 A scene from “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” featuring Drax (Dave Bautista). (Film Frame/Marvel Studios) Summer movie season is upon as we approach May — though, let’s be honest, blockbusters are a year-round enterprise now — with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “King Arthur,” “Alien: Covenant” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” rolling out in the weeks to come. In other words, it seems like the perfect time to finally watch “The Fugitive,” one of many movies on the list of things I should have seen but didn’t during my relatively pop-culture-free childhood. By measures both financial and ephemeral, “The Fugitive” is a fascinating indicator of how far the summer blockbuster has traveled. Made for $44 million ($74 million in 2017 money), “The Fugitive” brought in $369 million at the box office worldwide ($622 million in contemporary money); the 2015 “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie, by contrast, cost $232 million to make and hauled in $773 million worldwide (both figures in 2015 dollars). Tonally, it’s fascinatingly subdued. After being convicted of his wife’s murder and sentenced to death, Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) goes on the run after the bus carrying him to his doom crashes (if the movie were made today, the accident would have been a daring premeditated heist). Improvising as he goes (see my last parenthetical), Kimble tries to prove his innocence, with a team of U.S. marshals lead by Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) always a step behind him. Nobody’s a super-genius, or professionally jacked-up. This is a story about two smart people in unusual circumstances, each doing the best he can. The finale, a rooftop fistfight between Kimble and the man who framed him, has none of the stylish bravado that characterizes most contemporary action movies and all of the emotional desperation such movies generally lack. The movie is also quietly and clearly attuned to at least some questions of race: Gerard and his colleagues perform a no-knock raid on, and ultimately kill, the other fugitive who escaped along with Kimble, who by contrast is treated in a generally polite fashion. None of this is to say that “Guardians of the Galaxy” was bad, that its sequel will be bad, or that giant, splashy blockbusters are inherently bad (okay, I’m willing to bet “King Arthur” will be bad). But “The Fugitive” is still an outstanding movie, and a reminder that you don’t always have to make a monster-sized movie to make monster-sized money. And sometimes a film like “The Fugitive” that speaks in a measured tone of voice can say more than one that starts at a shout and never modulates itself. |
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