The Pelican Brief 1993

     This film is based on a novel written by John Grisham.  Two Supreme Court Justices have been killed.  A college professor clerked for one of the two men and he is also having an affair with one of his students.  He is given a brief by his girlfriend that reveals who probably wanted to see these two Justices dead!!  He gives the brief to one of his friends who works for the FBI.  When the FBI director reads it, he is fascinated by the revelations.  One of the president's men who read it is afraid that if it ever gets out, the president could be smeared.  He advises the president to tell the director to drop it and he does.  Later the professor and the girlfriend are out and the professor is drunk??  He refused to give her the car keys, she stepped out of the car.  When he started the car, it blew up!!   She discovers that her apartment has been burglarized, her computer and her disks were stolen.  Obviously, her brief has someone agitated!!  She contacts her boyfriend's friend at the FBI.  He agrees to meet her but before he does, someone shoots him and takes his computer!!

     The foundation for this film is the assassination of the two Supreme Court justices.  Their murders are on the minds of everyone in the country.  A noted terrorist is involved in all of this.  A woman named Darby, played by Julia Roberts, sets out to find the evidence to uncover the killer.  Now there is a series of murders, cover-ups and disappearances that require a scorecard to follow.  Not much time passes before the President is involved in this mess.  There is some land in Louisiana that is at the center of a lot of this violence??  A rare breed of pelican is in danger and it is causing difficulties with doing anything with the land.  Even when the film is over, viewers don't really have a clear idea in their minds how this is going to play out??  Some issues are settled but what's coming next?  Both Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington are good in their roles.
     
     The Pelican Brief is relatively free of language, violence and explicit sex.  One brief scene features a murder in a porno theater and there are sexual noises in the background.  The main character is shown in a heavy embrace with a boyfriend.  Several characters are killed over the course of the film but gore is at a minimum.  This is a great movie and very enjoyable if you like political/legal thrillers.  It is also a very long film and those with a shorter attention spans will quickly lose interest.  There is mild language and violence is mainly only implied.  Overall, if you can grasp the concepts of what is going on, it is a good movie.  4* (I liked this movie)

141 min, Crime directed and written by Alan J. Pakula and also written by John Grisham with Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, James Sikking, William Atherton, Robert Culp, Stanley Tucci, Hume Cronyn, John LIthgow, Anthony Heald, Nicholas Woodeson, Stanley Anderson, John Finn.

Note:  Imdb 6.6* out of 10* with 77,083 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 53% with 53 critics 61% with 75,650 audience scores, Metacritic 50 out of 100 with 15 critics 6.9 out of 10 with 50 user scores, Common Sense Media Joyce Slaton, 3* out of 5*, age 14+, 3* violence, sex, language, drinking, drugs & smoking, Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 2591 reviews, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5* with 9 fans.

Special Note:  John Grisham wrote the part of Darby Shaw with Julia Roberts in mind.  Roberts read the book once it was finished and she agreed to the role without even seeing a script.  For the scenes inside the White House, the sets created for the film Dave (1993) were used.  

Mistakes:  Stump is chasing Gray and Darby with a car in the parking garage.  When they are on foot, he fails to gain significant ground on them?  He seems to be driving quite fast and the car  reaches a speed fast enough for the car to explode upon impact??