In Contention

Tag: The Fugitive

  • Class of 1993

    There are a lot of reasons I wish I was 10 years old again — the free food and lodging, the still-tempered cynicism, the safe knowledge that there were only three Indiana Jones movies — but chief among them on this Oscar Nomination Eve is that if I was, I’d have the 1993 Academy Award slate coming my way.

    If you’ve forgotten that Oscar year — or if it was before your time — refresh your memory here. Seriously, has the Academy ever cobbled together quite such an impeccable lineup across multiple categories?

    Start at the top, with a Best Picture lineup that balances top-flight Hollywood prestige (“Schindler’s List”), daring international arthouse (“The Piano”) and peerless populism (“The Fugitive”). Move down through those hard-earned semi-surprise acting nods for the likes of Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing, down to the Best Supporting Actor race that I’ve already cited as the strongest in the category’s history.

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  • More than just an icon

    Though best known as the fedora-wearing, bull whip-cracking hero of the Indiana Jones films, Harrison Ford has forged a strong career as an actor, with an impressive filmography that has, in many quarters, gone sadly unnoticed.

    One of the downsides to being a movie star — or an actor best known for work in blockbusters, even — is that your skill as an actor is often unappreciated or ignored. In some cases with Ford, that is precisely what has happened. I remember the great Burt Lancaster stating what a great challenge the role of Indiana Jones was, and that it took a great actor to make it work. Lancaster, like Ford, had grown into a fine actor by then, but lest we forget he began his career in swashbuckling B-movies before evolving into the Oscar winner of “Elmer Gantry,” and his finest work, “Atlantic City.”

    I first took note of Ford as a true actor in a scary little role he had in the otherwise terrible film “Heroes.”  The actor portrayed a Vietnam vet who loved his time over there, and like buddy Henry Winkler, wanted to go back. Though he had just a few minutes of screen time, he was quietly terrifying, bringing to the part all that was frightening about that war. While the rest of the film was devoted to the mugging of Winkler, it was Ford who left the audience unsettled.

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