Plot
After a woman suffers a brutal rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.

Release Year: 1988

Rating: 7.1/10 (13,539 voted)

Director: Jonathan Kaplan

Stars: Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, Bernie Coulson

Storyline
Sarah Tobias goes to her local bar and is gang-raped by three men. The district attorney on the case is Katheryn Murphy who wants to prove that although Sarah had taken drugs that night and was acting provocatively while in the bar, this is no reason for her to be so brutally attacked and the men responsible should be brought to justice.

Cast:
Kelly McGillis - Kathryn Murphy
Jodie Foster - Sarah Tobias
Bernie Coulson - Ken Joyce
Leo Rossi - Cliff 'Scorpion' Albrect
Ann Hearn - Sally Fraser
Carmen Argenziano - D.A. Paul Rudolph
Steve Antin - Bob Joiner
Tom O'Brien - Larry
Peter Van Norden - Attorney Paulsen
Terry David Mulligan - Lieutenant Duncan
Woody Brown - Danny
Scott Paulin - Attorney Wainwright
Kim Kondrashoff - Kurt
Stephen E. Miller - Polito
Tom Heaton - Bartender Jesse

Taglines: On April 18th 1987, Sarah Tobias stops for a drink at a bar called The Mill.

Release Date: 14 October 1988

Filming Locations: Delta, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office Details

Budget: $6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $4,316,369 (USA) (16 October 1988) (796 Screens)

Gross: $32,069,318 (USA)

Runtime: 111 min

Trivia:
Kelly LeBrock auditioned for the role of Sarah Tobias, but turned it down.

Goofs:
Continuity: When Sarah, after the rape, goes back to The Mill, her red car is first shown dry and shiny and without a rear license plate. A few seconds later, in a close-up shot, we see the same car is wet from rain drops and with the license plate 'SXY SADI' on the back.

Quotes:
Cliff 'Scorpion' Albrect: [to Danny] Fourth and one, my man, stick 'em!

Powerful, Disturbing Stuff

Rating: 8/10

I saw this film with my girlfriend about a year after I graduated from college, where I had lived in the alpha-male, females-as-accessories environment of a fraternity house. While I know of nothing that went on in my fraternity that compares to the horrible events of this film, I was struck that some of the beer-fueled conversations I had with my fraternity brothers could have led to the same results with more likelihood than I realized at the time (or care to admit even to this day). Suffice it to say, I cried all the way home from this movie, as much from shame as anything else.

Twelve years later, I still cannot recall being as horrifyingly struck by a scene as I was during the rape scene at the end of "The Accused" -- and I definitely do not have the stomach to see it again. The movie, in my view, is exceedingly well-acted (Foster's Oscar was well-deserved) and well-told. It has the rare gift of touching the viewer viscerally for the entire duration -- discomfort being the feeling.

This isn't virtuoso film-making like "The Godfather", but at the same time I can think of no greater compliment for a movie than it truly opened my eyes to a new perspective that I was not mature enough to grasp on my own. I left the theater a different person -- how often can that be said?

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