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The Fugitive
(1993)
History may well dub director Andrew Davis a one-hit wonder, but his The Fugitive will be looked back upon as one of the classic American suspense films, a high-octane thriller that combines an industrious, crafty script with brilliant pacing to keep you on the edge of your seat for its entire running time. Harrison Ford gives a determined, suppressed performance, one that may well be his career best, as a surgeon who is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife. He escapes on his way to death row, and while being hunted by an unrelenting US marshal, played with nonchalance by Tommy Lee Jones (a somewhat updated version of his role in Under Siege), he must try to track down his wife's real killer. Although the production has a television quality and despite the fact that Andrew Davis directs without a personal touch, the film's unparallelled drive and ceaseless suspense, centered around the intense cat-and-mouse hunt between Ford and Jones, makes The Fugitive one of the best films of the 1990s, an unfashionable exhibition of pragmatism and effectual cutting. Never mind lack of depth, because The Fugitive gives you no time to ponder. It is escapism at its most rewarding.
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