My Mom graduated from law school when I was in high school. She didn't find either the book or the movie version of The Pelican Brief convincing. "Nobody cares that much about a law student's law review article!"
For me, the one thing I found in the story structure which was big difference between Fugitive and Pelican brief was that The structure of Fugitive's story was easier to follow and relate to. The film puts us in the position of the character immediately from the start, showing us the emotions that he goes through, like the court scene where Harrison is jolted by the gavel sounding his judgement. it was personal, as the death of a loved one and vengeance, and we could follow the big structure of what has happened. But the pelican brief reminded me of another julia roberts movie, conspiracy theory, where she follows a conspiracy which for some reason targets her when she is barely connected to it. We cant relate to her, nor can we relate to the story structure the movie follows. her bf is killed, the fbi agent she supposed to meet with is killed, the person who killed the fbi agent is killed, then she tracks a whistleblower with help of a newspaper reporter. rather than fear or paranoia, which was done well in another john grisham movie the firm, it gives the audience a sense of confusion most of the time. when i heard the first plot summary, it felt motivating to make someone watch the movie coz the question of how the main character escapes from being a fugitive is intriguing. The second plot summary was too ridiculous that a fresh audience would more likely than not be waiting for the story to get over rather than be immersed in it.
I was about to say the same thing. In The Fugitive, the mystery is much more personal and emotional. We empathize with Harrison when he loses his wife, whereas we aren't as emotionally invested in Roberts' goal of exposing the scandal. In Erin Brockovich, we get to see Roberts meeting the people who are the victims, and so we get much more emotionally invested than in Pelican Brief.
I agree with you! Even though the structure of the film might be similar, the greatest difference is in the characters point of view, We are in with Harrison Ford because is something that happen to him, and he is involved in the story, as for Julia Roberts feels that the story is happening to her with little to none agency of her own always running and needing another character to help her to finish the plot. I believe that's called a passive main character, which doesn't make her compelling .
@@Ben-11 It's hard because it could be important to make movies about "real issues" like how the supreme court has so much power in the US and how it can influence policy - or the environment or whatever the pelican brief is about. but I guess you could make it so the pelican brief's conspiracy is itself important, not the general idea of being somewhat about the legal system and thus have a law student as a protagonist. Like, what if the protagonist was a small time pro bono lawyer working for that community sueing an oil baron and the oil baron is gunning for her because she had proof the oil baron broke the law. You probably don't have much of a mystery then, but you have a protagonist who's personally invested in defeating the conspiracy, and you can make it more of a columbo style story about finding solid admissible evidence while being chased.
You got me to watch the Pelican Brief again. I saw it back in the 90's and liked it, but that was about all I remembered about it. Good movie and thanks for your video
Well to be fair, just because someone is smart in one field doesn't mean they're smart in other fields. Look at Walter White. He was a brilliant chemist and a terrible criminal. The only reason he got far was because of Saul Goodman. Darby maybe a bright law student, but I don't think Tulane offered "Espionage 101".
It's interesting that after The Fugitive, Harrison Ford never really had a movie a serious acting role. Beforehand he had movies like Mosquito Coast, Working Girl, Presumed Innocent, Frantic and Witness...all of which might have some action scenes, but it really showed off another side of Harrison that proves he was a good actor. After The Fugitive, he felt relegated to playing Harrison Ford. Even stuff like K19 didn't feel real.
That's not where deus ex machine comes from - it's from Ancient Greek drama, where a god (of the Greek pantheon) would appear "in the sky" (via a crane, i.e. machine) to provide resolution
I won both movies. The main difference is that the Fugitive is a condensed retelling of a 4 season TV show and the Pelican Brief is a faithful retelling of a Graham’s book where the exact plot and events happened in the same way. The stories are different from the sources. The setup, pacing and wrap up is much more in a hurry whereas Fugitive took its time. And of course, Pelican Brief’s actual villain is an afterthought compared to Tommy Lee Jones who was so good they made a sequel just to see him spend more time with the character and his team.
I think a better way to fix it would have been to just focus on Denzel Washington's character more. Have Julia Robert's character get killed off after having contacted him; same as with "Garcia" and have Washington piece together the clues. Similar to what happened in the movie, but removing the stupid
I enjoyed your comments about The Fugitive, since I've been looking at story structure & pacing & the movie doesn't let up (ably abetted by James Newton Howard's angular score). The Fugitive is one of my favourite movies, whereas The Pelican Brief didn't make much of an impression. My memory on the latter is pretty hazy, but was there ever a showdown with TPB's Big Bad, not his assassins/lieutenants, but the actual Black Hat, the one pulling all the strings? I'm thinking not, though I'll take correction if I am wrong. I can pretty much handwave away most nit picks in The Fugitive, with the exception of Kimble doing a Peter Pan. What was that 200ft? Nope. He really would have been fish food.
I remember the first time I watched this, and how nervous I was during the opening scene. I hated the hypothetical situation (having to go across the wire so high up) and also confused about how Sara ended up there to begin with. It definitely bothered me because she had obviously already done something far more dangerous and terrifying. It's too bad they didn't use something more believable, like a sudden weather shift. Even a light rain would have massive ramifications for anyone climbing without equipment. Make Sara a competent climber, but not as well equipped to deal with harsh weather conditions, being a slim woman that will feel the effects of getting chilled a lot more quickly than her partner. The rescue could still 'fail', but make it a more reasonable error on Stalone's....maybe the stranded climbers are in different locations, and it's easier to retrieve the guy first. It also seemed odd for everyone to have such a silly attitude during a rescue. Especially how many people have died on climbs as a result if minor issues and errors.
I always thought the pelican brief was better than the fugitive personally. A one armed hitman. Really? What a surprise that the key to finding him would be to go to the amputee clinic. I would think this might hurt your profession. I couldnt get past that one.
I hadn't seen either of these movies and just watched them both. Some interesting echoes of The Fugitive in Michael Mann's Heat, which I think was released 2 years later (especially Tommy Lee Jones' performance - Al Pacino's performance in Heat seems to draw on it in some ways - including in that yelled "WHADDYA GOT?!"). That laundry scene near the end of The Fugitive very much reminded me of the final scene of Heat at the airport, too, right down to the details (for example the light and shadows giving hints as to people's positions). Also some soundtrack, uh, details (I don't know the word for it, not music just sounds) reminded me of Drive (the Ryan Gosling movie), which seemed to be deliberately going for a retro feel at times. The Pelican Brief wasn't very good. The Fugitive was better but not one of my favourites.
The title. The Fugative tells you 90% of what you need to know about the movie just by reading the title. Very few know what a brief is and even fewer know what a "pelican brief" is. The audience is bewildered before the movie starts
(Uh I love this!!! I'll try to guess. I swear I wrote this before reading any comment and right after the recap of the two movies.) in The fugitive, the protagonist must survive and escape pursuers while digging out the truth about his wife's death, piece by piece, in a progression of revelations: as pressure grows the "intelligent victim" must tap into his uttermost resources of intelligence. In a way, being a victim forces him to become more intelligent. Whereas in The Pelican report, the protagonist figures out the most important truth even before having any pressure on her, even before becoming a victim, and for the rest of the film she has no substantial truth left to find out: yes, she must find a way to make this truth public while surviving, but it seems like we already witnessed her best intuition. Also there is more at stake for Harrison Ford: he was convicted of killing his own wife, so finding out the truth is the only way to obtain justice for her, AND to reclaim his own innocence and freedom: there's no return for him. Whilst Julia Roberts actually is not accused of having killed her boyfriend. I think these two things are what makes the first more compelling.
I always thought the assassin accidently killed himself. Anyway, even with the similarities, I always viewed these two films as completely different; one being more of a suspense thriller and the other being a more in your face action film with a mystery/revenge plot. That's why they did different business and ended up with different legacies.
I actually love both of these movies and they are both in my Blu-ray collection, but that said I also own Joker and think it's a brilliant movie while the poster seems to think it's complete garbage, so maybe I just have simpler tastes. That said, when The Fugitive came out I loved it and must have watched it a dozen times. I'm an enormous Harrison Ford fan and I consider this one of his better movies. I didn't even see The Pelican Brief in theaters, watching it for the first time on HBO or some other movie channel, although I am a big fan of Julia Roberts. But as time has gone by it's been many years since I've watched The Fugitive last, while I've gone back to The Pelican Brief every couple of years and have always enjoyed the experience. To me, Pelican just has a much greater sense of realism. I never cared for the inciting incident in Fugitive much; pharmaceutical companies can certainly be evil, but in more of a price gauging way than a hired assassin way. Big oil actually has a very real and long track record of scheming and violence surrounding it (MBS, anyone?) and, while it's true that we don't get to "solve" the mystery I found the explanation very easy to suspend disbelief for. Roberts plays it smart, capable, and vulnerable, an intoxicating combination and Denzel is, well, Denzel. He's always awesome. I also love that they avoid the cliché of romance just because two beautiful people share screen time for more than five minutes and instead embrace the idea of this deeper brother-sister vibe between them. Finally, I love that Mateece (or however you spell it), the big bad of the movie, barely even makes an appearance because of course he doesn't! Rich people don't fight their own battles, they hire nasty people to fight for them. Very smart, very enjoyable movie.
This is a miscellaneous add on coz you've covered every major thing (at least I thought so). Film is a form of artistic entertainment. It takes years to develop into watchable format. The Fugitive was created as a story and characters driven film, hence the smileless Ford and Jones' Oscar. It took the audience to experience the adventure of dr Kimble intensively and Ford actually did one of his best acting in this film. Pelican Brief was created to profit from Roberts' rising stardom, trying to showcase Roberts was no smiling simple girl but a smart heroine for young teens. Unfortunately, that limited the development of the story and characters. Washington seemed playing his character to his full potential either, as if he earned the paycheck and that was it. That's why The Fugitive became a legendary film because it connects with the audience through storytelling and good acting from the actors.
The possible romantic interest (Grantham) meeting her was unneeded. At best, keep him in his office like Harold Finch of Person of Interest. Have a close friend or colleague betray Shaw, the way Kimble was framed by his close friend and partner Charles.
Another big difference is the acting of the main character of the 2 films. Ford was far more convincing, believable and likeable than Roberts. Roberts was barely audible in the critical hotel scene with Denzel that explained the conspiracy. Denzel salvaged the movie and made it watchable.
The pelican brief sounds too convoluted, sounded too ridiculous after the assassin died while pretending to be the fbi agent, also seems completely unnecessary.
I'd actually heard of The Pelican brief and not The Fugitive! So to me the former was more famous. But it could be because my dad really likes The Pelican brief and The Fugitive is a very generic name, so I may have heard of it and not remembered it.
Naw. You’re missing some subtle details in The Pelican Brief.Deus Ex Machina only applies if the the miracle is in no way foreshadowed. But, Rupert had already appeared as early as the scene of the very first explosion. Highly intelligent never means without fault or devoid of bad ideas. Especially in a situation where a young law student is being pursued by FBI and professional assassins (which may or may not be synonymous). What I love most about people who nit-pick plots like The Pelican Brief is that they’re usually people with limited experience facing serious danger. Richard Kimball was a surgeon. If you’ve ever met many of them you’ve already noticed the extreme level of confidence and unflappable nerves. While most of the college students I’ve met, even at the graduate level (There were a couple of military vets in one of my Russian language classes - one a fighter pilot trying to make it into the US space program and one an active duty soldier refreshing his total immersion language course from the Army - that likely would have handled things quite differently but then we’d have a movie about a law student who just happened to be Rambo in her day job…) absolutely do not share the steely nerves and certainty of action that surgeons have. Convoluted? A bit. Maybe, But the real life likelihood of the outcomes by far favors The Pelican Brief. I know way too many cops, too. Kimball might have eluded them for some time, but the luck that followed that guy through his exploits in no way represents reality. Coincidence and perfectly timed advantages just don’t happen like that. Both films are favorites, for roughly the same reason: they’re suspenseful, fast-paced, and the characters are sympathetic. Is either on par with the level of writing in, say, A Few Good Men, or Clear and Present Danger? Nope. But are they filled with cliches and gratuitous sex like far too many more recent thrillers? Nada. A little real life experience with the sheer terror of facing the kind of existential threat brought to bear on Darby Shaw, the uncertainty and distrust that results, along with a general weakness of one’s own real ability should change anyone’s mind. Most uninitiated people believe in their heart of hearts that they are savvy enough that they would “rise to the occasion” under such tremendous stress. But reality has shown that’s virtually NEVER the case. Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn. You will not know into which camp you fall until you have been subjected to it. Then and only then do you discover what you’re made of. Darby made one really smart decision early on: she trusted nobody beginning the moment Callahan blew up. Everything else follows on that one premise, which remained to the end of the film. Through that lens, everything she did was in character. Kimball knew he had people he could trust and turned to them for bits of help. Then, he got supremely lucky a bunch of times. Maybe watch the films again?
