty Sabich: You're sticking your neck out pretty far on this one, Lip.
Det. Lipranzer: It was them that fucked up. Remember when they came around and gathered all the evidence? The glass wasn't there, I took it down to Dickerman. The next day, I get a call. The test is done, I can come pick up my glass. But when I went down there, Molto had signed 'returned to evidence.' I guess they figured I'd put it back. Only, I got no place to put it since it ain't my Goddamned case anymore. So I tossed the thing in my drawer. I figure sooner or later someone's gotta ask me about it. No one ever did.
Rusty Sabich: You think I killed her.
Det. Lipranzer: The lady was bad news.
Rusty Sabich: So that makes it okay that I killed her.
Det. Lipranzer: Did ya?
Rusty Sabich: Oh, pal.
[sighs, tosses glass into the water]
Det. Lipranzer gives Rusty the glass and he tosses it into the river. When he is asked about whether or not he killed Polhemus, Rusty neither confirms nor denies the accusation. Earlier in the film, it was Rusty’s job to get the glass fingerprinted and to determine the breadth and scope of the search for potential respondents in the fingerprint database. Rusty decided to narrow the scope to “just felons” which further casts doubt in the minds of the viewer as to innocence. The audience is still uncertain as to whether Rusty is guilty or innocent of the murder. The suspense has built during the trial, but once the trial was over, the audience is searching for some sort of resolution to who murder Carolyn Polhemus. The revelation was still yet to come.
The final scenes of the film reveal that Rusty was actually sleeping with Carolyn’s killer. Rusty is working on the fence in his yard and pulls out a hammer/pry bar from his toolbox. He soon notices that there is hair and blood on the end of the hammer. He returns to the basement to wash the hair and blood off when his wife, Barbara Sabich (Bonnie Bedelia) is seen standing at the bottom of the stair, “I fooled them. I fooled them all.” Those words echoed through Rusty’s soul. Upstairs Barbara explains that she was depressed and wanted to die, until she began to dream of “destroying the destroyer.” Barbara was relying on Rusty to discover that it was she who had committed the murder and that his feelings of guilt would move him to cover up her crime. Barbara said that she never intended for Rusty to have to suffer the way that he did. Rusty not only felt that he had caused his wife to murder his former lover, but could not put his wife, the mother of his son in prison for something that was the root cause of. Therefore, officially the murder went unsolved but personally, Rusty has compromised his principles of justice in order to protect his wife and live with his guilt of driving her to murder.





Works Cited
28 April 2014. (Picture)
Pfeiffer, L. and Michael Lewis. The Films of Harrison Ford. Third Edition. New
York: Citadel Press. 2002. Print.


1 comment:

  1. I find it very interesting that I chose to blog about the exact same scenes as you. I think that that is a strong testimony to the significance of these three scenes to the trajectory Rusty Sabich. I like what you said about Sabich invading Molto’s personal space during their confrontation. Violating personal space is a commonly used phrase, but I didn’t find it cliché at all in the way you used it, it seemed like the perfect explanation of what he did. Illustrating the fact that Molto’s personal space was violated depicts how the audience feels Sabich is being out of line in response to his accusation, painting him as menacing in nature.
    I also thought it was very clever of you to point out that “Sabich had been sleeping with the murder all along.” I thought this was a clever line because the film largely focused on the fact that Sabich had also slept with the murder victim. This is slightly sick to think about, but it’s definitely something deep to think about. What does this aspect of the film mean in terms of thematic message? I think the entire movie portrays a dark image of the competitive nature of seeking one’s attraction.

    ReplyDelete