Let me say up front that this is one of the most difficult films you will ever sit through.

Let me also say it is one of the most powerful.

Preamble

Do you remember a few years back when a case was in the news because the presiding judge had let a rapist go free, as he felt the woman had been "asking for it"? He based this on what she was wearing.

So let's follow that logic a second. Let's say a man is dressed like a Hell's Angel. The way he's dressed sends out a message, correct? Does that give you the right to brutally assault him? Come on, doesn't it? Wasn't he asking for it by dressing that way?

Of course not. And neither was the rape victim.

I bring all of this up because this movie is going to put it right in your face.

I saw this in the theater, in 1988, when it was released. I wrote a review about it, and then I deleted it later. I'm reposting this new review because this film is too important, and because I still feel so passionately about it.

When I saw it, I had a moral problem with it. And hey, let's be honest. Deep down inside you, didn't you think just once, however fleeting the thought, that maybe she did deserve it? I'm a woman and I did.

Why is that so scary? Because we've all been conditioned to stay inside certain parameters. If someone goes outside those parameters, and something bad happens, well, then we can blame the victim.

There is also some self-delusion there, as well as self-protection. If I can find a way to rationalize the (fill in the crime blank), then somehow I can prevent it from happening to me.

Let's use rape. She shouldn't have worn that outfit. (Translate: I don't dress that way.) She shouldn't have been walking alone in that neighborhood. (I don't walk alone or hang out in bad neighborhoods.) She shouldn't have been drinking. (I don't drink to excess, and never go to bars.) She shouldn't have invited him up for coffee if she didn't know him that well. And the list goes on and on.

We do it when people die. Well, he smoked four packs a day. He never got a physical. He should have gone to the doctor. He should have lost weight. Blah blah blah.

At any moment, on any day, what happened to any victim of any crime can happen to me or to you.

But we think that way, don't we? Way down deep inside, in those places we cover over? Yes we do. It helps our fear. But it's also a type of bigotry. Another shade of self-righteousness. And a whole lot of hypocrisy.

So, how did my moral dilemma get resolved? I watched Siskel & Ebert, who brought up these same issues, and admitted to some of these biases. The bottom line is this: if a woman says no, and you do not stop what you're doing, it is rape. Plain and simple. Thank you. Why was that so hard to get?

This Film

A bar sits on the side of the road, just off the main drag. It is just before dark. Opening credits roll. Drums begin to pound. Menacing. Scary. It's beginning to grow dark. We can make out the name of the bar. It's called The Mill. The drums become more frightening.

A girl bursts out of the door of the bar, screaming for her life, clutching a shirt that's been torn off, running wildly in her bare feet.

We can see another figure, but we don't see where he goes. The girl is trying to flag a car down. We then see the other figure. He's a young man, maybe nineteen. He is standing inside a phone booth, calling 911.

"There's a girl in trouble... it's a rape... there's like three or four guys!"

The girl who's been raped is Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster). The young man is Kenneth Joyce (Bernie Coulson).

This movie is based on a true story. A young woman was gang-raped on a pinball machine in the back of a bar in New England.

Why This Film Is So Brilliant

This film exposes so many ugly sides of human nature, and yet you're not really aware that's what it's doing.

The Class Issue

Sarah Tobias lives in a trailer park. She's a waitress. Her boyfriend's a loser. Sarah drinks and smokes pot and goes to bars.

Her attorney, Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) is a well-educated, up and coming attorney with the D.A.'s office. She sees Sarah as a lesser person, and doesn't fight for her like she should.

The Justice Issue

One of the men accused of raping Sarah is a well-to-do frat boy named Bob (Steve Antin). This man has a future, and his parents have money. His lawyers tell the D.A. they will not agree to any plea with rape, or anything sexual in it. The D.A. folds, and lets them plead to reckless endangerment. (I'm not giving anything away, the film is not about their trial.)

The Rape Issue

Sarah Tobias went into a bar, after fighting with her boyfriend, to see her friend Sally (Ann Hearn), and to get incredibly loaded. Sarah Tobias is hot, and she catches the attention of a man named Danny (Woody Brown), as well as a few others.

Before you know it, he and Sarah are sharing a joint in the back room, by the pinball machine. They're dancing up close and personal. Sarah's favorite song comes on the jukebox, and she moves to it in a very seductive, almost lewd manner. She lets Danny kiss her. We know the rest of the story.

But the film shows this scene in a series of flashbacks. If you make a judgment based on just a few, hold on tight. When you see everything in its entirety, you may have a hard time keeping your eyes on the screen; it's incredibly brutal.

And let me just add that this film is more than a story about a rape. This story is about redemption. It's about how hard Sarah fights for what's right. It's about Kathryn Murphy trying to find a way to redeem herself and along the way finding some of the courage Sarah possesses.

It is also a bit of thriller. The men who pled out cannot be retried. But can the men who cheered them on be put on trial for criminal solicitation?

Will a jury ever convict them?

How will they find Kenneth Joyce, the only real witness, and once they find him, will he betray his friend, Bobby?

Will Sally come forward and tell the truth? Will it matter?

Will what Sarah said to Sally the night of rape blow the case?

And when Sarah gets her shot, will she make a good witness?

(Guess you'll have to watch!!)

The Cast

This film begins and ends with Jodie Foster. She shows Sarah's flaws, and yet she makes you love her anyway. She makes you feel her pain. Her inability to articulate her feelings at times, causes her to come out with words that literally tear your heart out. Because Sarah is not a victim. In her heart, she isn't trailer trash. And God help you if you push her past her limits.