god out of the machine was because the ancient Greeks used a crane like contraption to lower the god onto the stage as if coming from the sky. That's what the machine is in this expression.
I haven't seen the Pelican Brief since it came out but my immediate take away from your video of what it is missing is pretty obvious: Tommy Lee Jones. That is, The Fugitive has a clear antagonist. Its twist was that the antagonist was a good guy. The Pelican Brief, as far as I can recall, and as far as I can tell from your video, does not have an antagonist.
I don't like your restructuing of the Pelican Brief. What would the bad guys motivation be for killing Darby if all she did was do some wild speculating on a radio show? Are they just afraid she'll look into it further? Doesn't seem like a reason to kill her, it would only confirm to the world that she was onto something.
I accept your criticism. My revision doesn't make total sense. However, the bad guys trying to kill Darby in the first place makes even less sense because they know the FBI has the brief. Killing Darby won't change that. It'll just call more attention to it. At least with my change the bad guys could be fairly confident that only Darby is digging into whether two seemingly opposite judges ever voted together and who might gain from their deaths. Also I wouldn't have them use a car bomb, which was... dumb
@@davescripted3796 They took care of the FBI by having the president ask the director not to persue it, at one point a character even says that no one in the FBI has heard of the Pelican Brief so it appears they were able to cover it up very well. So yeh sure the story has some issues but I think we did it this way it would only create bigger issues, if she speaks abut it publicly it's suddenly not internal anymore and would be that much harder for them to cover up.
Darby Shaw discovers that she understands too well what it means to fight against the public media to make the truth known when attorney firms will dilute this attempt when she makes her move; she has one shot to explain this without being interrupted.
I loved your reviews of these two movies. Although I generally like Harrison Ford, Denzil Washington, and Julia Roberts, in my opinion, The Fugitive is a much better film. I saw The Pelican Brief with my parents at the theater when it first came out. I thought it had its interesting and thrilling parts, but, even after rewatching it now on Tubi TV, I find the movie just too complex, hard to follow. Denzil and Julia gave their best, but it's okay at best. The Fugitive, on the other hand, had a plot I could follow much easier. The conflict was so great, the acting fantastic, the characters were well developed, and the plot was much easier to follow, despite it being a bit more complex than at first glance. The Fugitive I've seen lots of time. The Pelican Brief, on the other hand, only seen it a couple of times all the way through.
The fact that in the movie 'The pelican brief' you paraphrased that Denzel's character thought that Julia Roberts character had a good theory, but he couldn't print it because he couldn't prove it, shows how far the pendulum has actually swung in terms of journalism today.
you forgot one thing I aint ever watched no damn "pelican brief" and theres a good reason all i had to go on was "Julia roberts + Pelicans" sounded pretty shit to me good writers can usually make good titles "the pelican anything" is a terrible name for anything exciting, except for possibly a finding nemo sequel the fugitive....is about a fugitive no shit
My Mom graduated from law school when I was in high school. She didn't find either the book or the movie version of The Pelican Brief convincing. "Nobody cares that much about a law student's law review article!"
Lol
For me, the one thing I found in the story structure which was big difference between Fugitive and Pelican brief was that The structure of Fugitive's story was easier to follow and relate to. The film puts us in the position of the character immediately from the start, showing us the emotions that he goes through, like the court scene where Harrison is jolted by the gavel sounding his judgement. it was personal, as the death of a loved one and vengeance, and we could follow the big structure of what has happened.
But the pelican brief reminded me of another julia roberts movie, conspiracy theory, where she follows a conspiracy which for some reason targets her when she is barely connected to it. We cant relate to her, nor can we relate to the story structure the movie follows. her bf is killed, the fbi agent she supposed to meet with is killed, the person who killed the fbi agent is killed, then she tracks a whistleblower with help of a newspaper reporter. rather than fear or paranoia, which was done well in another john grisham movie the firm, it gives the audience a sense of confusion most of the time.
when i heard the first plot summary, it felt motivating to make someone watch the movie coz the question of how the main character escapes from being a fugitive is intriguing. The second plot summary was too ridiculous that a fresh audience would more likely than not be waiting for the story to get over rather than be immersed in it.
I was about to say the same thing. In The Fugitive, the mystery is much more personal and emotional. We empathize with Harrison when he loses his wife, whereas we aren't as emotionally invested in Roberts' goal of exposing the scandal. In Erin Brockovich, we get to see Roberts meeting the people who are the victims, and so we get much more emotionally invested than in Pelican Brief.
I agree with you! Even though the structure of the film might be similar, the greatest difference is in the characters point of view, We are in with Harrison Ford because is something that happen to him, and he is involved in the story, as for Julia Roberts feels that the story is happening to her with little to none agency of her own always running and needing another character to help her to finish the plot. I believe that's called a passive main character, which doesn't make her compelling .
@@Ben-11 It's hard because it could be important to make movies about "real issues" like how the supreme court has so much power in the US and how it can influence policy - or the environment or whatever the pelican brief is about. but I guess you could make it so the pelican brief's conspiracy is itself important, not the general idea of being somewhat about the legal system and thus have a law student as a protagonist.
Like, what if the protagonist was a small time pro bono lawyer working for that community sueing an oil baron and the oil baron is gunning for her because she had proof the oil baron broke the law. You probably don't have much of a mystery then, but you have a protagonist who's personally invested in defeating the conspiracy, and you can make it more of a columbo style story about finding solid admissible evidence while being chased.
You got me to watch the Pelican Brief again. I saw it back in the 90's and liked it, but that was about all I remembered about it. Good movie and thanks for your video
Well to be fair, just because someone is smart in one field doesn't mean they're smart in other fields. Look at Walter White. He was a brilliant chemist and a terrible criminal. The only reason he got far was because of Saul Goodman. Darby maybe a bright law student, but I don't think Tulane offered "Espionage 101".
It's interesting that after The Fugitive, Harrison Ford never really had a movie a serious acting role. Beforehand he had movies like Mosquito Coast, Working Girl, Presumed Innocent, Frantic and Witness...all of which might have some action scenes, but it really showed off another side of Harrison that proves he was a good actor.
After The Fugitive, he felt relegated to playing Harrison Ford. Even stuff like K19 didn't feel real.
That's not where deus ex machine comes from - it's from Ancient Greek drama, where a god (of the Greek pantheon) would appear "in the sky" (via a crane, i.e. machine) to provide resolution
i cant tell if im going crazy or if fredrik knudsen narrated this
I won both movies. The main difference is that the Fugitive is a condensed retelling of a 4 season TV show and the Pelican Brief is a faithful retelling of a Graham’s book where the exact plot and events happened in the same way. The stories are different from the sources. The setup, pacing and wrap up is much more in a hurry whereas Fugitive took its time. And of course, Pelican Brief’s actual villain is an afterthought compared to Tommy Lee Jones who was so good they made a sequel just to see him spend more time with the character and his team.
I think a better way to fix it would have been to just focus on Denzel Washington's character more. Have Julia Robert's character get killed off after having contacted him; same as with "Garcia" and have Washington piece together the clues. Similar to what happened in the movie, but removing the stupid
Yeah, that'd work too. Just tell the whole thing from his perspective. Studio may not have okayed killing off the star tho ;-)
Studios wouldn't have sit still for killing off Julia Roberts in the first act. She was a huge star in 1993.
I enjoyed your comments about The Fugitive, since I've been looking at story structure & pacing & the movie doesn't let up (ably abetted by James Newton Howard's angular score). The Fugitive is one of my favourite movies, whereas The Pelican Brief didn't make much of an impression. My memory on the latter is pretty hazy, but was there ever a showdown with TPB's Big Bad, not his assassins/lieutenants, but the actual Black Hat, the one pulling all the strings? I'm thinking not, though I'll take correction if I am wrong. I can pretty much handwave away most nit picks in The Fugitive, with the exception of Kimble doing a Peter Pan. What was that 200ft? Nope. He really would have been fish food.
Darby is clearly seen using the Internet to research her case. Can't she just post her findings on some 90s BBS?
Nailed, as always!
I remember the first time I watched this, and how nervous I was during the opening scene. I hated the hypothetical situation (having to go across the wire so high up) and also confused about how Sara ended up there to begin with.
It definitely bothered me because she had obviously already done something far more dangerous and terrifying.
It's too bad they didn't use something more believable, like a sudden weather shift. Even a light rain would have massive ramifications for anyone climbing without equipment.
Make Sara a competent climber, but not as well equipped to deal with harsh weather conditions, being a slim woman that will feel the effects of getting chilled a lot more quickly than her partner.
The rescue could still 'fail', but make it a more reasonable error on Stalone's....maybe the stranded climbers are in different locations, and it's easier to retrieve the guy first.
It also seemed odd for everyone to have such a silly attitude during a rescue. Especially how many people have died on climbs as a result if minor issues and errors.
still not found one
I’ve seen both these movies ❤🇦🇺
I always thought the pelican brief was better than the fugitive personally. A one armed hitman. Really? What a surprise that the key to finding him would be to go to the amputee clinic. I would think this might hurt your profession. I couldnt get past that one.
I hadn't seen either of these movies and just watched them both. Some interesting echoes of The Fugitive in Michael Mann's Heat, which I think was released 2 years later (especially Tommy Lee Jones' performance - Al Pacino's performance in Heat seems to draw on it in some ways - including in that yelled "WHADDYA GOT?!"). That laundry scene near the end of The Fugitive very much reminded me of the final scene of Heat at the airport, too, right down to the details (for example the light and shadows giving hints as to people's positions). Also some soundtrack, uh, details (I don't know the word for it, not music just sounds) reminded me of Drive (the Ryan Gosling movie), which seemed to be deliberately going for a retro feel at times. The Pelican Brief wasn't very good. The Fugitive was better but not one of my favourites.
If PB was an Agatha Christie story Julia Roberts would be the killer.
Killer pretending to be target was one of her favourite devices.
The title. The Fugative tells you 90% of what you need to know about the movie just by reading the title. Very few know what a brief is and even fewer know what a "pelican brief" is. The audience is bewildered before the movie starts
Michael Clayton is a great example of somewhat of an intelligent victim
Yeah! I love MC!
(Uh I love this!!! I'll try to guess. I swear I wrote this before reading any comment and right after the recap of the two movies.) in The fugitive, the protagonist must survive and escape pursuers while digging out the truth about his wife's death, piece by piece, in a progression of revelations: as pressure grows the "intelligent victim" must tap into his uttermost resources of intelligence. In a way, being a victim forces him to become more intelligent. Whereas in The Pelican report, the protagonist figures out the most important truth even before having any pressure on her, even before becoming a victim, and for the rest of the film she has no substantial truth left to find out: yes, she must find a way to make this truth public while surviving, but it seems like we already witnessed her best intuition. Also there is more at stake for Harrison Ford: he was convicted of killing his own wife, so finding out the truth is the only way to obtain justice for her, AND to reclaim his own innocence and freedom: there's no return for him. Whilst Julia Roberts actually is not accused of having killed her boyfriend. I think these two things are what makes the first more compelling.
I always thought the assassin accidently killed himself. Anyway, even with the similarities, I always viewed these two films as completely different; one being more of a suspense thriller and the other being a more in your face action film with a mystery/revenge plot. That's why they did different business and ended up with different legacies.
I actually love both of these movies and they are both in my Blu-ray collection, but that said I also own Joker and think it's a brilliant movie while the poster seems to think it's complete garbage, so maybe I just have simpler tastes. That said, when The Fugitive came out I loved it and must have watched it a dozen times. I'm an enormous Harrison Ford fan and I consider this one of his better movies. I didn't even see The Pelican Brief in theaters, watching it for the first time on HBO or some other movie channel, although I am a big fan of Julia Roberts. But as time has gone by it's been many years since I've watched The Fugitive last, while I've gone back to The Pelican Brief every couple of years and have always enjoyed the experience. To me, Pelican just has a much greater sense of realism. I never cared for the inciting incident in Fugitive much; pharmaceutical companies can certainly be evil, but in more of a price gauging way than a hired assassin way. Big oil actually has a very real and long track record of scheming and violence surrounding it (MBS, anyone?) and, while it's true that we don't get to "solve" the mystery I found the explanation very easy to suspend disbelief for. Roberts plays it smart, capable, and vulnerable, an intoxicating combination and Denzel is, well, Denzel. He's always awesome. I also love that they avoid the cliché of romance just because two beautiful people share screen time for more than five minutes and instead embrace the idea of this deeper brother-sister vibe between them. Finally, I love that Mateece (or however you spell it), the big bad of the movie, barely even makes an appearance because of course he doesn't! Rich people don't fight their own battles, they hire nasty people to fight for them. Very smart, very enjoyable movie.
This is a miscellaneous add on coz you've covered every major thing (at least I thought so).
Film is a form of artistic entertainment. It takes years to develop into watchable format.
The Fugitive was created as a story and characters driven film, hence the smileless Ford and Jones' Oscar. It took the audience to experience the adventure of dr Kimble intensively and Ford actually did one of his best acting in this film.
Pelican Brief was created to profit from Roberts' rising stardom, trying to showcase Roberts was no smiling simple girl but a smart heroine for young teens. Unfortunately, that limited the development of the story and characters. Washington seemed playing his character to his full potential either, as if he earned the paycheck and that was it.
That's why The Fugitive became a legendary film because it connects with the audience through storytelling and good acting from the actors.
The possible romantic interest (Grantham) meeting her was unneeded. At best, keep him in his office like Harold Finch of Person of Interest.
Have a close friend or colleague betray Shaw, the way Kimble was framed by his close friend and partner Charles.
Another big difference is the acting of the main character of the 2 films. Ford was far more convincing, believable and likeable than Roberts. Roberts was barely audible in the critical hotel scene with Denzel that explained the conspiracy.
Denzel salvaged the movie and made it watchable.
The pelican brief sounds too convoluted, sounded too ridiculous after the assassin died while pretending to be the fbi agent, also seems completely unnecessary.
I adore The Pelican Brief, so sorry but I can't finish your video.
Understood. We can at least agree that John Grisham is one of the best writers ever
I'd actually heard of The Pelican brief and not The Fugitive! So to me the former was more famous. But it could be because my dad really likes The Pelican brief and The Fugitive is a very generic name, so I may have heard of it and not remembered it.
You need to see it!
Funny, I’ve never seen the fugitive, never even heard of it. But I’ve seen the Pelican Breif
there isn't a single warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse or doghouse in pelican brief, huge whiff by writers
Naw. You’re missing some subtle details in The Pelican Brief.Deus Ex Machina only applies if the the miracle is in no way foreshadowed. But, Rupert had already appeared as early as the scene of the very first explosion. Highly intelligent never means without fault or devoid of bad ideas. Especially in a situation where a young law student is being pursued by FBI and professional assassins (which may or may not be synonymous).
What I love most about people who nit-pick plots like The Pelican Brief is that they’re usually people with limited experience facing serious danger.
Richard Kimball was a surgeon. If you’ve ever met many of them you’ve already noticed the extreme level of confidence and unflappable nerves. While most of the college students I’ve met, even at the graduate level (There were a couple of military vets in one of my Russian language classes - one a fighter pilot trying to make it into the US space program and one an active duty soldier refreshing his total immersion language course from the Army - that likely would have handled things quite differently but then we’d have a movie about a law student who just happened to be Rambo in her day job…) absolutely do not share the steely nerves and certainty of action that surgeons have. Convoluted? A bit. Maybe, But the real life likelihood of the outcomes by far favors The Pelican Brief. I know way too many cops, too. Kimball might have eluded them for some time, but the luck that followed that guy through his exploits in no way represents reality. Coincidence and perfectly timed advantages just don’t happen like that.
Both films are favorites, for roughly the same reason: they’re suspenseful, fast-paced, and the characters are sympathetic. Is either on par with the level of writing in, say, A Few Good Men, or Clear and Present Danger? Nope. But are they filled with cliches and gratuitous sex like far too many more recent thrillers? Nada.
