Do you flirt? (The Accused (DVD))

Member Name: NikkiH

Product:	The Accused (DVD)
Date:	13/04/02 (209 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well acted and portrayed

Disadvantages: Devastating at times

The film follows Jodie Foster as Sara, and the events of one night which changed her life forever. The film is based on actual events which happen in 1983 in America, and at the time of release it caused a lot of controversy, because it adressed a sensitive topic in such an aggressive manner.

Sara is a confident, attractive woman who is comfortable in the company of men, and sees nothing wrong with some harmless flirting. Is this you? Is this one of your friends? We all have done it once, so does it mean we are asking for something terrible to happen?

One night while drinking with a friend after an argument with her boyfriend, Sara finds herself the focus of attention, mainly because there are very few women in the bar. One of the men buys her a drink, and they start to chat. He seems pretty amiable, and they get on well. They pass the time playing pinball with a man called Bob, and when her favourite song is put on the jukebox, she starts to dance. The dance is provocative at times, and then the man starts to dance with her and touch her, although she keeps trying to push him away. By this time, there is a crowd of men gathered around watching the "show". The man pushes her up against the pinball machine, and she starts to resist, he ignores her saying "no", and lifts her up onto the pinball machine, and as she is struggling so much, he calls on one of the other men, Kurt, to hold her down. The man then rapes her while being cheered on by the onlookers, in what is one of the most disturbing scenes I have seen, especially as this is just not a woman being raped by a man, he then encourages the onlookers to take their turn, and it is totally sickening. There are many times when I feel too voyeuristic and want to look away. Once they have finished, she flees the bar with her clothes ripped, and it is this scene which opens the film. The scenes are brutal, and do not try to glamourise the act of rape.

She decides that the
se men will pay for what they have done, but she meets the same question time and time again. Did her behaviour make her look like she was asking for what happened? It is here that the film is at it's best. Rather than portray her as something she is not, she is shown as a woman who has a chequered sexual history, and is very vocal about the fact that she likes sex. She meets a lawyer played by Kelly McGillis, who agrees to take on her case, and then the film moves onto their fight against stereotypes and archaic attitudes. When they hear that the lawyers for the rapists have plea bargained their way out of a trial, which means according to official records, the rape never occured, not only do they go after the men who raped her, they want to see the men who watched and cheered pay the price for their actions.

The court scenes I am sure are the same as many others in similar cases. Rather than trying the men who commited the act, Sara is made to clear her own name in court before her accusations are taken seriously, while she is constantly accused of egging them on.

Made 14 years ago in 1988, this film saw Jodie Foster win the Oscar for Best Actress, and while many things in the film have dated, attitudes have not, and that is what I find most disturbing, and although the message that rape is wrong comes across crystal clear, there are women who suffer like Sara everyday.

Jodie Foster did an amazing job portraying Sara, and she is accompanied on screen by another strong woman in Kelly McGillis.

When I watch films, like most people I watch them to be entertained, but I loathe to use the word entertain about this film.

Summary: