A microcosm
Contrary
to Harrison Ford's previous films, in Presumed
Innocent, he is finally given the chance to bring out a darker and more
humane side in his character. Harrison Ford is often portrayed as a hero, but
in this film, Harrison Ford plays Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford), a character who
keeps the audience on their toes wondering if he truly committed the murder or
not. Even Pfeiffer mentioned that this was like revealing Harrison Ford's dark
nature, which in retrospect is similar to a reflection of actual human life in
that no human is perfect and that no human does not have a dark side (Pfeiffer
185). There are several scenes that show how Rusty's presumption of innocence
is undermined by the other characters. The characters who stick out the most in
undermining Rusty are Lipanzer, his wife, and his boss.
Towards
the end of the film, Rusty confronts Lipanzer about the missing beer glass. On
this boat scene, Lipanzer reveals that he had the missing beer glass, and
during this scene, the lighting is very low key with light only showing on the
two characters' faces. Additionally, the camera angle is neutral, which still
makes the audience wonder about Rusty's innocence. Lipanzer undermines his
innocence by admitting that Carolyn was bad news. The camera angle was neutral
for Lipanzer but looking up towards Rusty. This is slanted against Rusty in
that it indicates that Rusty might be above the law, and this is accented when
Rusty suggests that it would have been okay to murder Carolyn because she was a
bad person. Continually throughout this entire scene, we see both the scene
setting, mis en scene, and dialogue play against Rusty and suggest that he is
not innocent.
If we
were to contrast the above scene with the scene where Rusty confronts his wife
at the kitchen table about the murder, we can still notice the camera angle
pointing up towards Rusty, but this time, it is indicating his innocence
despite his wife's actions to undermine his innocence, particularly by not
admitting to the crime sooner to him or the proper authorities. This scene also
acts as a nice microcosm to the entire film because in the end, his wife was
the one who undermined not just Rusty but everyone involved in this case. Honestly,
I was surprised the murderer was his own wife, and up until this point in the
film, the film did an excellent job of swaying the audience back and forth
between believing or disbelieving Rusty's innocence. Finally, his boss
undermined Rusty's innocence the most directly of any character. His boss lied
under oath in order to oppose Rusty in court. This undermining directly
impacted the plot's events and showed where his loyalties really lied.
Jonathon, great analysis of the film. I agree with your assertions about Rusty's undermined innocence. To further the idea you made about the glass, I would add that the hidden glass might lead audiences to believe that Rusty is in fact guilty. Lipanzer's attitude toward Carolyn and his distaste of her certainly strengthens this conviction, but the hidden glass in itself creates questions. In my opinion, hidden or altered evidence is a sure sign that someone is guilty. This is also relevant when Rusty asks that the phone records be kept away from the case. Since he had been calling Carolyn in the days leading up to the crime, he thought that this fact might convict him of the crime. In reality, he was trying to cover up for an affair, but because this was so important to him, he ran the risk of looking guilty of the murder as well. Finally, Rusty's innocence is once again undermined when he has an outburst at Molto for accusing Rusty of the murder. The outburst is out of frustration of his coworker's lack of faith in him, but to audiences, it could have been perceived as an outburst caused from guilt.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree on everything but what i most agree upon is how the film, the actors and the directors swayed us on believing that it was actually Rusty who killed Carolyn considering he was the one with the most reasons to do it. I as well never thought that the wife was the killer but we could go back and see when Rusty had the flashbacks the crazy look she gave Rusty while saying " you still love her" I guess that the most important character is the wife and she isn't in the film as much and being the key of everything she is a mastermind in which she fooled everyone into believing it was Rusty and even after Rusty was dismissed of all charges and seen as innocent, there was nothing tying Rusty's wife to the murder making it the perfect crime, except she forgot to clean the damn hammer.
ReplyDelete