A little real life experience with the sheer terror of facing the kind of existential threat brought to bear on Darby Shaw, the uncertainty and distrust that results, along with a general weakness of one’s own real ability should change anyone’s mind. Most uninitiated people believe in their heart of hearts that they are savvy enough that they would “rise to the occasion” under such tremendous stress. But reality has shown that’s virtually NEVER the case. Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn. You will not know into which camp you fall until you have been subjected to it. Then and only then do you discover what you’re made of.
Darby made one really smart decision early on: she trusted nobody beginning the moment Callahan blew up. Everything else follows on that one premise, which remained to the end of the film. Through that lens, everything she did was in character. Kimball knew he had people he could trust and turned to them for bits of help. Then, he got supremely lucky a bunch of times.
Maybe watch the films again?
I guess but that's some pretty light foreshadowing for a character who otherwise has nothing to do with the plot.
Good point.
Wouldn't it just be called Deus Ex since no machine is actually helping her. Just spiritual help?
god out of the machine was because the ancient Greeks used a crane like contraption to lower the god onto the stage as if coming from the sky. That's what the machine is in this expression.
@maximeteppe7627 oh ok. I didn't know that
I haven't seen the Pelican Brief since it came out but my immediate take away from your video of what it is missing is pretty obvious:
Tommy Lee Jones.
That is, The Fugitive has a clear antagonist. Its twist was that the antagonist was a good guy.
The Pelican Brief, as far as I can recall, and as far as I can tell from your video, does not have an antagonist.
I don't like your restructuing of the Pelican Brief. What would the bad guys motivation be for killing Darby if all she did was do some wild speculating on a radio show? Are they just afraid she'll look into it further? Doesn't seem like a reason to kill her, it would only confirm to the world that she was onto something.
I accept your criticism. My revision doesn't make total sense. However, the bad guys trying to kill Darby in the first place makes even less sense because they know the FBI has the brief. Killing Darby won't change that. It'll just call more attention to it. At least with my change the bad guys could be fairly confident that only Darby is digging into whether two seemingly opposite judges ever voted together and who might gain from their deaths. Also I wouldn't have them use a car bomb, which was... dumb
@@davescripted3796 They took care of the FBI by having the president ask the director not to persue it, at one point a character even says that no one in the FBI has heard of the Pelican Brief so it appears they were able to cover it up very well. So yeh sure the story has some issues but I think we did it this way it would only create bigger issues, if she speaks abut it publicly it's suddenly not internal anymore and would be that much harder for them to cover up.
Darby Shaw discovers that she understands too well what it means to fight against the public media to make the truth known when attorney firms will dilute this attempt when she makes her move; she has one shot to explain this without being interrupted.
Why? One stars Harrison Ford and the other doesn't.
I loved your reviews of these two movies. Although I generally like Harrison Ford, Denzil Washington, and Julia Roberts, in my opinion, The Fugitive is a much better film. I saw The Pelican Brief with my parents at the theater when it first came out. I thought it had its interesting and thrilling parts, but, even after rewatching it now on Tubi TV, I find the movie just too complex, hard to follow. Denzil and Julia gave their best, but it's okay at best. The Fugitive, on the other hand, had a plot I could follow much easier. The conflict was so great, the acting fantastic, the characters were well developed, and the plot was much easier to follow, despite it being a bit more complex than at first glance. The Fugitive I've seen lots of time. The Pelican Brief, on the other hand, only seen it a couple of times all the way through.
The fact that in the movie 'The pelican brief' you paraphrased that Denzel's character thought that Julia Roberts character had a good theory, but he couldn't print it because he couldn't prove it, shows how far the pendulum has actually swung in terms of journalism today.
you forgot one thing
I aint ever watched no damn "pelican brief"
and theres a good reason
all i had to go on was "Julia roberts + Pelicans"
sounded pretty shit to me
good writers can usually make good titles
"the pelican anything" is a terrible name for anything exciting, except for possibly a finding nemo sequel
the fugitive....is about a fugitive
no shit
lol
you are right. Pelican brief sounded like a legal drama with fun bird watching, not some vast conspiracy thriller.