Alan J. Pakula makes suspense out of people being watched, questioned and judged. We rate his patient thrillers and his care with actors, though he can insist on solemnity long after we have understood what is at stake.
Fi1m perspective
In Presumed Innocent (1990), Harrison Ford's accused prosecutor remains awkward company even when we most want to understand him. Alan J. Pakula lets us watch and reconsider, making our uncertainty about Rusty Sabich part of the suspense. We found Ford's unwillingness to make him likeable unsettling: we had to follow his predicament without the reassurance of knowing how to feel about him. Pakula is good at giving an actor time to make us uncomfortable, and this gripping courtroom mystery rewards the attention.
Pakula began directing with The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), before Klute (1971) established his thriller style. The Parallax View (1974) and All the President's Men (1976) completed the informal paranoia trilogy, concerned with conspiracy and institutional power. With cinematographer Gordon Willis, a repeated collaborator, he used deep shadows and the placement of people within the frame to create unease. We value that restraint: it gives us something to examine rather than merely waiting for the next shock.
His later work included Sophie's Choice (1982), which he directed and adapted, with Meryl Streep. The care with performers involved rehearsal focused on what lay beneath the dialogue, an approach that helps explain how much his films ask us to notice in an actor. In Presumed Innocent, the screenplay he wrote with Frank Pierson from Scott Turow's novel makes understanding Rusty part of the mystery. Ford refuses to soften the prosecutor, and Pakula allows that difficulty to remain. We are asked to judge the man while wondering how fairly others are judging him.
Editor Evan A. Lottman gives those performances room, while John Williams's music sustains the unease. Both serve Pakula's patient handling of the case, although the music offers little relief from the heaviness. There are stretches when the pace grows ponderous and the film seems unduly pleased with how seriously it takes everything. We would welcome a change of tone without mistaking it for a failure to respect the material. Choose Presumed Innocent for an evening when there is time to listen closely, not one when the television has to compete for attention.
Biography
Alan J. Pakula was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Born in the Bronx, New York, he studied drama at Yale University and began his career in Hollywood as a production assistant before producing To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He made his directorial debut with The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) and went on to direct more than a dozen films.
Pakula is known for the "paranoia trilogy" of Klute (1971), The Parallax View (1974) and All the President's Men (1976). He also directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Presumed Innocent (1990), as well as Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Pelican Brief (1993). He received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture (as producer of To Kill a Mockingbird), Best Director (All the President's Men) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Sophie's Choice). Pakula died in 1998.
