The Accused

The Accused

“The Accused” revealed that a lot of times, the victim in a rape case is the one being accused. Surely they must have done something to provoke it. What were they doing at the time? What were they wearing? Had they been drinking? How about their personal life, do they have a clean record or are they just sluts who got what was coming to them? Yes, I know how brutally direct that makes it sound. But those words were chosen carefully, because sometimes they echo the unvoiced suspicions of male officials in our judicial system.

What actually happens in “The Accused” is this: A young woman named Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) has a fight with her live-in boyfriend, who’s a drug dealer; she goes to a sleazy bar and has too much to drink, and does a provocative dance to the jukebox and begins to flirt with some men in the back room.

And things get out of hand. The man (also drunk) picks her up and lays her down on top of a pinball machine, and starts to assault her while two other men hold her helpless. The music pounds. The other guys in the back room begin to cheer and chant and egg him on and when he’s finished they push another guy forward and then another.

Finally she breaks free and runs weeping out onto the highway, crying for help.

Most of this sequence is shown later only in flashback; at first all we see are its consequences. After Sarah is raped, she’s moved through emergency care centers and police stations where professionals attend to her politely but without any great sympathy until finally she meets Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis), an assistant district attorney who will handle her case.

Murphy is not thrilled by some of the things she finds out such as Tobias’ previous conviction on drug possession charges; or her level of alcoholic intake on the night in question. And one of the rape suspects, we learn, is a young fraternity man whose parents have hired a good lawyer. In conference, the assistant D.A. agrees to reduce charges to “aggravated assault.” Tobias feels betrayed; she was raped, brutally, repeatedly, in front of many witnesses: It was not “aggravated assault.”

And what the movie says is that even if a young woman behaves improperly, even recklessly and Sarah does plenty of that she still has the right to say no and be heard; this is something with which McGillis’ character initially has trouble because she’s too comfortably inside the informal compromises of her profession ever to be truly outraged by them.

To some extent, the movie is about the lawyer and her relationship with a drunk woman who cannot express herself accurately or strongly enough. One thing that Tom Topor did in his script was to make it very difficult for Foster’s character to talk; It is as if she has to force each word out through her feelings.

The female attorney learns that some of her client’s feelings are things which have actually happened although they might not be admissible evidence under any law during the course of representing her at trial on charges brought by another woman claiming rape. And what becomes clear over time is that this same person sees herself through others’ eyes; so maybe these women will come together at last perhaps Jodie Foster will get sober and start taking care of herself.

The other interesting thing going on in this film has never been done before, at least none which I can recall ever having seen: What happens when people aren’t directly involved become considered? They’re usually blamed 4 their laughter

When Katharine McGillis’ character eventually decides against them all bringing few men from that defenseless group forward onto trial, no one agrees with her. All colleagues judge she must’ve gone insane because no chief district prosecutor backs her up either. Assistant D.A.’s try cases where victory likely but here it looks like seeking out lost cause; However, what comes out during an additional hearing should serve as most important lesson taught by this film.

Who’ll find watching more uncomfortable? Men or women? Cruelty scenes are bound 2 make both genders shudder equally but there could be an epiphany moment 4 guys who hadn’t realized yet just how true those words were spoken in relation with physical violations against females everywhere on earth especially within US society today Verbal sexual harassment done anywhere whether public places such bars’ backrooms conversely subtly occurring everyday settings constitutes violence towards women too a type that prevents them from feeling safe when moving around freely among other people. It’s like an invisible prison.

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