An Innocent Man (film)
An Innocent Man | |
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Directed by | Peter Yates |
Written by | Larry Brothers |
Produced by | Ted Field Robert W. Cort |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Silver Screen Partners IV Interscope Communications |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 113 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | Domestic: $20,047,604[1] |
An Innocent Man is a 1989 American
Plot
James "Jimmie" Rainwood (Tom Selleck) is an ordinary, model citizen. Happily married to his beautiful wife Kate (Laila Robins), he has a modest home in Long Beach, California. Jimmie works as an expert American Airlines aeronautics engineer, supporting his wife while she's in college.
Detectives Mike Parnell (
One day Parnell takes a large hit of
Jimmie is completely unprepared for prison life. Early in his term he sees his cellmate murdered with a screwdriver and set on fire in the prison yard. Later he has a run-in with the Black Guerrilla Family run by Jingles, who grabs his commissary purchases, daring him to resist. The gang beats Jimmie senseless and he spends several weeks recuperating. Jimmie knows he can't expect help from anyone, least of all the prison authorities, who punish him for not naming his assailants. Shrewd and respected long-term inmate Virgil Cane (F. Murray Abraham) tells him he needs to "take care of his problem" with Jingles, but Jimmie resists the pressure to kill as long as he can. After Jingles forces him to witness the gang rape of another inmate, Jimmie knows he has no choice but to act.
Jimmie gets a
Before Jimmie is paroled after three years served, Virgil suggests to him that he should take advantage of his prison contacts to get even with the detectives who framed him. But Jimmie just wants to regain his life on the outside and joyfully reunites with Kate. Prison life has hardened him and he warns Kate that in some ways she no longer knows him. When Parnell and Scalise come to his home and threaten to frame him again if he doesn't do as they say, Jimmie realises their lives will never be their own while the detectives continue to hound them. Jimmie hates his wife being dragged into this violent world but she insists that she does know him as a good man who is only doing what he must. Kate visits Virgil in prison and asks for his help in getting evidence on the corrupt cops that the police can't ignore.
Virgil's outside contacts scam Parnell and Scalise into busting some "competition" that are, in reality, protected dealers of Donatelli. Fearing both Donatelli and Fitzgerald, the two cops only turn in a fraction of the seized drugs and decide to take the remaining huge haul out of state to start new lives, away from the threats of both the mob and the law. Before they can leave town, they are robbed by masked "thieves", Jimmie and Malcolm (
The movie ends with Kate and Jimmie returning to a life they both deserve. Parnell, now a convict, is sent to the same prison where Jimmie was incarcerated. On his arrival as a new prisoner, Virgil calls attention to Parnell by yelling, "Hey, officer!" for all the other inmates to hear. Parnell, his face frozen in fear, looks up to the balcony where Virgil is smirking down at him. Jimmie is seen suited up and working again for the airline, finally getting his life back.
Cast
- Tom Selleck as Jimmie "Rains" Rainwood
- F. Murray Abraham as Virgil Caine
- Laila Robins as Kate Rainwood
- David Rasche as Detective Mike Parnell
- Richard Young as Detective Danny Scalise
- Badja Djola as IA Detective John Fitzgerald
- Bruce A. Young as "Jingles"
- Dennis Burkley as "Butcher"
- Todd Graff as Robby
- M.C. Gaineyas Malcolm
- Philip Baker Hall as Judge Kenneth Lavet
- J. Kenneth Campbell as Lieutenant Freebery
- Peter Van Norden as Peter Feldman
- James T. Morris as Junior
- Tobin Bell as Zeke
- Bob Maroff as Venucci
- Maggie Baird as Stacy
- J.J. Johnstonas Joseph Donatelli
- Brian Brophy as Nate Blitman
- Ernie Lively as Donatelli's Dealer
- Dann Florek as Prosecuting Attorney (uncredited)
Production
Peter Yates later recalled, he "wasn't sure at all" about the script when he first read it. "I was worried about the violence. But what struck me was the quality of the writing in the prison scenes and the accurate observation of prison life. This seemed to me to be something I hadn't seen on the screen in a lot of prison movies." He said he also loved "what I call 'experience films.' By that I mean films that are about somebody caught up in one of those situations where you're left feeling, 'there but for the grace of God go I'."[2]
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 44% from 9 reviews.[3]
References
- ^ "An Innocent Man (1989)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
- ^ Disney bags Bullitt director; An Innocent Man latest turn for eclectic Yates Edmonton Journal 11 Oct 1989: C14.
- ^ "An Innocent Man". Rotten Tomatoes.