The Accused (1988)

Jonathan Kaplan's fact-based drama, one of the most thoughtful examinations of the crime of rape on film, features an Academy award-winning performance by Jodie Foster. An account of the gang rape of a free-living waitress (Foster) by some of the male patrons of a dive bar, the film exposes the manner in which the pre-feminist blame-the-victim attitude toward rape victims, still predominant in many areas, is also hard-wired into the legal system. A more subtle secondary theme concerns the role of social class, and the difficulty experienced by the working-class victim in being heard, especially by her well-bred attorney (Kelly McGillis). When, driven by her client's rage, the lawyer finally brings the rape's bystanders to trial, the film means to implicate a society which has always maintained an unwritten code which would shrug off such behavior. Tom Topor's low-key script largely avoids melodrama, following the waitress' case through the various stages of the victim services and legal grievance system, where the perfunctory treatment she's accorded explains her growing anger, and desire for retribution. While McGillis seems a bit slow and stolid to be playing a litigator, Foster is brilliant as this troubled, nearly inarticulate woman who slowly gains an awareness that nothing she did could possibly have justified the ordeal she was forced to endure. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide