The nudes (film)

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Movie
German title The file
Original title The Pelican letter
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1993
length 135 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Alan J. Pakula
script Alan J. Pakula
production Pieter Jan Brugge ,
Alan J. Pakula
music James Horner
camera Stephen Goldblatt
cut Tom Rolf ,
Trudy Ship
occupation
synchronization

The file (original title: The Pelican Brief ) is an American feature film from 1993 . This thriller is the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Grisham , which is about the double murder of two judges from the Supreme Court - and of a law student who with the help of a treatise convicts the perpetrator of why she is a target and, in order to survive, the Must catch offender.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula , who also wrote the script . The main roles are played by Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington .

action

Two judges of the Supreme Court of the United States are murdered by a professional killer on the same evening. Law student Darby Shaw writes an essay speculating who would benefit most from the deaths of the two judges. This paper she gives her boyfriend Thomas Callahan, a professor of law . Callahan sends a copy to his friend Gavin Verheek, who works for the government and the FBI.

Shortly thereafter, Callahan is murdered by a car bomb in New Orleans. Shaw, who did not get into the car only because of Callahan's intoxication, must witness the death of her friend, but she survives the attack physically unharmed. At the scene of the crime she is interrogated by what later turns out to be a false police officer who introduces himself as Sergeant Rupert.

Fearing for her life, Shaw now avoids her apartment, stays in hotels, wears wigs and other clothing. But the secret service knows her hiding place and uses various contract killers on her. She can barely escape an elevator from someone who rightly appears suspicious to her. Shaw calls Verheek. They arrange a meeting, but Khamel, the murderer of the two judges, has Verheek in his sights, kills him in his hotel room and listens to the recorded conversation between him and Shaw. He takes advantage of the fact that Shaw Verheek has never seen before, as emerged from the phone conversation. Khamel appears at the agreed meeting point in the required clothes and rocks Shaw to safety, but is shot in a busy place by a stranger (CIA agent Rupert) who has been watching her the whole time, just as he is about to shoot Shaw. Screaming, people flee from the man who was shot and who still holds the revolver in his hand.

Darby Shaw goes to a diving station again. She turns to the reporter for the newspaper "The Washington Herald" (fictional title; in the novel it is the actually existing " Washington Post "), Gray Grantham, whom she trusts because her friend who was killed was very impressed by his journalistic work. and asks him about the pelican file, which he doesn't know. She tells him, initially under the false name "Alice", that she is the author of the file, and for security reasons she directs him to certain places in order to finally tell him bit by bit about her experiences and suspicions in her hotel: The murdered judges were counted as environmentally friendly. In a few years 'time, a lawsuit between billionaire Victor Mattiece and environmentalists over proposed oil production that would endanger the Louisiana pelicans' habitat should be tried in the Supreme Court . Mattiece is a friend and sponsor of the US President . Confusion is caused for a while by the fact that, according to Grantham's research, Gavin Verheek was murdered hours before Shaw's information about his death, because at first neither of them can know that they are two different people.

Shaw and Grantham do research together. The file is now becoming known to a growing number of people. The President's Chief of Staff, Fletcher Coal, promises his boss that he will do everything possible to resolve the problem with the file. More killers are hired. Grantham's boss, Smith Keen, is concerned and won't let him continue until there is solid evidence. Shaw unexpectedly visits Grantham at his mountain hut, proving her ability to do research. So they work together to solve the case and find the name of the lawyer who works in the oil and gas department of the White & Blazevich law firm, which represents Victor Mattiece, through a photo and intensive research at the law school and in a psychiatric clinic. This attorney, Curtis Morgan, had called Grantham as "Garcia" at the beginning of the film, and Grantham took his picture out of the car.

During a visit to the law firm, Darby Shaw (as "Dorothy Blythe") learns that the lawyer he was looking for had allegedly been murdered by muggers in the meantime. Shocked, she leaves the building before her false identity is revealed. Through the lawyer’s widow, she and Grantham learn about a safe deposit box from which they can take a statement and a video tape. Thanks to the suspicious starting noises of Grantham's car, both of them barely escape another bomb attack and later also targeted shots in the underground car park. The documents provide further information about the murders and the reason for Morgan's murder - a note not intended for him (from Marty Velmano, one of Mattiece's attorneys, for attorney F. Sims Wakefield), which encoded the murder order of the two judges and contained which Morgan accidentally found under a pile of papers.

The findings support Darby Shaw's assumptions and are presented to Smith Keen. The story is to be published in the "Washington Herald", which Grantham announced by telephone to Marty Velmano, Denton Voyles and other people involved such as Fletcher Coal the evening before. Shortly before the article is published in the next issue, the head of the FBI, Denton Voyles, appears in person in the editorial office and clarifies some hitherto unknown backgrounds. He promises to take Darby Shaw overseas to a safe hiding place of her choice known only to her, the pilot, and Grantham on an FBI plane, and secures her consent to contact her through Grantham in the event of a case .

Grantham became a sought-after top reporter and celebrated media star and gave numerous television interviews. The final scene shows Darby Shaw watching one of these interviews in exile, in which it is explained that Mattiece, four of his lawyers and accomplices were charged with the crimes and in which Gray Grantham sent the questions asked regarding the whereabouts and identity of Darby Shaw evades. The public has suggested that Darby Shaw is just a fiction because it is just too good to be true, to which Gray replies, "Yes - almost".

German synchronization

The German dubbing was done by the dubbing company Magma Synchron GmbH, Berlin, and the dialogue book and dialogue direction by Joachim Kunzendorf.

reception

Reviews

Numerous critics found Grisham's novel to be filmed not particularly well. Some controversy caused the casting of the role of Darby Shaw with Julia Roberts, which, however, corresponded to the ideas of Grisham. In tip 6/1994, Frank Schnelle described Julia Roberts as being very badly staffed ; Jean-Paul Chaillet in Première of March 1994 Roberts portrayal as tense and stubborn , but praised its charm. Roger Ebert commented positively in the Chicago Sun-Times on December 17, 1993 regarding their presentation; However, he rated Pakula's staging very negatively in comparison with his earlier films such as the political thriller Die Unbrechlichen . Chaillet also described Pakula's production as sedate , while Frank went for it as economical and precise .

The actors Tony Goldwyn and Stanley Tucci , who received a high degree of authenticity in their roles , received particularly good reviews .

The film service ruled that the film proved to be "most successful in the visual evocation of being persecuted and threatened", although it played "with numerous cross-connections to reality". It is a "smooth bestseller product, the style and stars mean more than the political references brought to a greater effect in the underlying novel".

Some critics have criticized Darby Shaw and Gray Grantham for not becoming a couple. This included u. a. Christophe d'Ivoire in the March 1994 issue of the French film magazine Studio Magazine . Like many other critics, he suspected that the film's producers feared that a couple of different skin colors would have caused controversy. In some interviews, Julia Roberts expressed her regret that she did not have love scenes with Denzel Washington.

Awards

James Horner received the 1994 Film & Television Music Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington were nominated for the MTV Movie Award in 1994.

success

The film became a financial success; In the USA alone, box office earnings were around 100 million US dollars . An audio film version , spoken by Katja Schild, was produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk in 2003 .

literature

  • Meinolf Zurhorst : Julia Roberts. "Pretty Woman" . Heyne Filmbibliothek, Volume 168, 3rd edition, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-05757-0 , pp. 137-142, 190-191.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The files in the German dubbing files .
  2. ↑ The file. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 14, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ^ The Moviepilot file . Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ The file in the Hörfilm database of Hörfilm e. V.