Review of the film: "The Pelican Brief"

The Pelican Brief

Directed by: Alan J. Pakula

Produced by: Alan J. Pakula, Pieter Jan Brugge, Bryan D. Gilchrist

Written by: Alan J. Pakula

Based on: The Pelican Brief by
John Grisham

Movie Type: legal crime thriller

Starring: Julia Roberts Denzel Washington Sam Shepard Hume Cronyn, Stanley Tucci, John Heard, John Lithgow, Tony Goldwyn, James Sikking, William Atherton ,Robert Culp

Music by: James Horner

Cinematography: Stephen Goldblatt

Editing by: Tom Rolf, Trudy Ship

Distributed by: Warner Bros.

Release date(s): December 17, 1993

Running time: 141 minutes

Budget: $45 million

Box office: $195,268,056

Country: United States

Language: English

MPAA Rating: PG 13

Plot:

Embroiled in an affair with Thomas Callahan (Sam Shephard), her alcoholic professor, precocious 24-year-old Tulane University law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) writes up an insightful theory about the recent murder of two Supreme Court justices, one of whom, Abraham Rosenberg (Hume Cronyn), served as Callahan's mentor. When Callahan shares this so-called "Pelican Brief" with buddy Gavin Verheek (John Heard), an FBI lawyer, the document makes its way to White House flack Fletcher Coal (Tony Goldwyn), who believes it could topple the current administration. When Callahan is murdered and the President (Robert Culp) convinces the FBI to hold off on investigating Darby's theory, the resourceful student must go into hiding, stalked by relentless assassin Khamel (Stanley Tucci). Her only hope of escaping Callahan's fate and proving her theory lies in Washington investigative reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), who's already had one confidential source back out of sharing information about the assassinations.

Direction:

To my mind, Alan J. Pakula, who is a director of this film, worked hard on this movie. Though he has choose not an unusual way to tell the story, but he had to be very accurate, making a film about president and his “black-deeds”. All events go one by one harmonious. Nothing shows up. I have not seen yet any of film of the director, but I’m going to do so, s I like his style of making a movie.

Writing:

Concerning the plot, it seems to me inventive and unpredictable, especially when special services hunt after the main character. Each second is a surprise for a viewer: we can’t imagine what will happen. The words of Darby Shaw – the main character of the film (Julia Roberts) seem to me very symbolic. But not only words, but also her doings. They inspire confidence, because she fights for truth.

Editing:

Speaking about editing we are to say that the film is choppy. Scenes of thoughts are changed into scenes of pursuit. The movie was made in 1993, it is as old as me, so it’s an open secret that that time there were not any high-tech effects. All the effects correspond to that period. From my point of view not all of them look realistic today, because we are fat today with computer-generated graphics and so on, but they fit in the rest of the film.

Costume design:

There is nothing special in them. Darby Shaw is 24 years old, she is a student. Her clothes absolutely correspond to what she does. Her enemies – people with power, we may call them upper-class clerks. They wear suit. We may see that there is an opposition here: the upper class against society. Because Darby is the representative of rights of ordinary people.

Set design:

The setting of the film influences other elements too. Fro example Darby’s permanent moving from one place into another illustrate her soul condition. She is nervous. She can’t stand in one way. By the way, The President’s councilor often sits in a special observation room. Personally I think it may characterize him as a bloody-minded person. I prefer movies which are filmed in a real place, especially when the location is well-chosen.

Background music:

Usually music plays a great role in all films. This movie is not an exception of the rule. Events which can change the story line are presented firstly by music. It helps us to prognoses to the future because it works with the scenes. It is suspenseful as the genre of the movie is thriller. So in this film I like music very much. It works well with all over named aspects.

As for me, I like this movie. It impressed me greatly. I didn’t expect that the final scene of the film would me that one. It’s extraordinary. It’s a very good job of actors and the director. It’s better to make such films those soap operas. To my taste. By the way there are lots of big problems, which are hidden in the film.

One of them is confrontation between a person and the whole government system. This is wide illustrated in this movie. It’s impossible for a man to win a war of such type alone. But as a rule, the government system, a big “un-souled” machine, has its holes. And in any case you may have support from different people with the same ideology, the trick is to find them.

But the main problem is that we are to do all our best to protect nature. People today don’t know when enough is enough. They try to earn all world’s money. But it’s hard to do as to reconstruct the nature after destruction.

I recommend you to see this film. I hope it won’t disappoint you.