Film 35/52: An Innocent Man (1989)

 


I had previously seen An Innocent Man on VHS or LaserDisc back in the day, and had upgraded to DVD and Blu Ray, but it was long overdue for a re-watch, so it rose to the top of our 52 Pick-Up list for the letter I. And if you want to give me grief for ignoring the article 'An,' just remember that I make the rules.

It's the story of Jimmie Rainwood (Selleck), a happy-go-lucky airline mechanic who finds himself in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Turns out a couple of low-life cops played by David (Sledge Hammer) Rasch and Richard Young ('Fedora' from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) made a mistake on a drug tip, and broke into the wrong house. When one of the cops mistakenly shoots Rainwood (who's got a hair dryer in his hand), they make the quick decision to save their necks by planting drugs and a gun on him. Despite the best attempts of an Internal Affairs officer who doesn't trust the pair of suspected dirty cops, Rainwood is sentenced to six years in Shawshank— I mean prison, where he quickly has to adapt from happy-go-lucky in order to survive. Under the tutelage of F. Murray Abraham's Virgil, he learns how to, em, assert himself, taking out a fellow prisoner with a plexiglass shiv. Rainwood is ultimately paroled, and has to choose between resuming his normal life with his wife (Laila Robins) under the thumb of the dirty cops who continue to threaten him back, or to take things into his own hands to ensure they get their just desserts. It turns out that Virgil was also put away by the two cops (though not the innocent man Rainwood was), and he's got a vested interest in helping Rainwood plot his revenge from the inside.

Sure, it's no Shawshank Redemption, but for a story that has all the tropes one would expect to find in a 'wrongly-imprisoned' thriller, it manages to keep you on the edge of your seat, both while rooting for Selleck's survival (and remaining a good man in the process), and hoping to see the bad cops finally pay up for their years of indiscretions. 

I had forgotten how many familiar faces populated the film. Selleck was fresh off of Magnum P.I. transitioning to film roles, and he's certainly got the charisma to do so. It's particularly entertaining watching him transition from Mr. Nice Guy to a hardened prisoner through the first half of the film. Rasch is the standout nasty villain you'll love to hate (in a far stretch from his comedic Dirty Harry parody character, Sledge Hammer), and his pairing with Richard Young's seemingly kinder but no-less sinister partner works perfectly. Abraham is also great in that 'let's forget he's in prison for a reason because he's such a pal to our hero' role. And Tobin (Saw) Bell has a blink and you'll miss him appearance as one of the inmates. 

I had also forgotten Joe Cocker's 'When the Night Comes' was the featured song played over the end credits. 

All in all, I think the film still holds up as an entertaining, if somewhat predictable thriller, and I'm glad we chose it for screening as part of our 52 Pick-Up series!


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