“The Fugitive” is the best movie set in Chicago. I watch it every time it comes on television.
On the 30th anniversary of the thriller, it’s time to settle the debate. Sorry, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “The Blues Brothers” and “Love Jones.”
We all know the story: Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) is accused of killing his wife and is sentenced to prison. He escapes after a bus ferrying inmates collides with a train. Kimble dives off a dam like Peter Pan and U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones in an Oscar-winning performance) pursues him all through Chicago. Kimble finds the one-armed man who killed his wife. Kimble was the actual target — all in the name of a new liver drug. The movie culminates with a Big Dramatic Fight on top of the roof of the downtown Hilton hotel.
My interpretation isn’t as funny as comedian John Mulaney’s bit about the movie. “The Fugitive” paints the dread of an innocent man wrongly convicted. Kimble’s fearlessness creates breathlessness for the audience at every turn. It’s a great movie.
And Chicago is just as much a character as the fine character actors in the film.
Chicagoans are brutal critics when our city is on the screen. One wrong intersection or misplaced neighborhood, and we turn up our noses. Remember “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and how the bride left O’Hare Airport and drove on Lake Shore Drive? Yeah, right.
“The Fugitive” director Andrew Davis, a Chicago native, took care by showing the skyscrapers and the single room occupancy (SRO) buildings. Davis crisscrosses the city, and I appreciate that the movie isn’t making a bold statement about a definitive Chicago. He shows a slice just like recent television shows “The Bear” and “South Side.” Both so very Chicago, but showing very different city experiences. That’s what I love about “The Fugitive” — a big diverse city that goes beyond Buckingham Fountain.
Take the St. Patrick’s Day parade. We all know how cold the weather is in Chicago. Spring is a cruel joke. In the movie, we see actors, extras and parade-goers bundled up. We also see politician (and my childhood neighbor) Roland Burris wave in the parade. When I lived in Pullman, I immediately set out to locate the row house dwelled in by the one-armed man. (“Fredrick Sykes, 45, ex-cop, and quite a clotheshorse.”) We see the realistic chaos of Cook County Hospital and one of Chicago’s finest theater actors, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, as a surgeon. The uniform shop where Kimble buys his clothes reminds me of pre-gentrified Wicker Park. How many movies are in the South Chicago neighborhood? Turns out the basement apartment Kimble rented from the Polish woman (“plenty space”) is a two-flat on 90th and Houston that is for sale. (“We’re eatin’ oranges and makin’ fake IDs.”)
Journalists definitely have an affinity for “The Fugitive.” My pals over at Axios Chicago visited locations from the film to see how they held up since 1993. The movie has press conferences with real journalists. Check out a mustached Lester Holt, John Drummond and Pam Zekman (whom I had the good fortune of interning for years later) asking a trademark thoughtful and tough question.
And speaking of character actors, I was an extra in “The Dark Knight,” which was also set in Chicago. As I walked to my car after a 12-hour day, I spotted one of the cops from “The Fugitive,” Ron Dean as Detective Kelley. He humored my fangirl moment. I recently learned my husband’s cousin’s wife’s late father was in the movie, and I geeked out big time.
Other quotable lines in the cat-and-mouse chase are often exchanged by me and my “Fugitive”-loving sister. “I didn’t kill my wife,” Kimble pleads to his nemesis. “I don’t care,” Gerard responds to the protagonist.
When I told her I was writing an ode to one of our favorite movies, she said it was on TV the other day. Of course, she watched.
Natalie Moore is a reporter for WBEZ and writes a column for the Chicago Sun-Times.
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