Presumed
Innocent, released in 1990, is a
courtroom drama starring Harrison Ford as Rozat "Rusty"
Sabich, a highly touted prosecuting attorney in an American city. It
is an intriguing film in which it perfectly brings to
light the idea "that
no human is perfect and that no human does not have a dark
side"(Pfeiffer 185).
Sabich is seen throughout the county police department as the
"right-hand" man to the lead prosecuting attorney, Raymond
Horgan (Brian Dennehy). His life is torn asunder when he comes to
find out his colleague and former lover, Carolyn Polhemus (Greta
Scacchi), an ambitious sex crime prosecuting attorney has been
murdered. After being given the case by Horgan, Sabich (Harrison
Ford) recruits one of his friends to be the lead police investigator
in the crime. However once the evidence starts to roll in, it all
starts to point to Sabich as the main suspect. From here on, the
system that Sabich fought so valiantly to defend, was now accusing
him of raping and murdering his colleague. It is unclear throughout
the entire movie whether or not Sabich is guilty of the crime or not,
but there's no doubt the other characters in the movie doubt Sabich's
innocence in the matter.
The
first moment happens when Sabich's fingerprints are found at the
scene of the crime on a glass in Polhemus' apartment. He is called
into his superior's office where this evidence is brought forward. It
is here that the accusing attorney blames Sabich for conveniently
"forgetting" to reveal the results from the forensic lab. Despite having an alibi that he was babysitting, the glass in the
apartment becomes an important piece of evidence that also
conveniently disappears from the trial as well.
The
second moment where his innocence is brought into question is when he
is confronted by Tommy Molto (Joe Grifasi), who outright accuses him
of the murder. To which Sabich sarcastically responds "yeah,
you're right, you're always right." Molto makes this accusation
with little to no evidence, and clearly no regard for Sabich's
position as a member of the justice system.
The
final scene that depicts an undermining of his innocence is when
Sabich finds the murder weapon in his house, and confronts his wife
about it. The entire scene is particularly chilling, as she describes
how she "fooled them all", including Rusty about the
murder. In the scene, the camera is at a slight angle looking up at
Rusty, putting him on a higher ground than his wife, indicating his
innocence over hers. One half of the scene is particularly bright,
whereas the other half is shadowed, hinting at a darker side to
Rusty. The light perfectly splits on his face, contorted in anger and
confusion. The fact that half of his face is dark, but the other is
light shows that while Rusty has a high moral standard being a member
of the justice system, he also has a darker side in which he may have
known more about the murder than he cared to let on.
Tom Mather
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