30 years later, why The Fugitive remains a cult film

The thriller carried by Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones has not aged a bit. Director Andrew Davis attempts to explain why.

“I didn’t kill my wife!” “I don’t give a damn!” 30 years after its release in theaters, in September 1993 in France, The fugitive remains a memorable thriller. One of the best roles in Harrison Ford, aka Dr. Richard Kimble on the run, wrongly accused of the murder of his wife, crushed by a pharmaceutical scheme that is beyond his control and hunted down by a Marshal without qualms. A remake of a cult series from the 60’s, which is being released in 4K this year, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.

But what makes The fugitive remains a great classic of the genre? Director Andrew Davis answers today and has fun: “We had 30th anniversary screenings, and the film was re-examined by a whole new group of critics, in their 30s. Some of them remember their parents taking them to see the movie when they were kids.”, tells the filmmaker in ComingSoon. “So the film still works in our time, and it is mainly thanks to the empathy we feel for Harrison, this unjustly accused man. And then the aesthetic of the film is not too old-fashioned. We tell ourselves that all this could happen today. Especially since the pharmaceutical conspiracy behind it is something that people can clearly identify with these days…”

The opioid crisis has been widely explored on the big and small screens in recent times. And then the knee-jerk reaction we feel when faced with any form of injustice is timeless. The casting does the rest. Harrison Ford And Tommy Lee Jones form an unforgettable cinema duo.

“Tommy knows where to draw from. Just like Harrison. If you look Harrison Fordhe doesn’t have much to say in the film, but his body has this ability to react to thingss” decrypts Andrew Davis. “I remember, for example, that we were filming the sequence in the dam. Harrison does his thing and Tommy exclaims: This is crazy! This guy is the greatest silent actor in the world!”

The fugitive, it is also great moments of tension and breathtaking chases. The director returns to this hide-and-seek sequence in the heart of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in the heart of Chicago. A sequence shot on real locations, in the real parade of the time: “We knew that after that big chase through the courthouse, we couldn’t do a car chase at the French Connection. So I suggested we make Richard Kimble disappear into the crowd at the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which was actually going to take place about a week later. We got permission from the city of Chicago and we filmed. Nobody knew we were there. We were just invisible, working in the crowd with a Steadicam.”

The fugitive grossed $370 million worldwide and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Tommy Lee Jonescalled back five and later to follow up: U.S. Marshals…much less memorable.