Absence of Malice dvd movie.|
Absence of Malice buy bestselling dvd movies, videos find reviews, ratings, prices |
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List Price: $19.94 Our Price: $17.99 You Save: $1.95 Features • Anamorphic • Closed-captioned • Color • DVD-Video • Full Screen • Widescreen • NTSC In Theaters : 18 December, 1981 DVD Release : 15 April, 1998 |
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Absence of Malice description The ethics of the press are roundly slapped around in an entertaining if not always believable drama from director Sydney Pollack. Sally Field is the Miami reporter who is set up to leak information on a dead-end murder investigation. A sneaky government official (a marvelous, rubber-band-spinning Bob Balaban) provides the information that implies liquor distributor Paul Newman is under investigation. When the story runs, it uncorks a legal quagmire that puts the spotlight on presumably innocent lives. As the lawyers explain, the paper's story is accurate, even though it may be untrue. The details of the story are sharply drawn by first-time screenwriter and former reporter Kurt Luedtke (who later went on to win an Oscar scripting Pollack's Out of Africa); the film could be used in a Media Ethics 101 class. Newman secretly counterattacks in a clever plot to derail the process that quickly encompasses his jittery friend (Oscar nominee Melinda Dillon). Field's continuing ethical gaps--including falling in love with her subject--stretch the film's credibility. Then again, who wouldn't fall for Paul Newman in the Florida sun? --Doug Thomas |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | Thoughtful riposte to "investigative journalists" |
| Paul Newman is cast as a businessman whose only links to organised crime are tenuous at best -via an uncle (Luther Adler -excellent as ever)-but because he is the son of a long dead mobster ,is believed by a hotheaded Federal prosecutor (Bob Balaban)to possibly be able to help them crack an ongoing investigation that has stalled .This investigation revolves around the disappearance of a prominent mobster in Miami where the action takes place .
Seeing an opportunity and untramelled by such niceites as ethics he leaks the news of Gallagher's possible "complicity"to an ambitious journalist ,Megan (Sally Field).She swallows the bait and writes a story full of iron clad innuendo implicating Gallagher ,a tale splashed all across the front pages .The story comes close to destroying his life and tragedy follows in its wake.With a contrite Megan as ally -she and Gallagher having become romantically involved-he decides to strike back at the people who have so cavalierly treated him and his family . The work raises key questions of media responsibility ,and sadly ,fudges them at key points but the movie is still poilished ,literate entertainment which would work well on a double bill with All The President's Men as it is a counterpart to that movie in some ways While the Bernstein/Woodward movie amounted to a hagiographic portrait of journalists this tends towards a more jaundiced viewpoint and is for my money the more interesting piece as a result Performances are uniformly excellent with Balaban especially outstanding .This repays watching if only for the way it asks us to look at issues of media ethics and mores .It sharply portrays the downside to irresponsible investigative reporting and corrects the glib Hollywood l notion that journalists are heroes-sometimes ,sure ,but they can do a lot of harm and this movie entertainingly ecposes this aspect to the fourth estate. |
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