Along with not being a victim, Sarah also hates showing any vulnerability. She's a tough, street-smart spitfire, and having to show emotions that run in opposition to that wall she's built makes you physically ache for her.

Jodie Foster, in my opinion, is on a very short list of our greatest actresses. Winning two Oscars (one for this film, and another for The Silence Of The Lambs) before you're thirty is a pretty rare accomplishment.

What Jodie does are the small things. The way she looks at Kathryn, her body language, her shame at the way her trailer looks when Kathryn stop by, her need for someone to stand beside her and not back down for a change, her primal rage at these men and what they took from her, the way her walk changes, depending on the circumstances. The feeling that she sees herself as a nobody, and that Kathryn is a "somebody". None of this is spoken, but it's big as life nonetheless.

Watch her on the stand when she's being cross-examined. Watch that tiny tear fall. Why just one? Because Sarah will not allow them to make her feel that vulnerable again. This is not a woman who cries in front of strangers. She fights it. But alas, one escapes.

Jonathan Kaplan, the director, says he fought Jodie all day just to get that one tear. He said he just had to wear her down, as she doesn't like to be seen as being weak, either.

Jodie Foster thought this movie would end her career. She thought she performed so poorly that she actually said to Kaplan, "I'm sorry I ruined your movie." What a diva...

And does Jodie like to be vulnerable? No. Besides the one tear thing, she said the rape was not as hard to film as the dancing was! She found it incredibly hard to let that side of herself show.

Kelly McGillis delivers one of her best performances. That might not be saying much, but she's just perfect here. Watching her play hardball, and then seeing the pain in her face when she finally sees Sarah, and realizes how she betrayed her, is something special.

The rest of the cast is excellent, too, with special mention to Bernie Coulson.

Final Thoughts

This movie does not show the rape scene until an hour and twenty minutes in. It is graphic. It is violent. It is long. It is real.

You may get nauseous. You may squirm. You may want to leave the room. You may feel like you want to scream. You may never feel this much hatred toward a human being again (Leo Rossi). And hopefully you will never react the same way when you hear of a rape again.

As a society, we've become desensitized. We have so many news channels, and hear of so many tragedies, that victims become faceless, and we, in turn, become apathetic, or just numb.

This film puts a face to the crime, and outrage and anger are emotions we should feel more. Maybe if we were outraged more often at our government, at our school officials, our Congressmen, maybe more things would change. Maybe our ever declining standards would be raised to a higher level. Maybe "the norm" would suddenly be unacceptable, and what's morally right would take its place instead. (Yeah, I'm p*ssed. Sorry...)

There were protests during the making of this film. People who live in the town where this crime was committed thought the film would open new wounds. I can't say I understand that, unless they mean for the families of the men who were convicted.

It certainly won't open old wounds for Sarah Tobias. She was killed in a car wreck several years after this happened. There was alcohol involved in the crash, but I don't know the particulars. If you do, please let me know.

So, this ends on a sad note. Sometimes that's okay. Sometimes we need to be forced to stop and feel.

Rape is reported every SIX MINUTES.

One in four rape victims have two or more attackers.

Is this movie a rape movie? Yes and no. Saying no would be a lie, but saying yes might turn you away from everything else that it is. And everything else matters too.

Please see it.

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My Favorite Scene, If You're Interested

Sarah Tobias is at work, when she happens to glance at the news. The anchorman is saying that the men who had raped her had pled guilty to charges of reckless endangerment, and that no explanation was given for the reduction of the charges, other than "the young woman would not have made a strong witness." Oh, bad move.

Kathryn Murphy is preparing a nice dinner for her yuppie friends when she and her boyfriend hear the doorbell. The boyfriend says he'll get it. Another bad move. Sarah pushes him out of the way, and stomps through the apartment, newspaper in hand, until she finally spots Kathryn.

Sarah: "You double-crossed me, you b*tch, you sold me out!"

Kathryn: "Sarah --"

Sarah (showing her the newspaper): "Did you see this? Huh? Did you do this? Is this what you did?!"

Not wanting to be embarrassed, Kathryn moves her into the hallway.

Sarah: "Yeah, I wouldn't make a good witness, right? I'm too fragile, my past is too questionable, I'm a drunk, I'm a pothead, a drug addict. I'm some little slut that got bounced around a little bit in a bar, right? So I didn't get raped, huh? I never got raped?"

Kathryn: "Of course you were raped."

Sarah: "How come it doesn't say that? How come it doesn't say "Sarah Tobias was raped"? What the f*ck is reckless endangerment?"

Kathryn: "It's a crime that carries the same prison term as rape." (Condescending) "Now you asked me to put them away, and that's exactly what I did."

Sarah: (livid) "Yeah, well who the hell are you to decide that I ain't good enough to be a witness? Huh? I betcha if I went to law school, and I didn't live in some goddam dump --"

Kathryn: "I understand how you feel. I did my best."

Sarah: (disbelieving) "You understand..." (losing it) "You don't understand how I feel!! I'm standing there with my pants down, and my crotch hung out for the world to see, and three guys are sticking it to me, and a bunch of other guys are yelling and clapping, and you're standing there telling me that that's the best you can do?!! If that's the best you can do, then your best sucks. Now I don't know what you got for sellin' me out, but I sure as sh*t hope it's worth it!!"

This is one of the most powerful scenes in the film, and speaks volumes to me about who Sarah Tobias is, and how violated she felt by the plea, and by Kathryn. She wanted to tell her story. She wanted to face her accusers. She wanted some type of justice. And the woman who embodied justice, the woman who should have fought for her, basically just told her she didn't matter.

Don't do the same thing.





Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age