“The Fugitive” isn’t a Valentine's Day movie. Or at least, it doesn’t take place on Valentine’s Day.
I’ve spent the last month convincing myself foolishly otherwise, that the plot took place around Valentine’s Day. I’m partly right, as it does take place around February.
But the murder is in January, and the film iconically features Chicago’s St. Patrick Day’s parade. February is skipped over completely. Whoops.
Still, the murder montage, the date night gone wrong, screams Valentine’s Day. And while "”The Fugitive”" may not seem like an obvious choice for a Valentine's Day movie, there are multiple themes present that resonate deeply with the holiday. It is, after all, a movie about a husband seeking his wife’s killer.
“The Fugitive” was released in the summer of 1993, an action-packed thriller with low expectations. Stars Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones have both famously speculated that this film would be a flop, or for Jones, “the end of my career.”
The remake of a cult 1960s television series of the same name would be a summer blockbuster, the third highest-grossing film of the year and incredibly being nominated for seven Oscars. “The Fugitive” offered rare appeal, entertaining for the masses with enough depth and craftsmanship for the most haughty critic.
The film follows Harrison Ford as the middle-aged doctor Richard Kimble, whose wife is brutally murdered in the first ten minutes of the film, and finds himself as the prime suspect, despite his testimony of a one-armed killer whom he encountered himself. Kimble is sentenced to death row (the court system moves astonishingly quickly in this film) and is being transported to prison when his bus crashes, paving the way for Kimble to escape from certain death and clear his name. The every-man persona of Han Solo and Indiana Jones is as present as ever in Kimble, weary, beaten and determined; an ordinary man battling extraordinary forces. Dr. Richard Kimble's unwavering devotion to his wife serves as the driving force behind his relentless quest for justice, even in the face of overwhelming adversity.
Enter Tommy Lee Jones as Sam Gerard, a U.S. Marshal with every tool at his disposal to catch Kimble. Jones’ Oscar-winning character may be the true highlight of the film, with humorous banter among his team of marshals (including the always great Joe Pantoliano) and a dedication to his mission: to catch Kimble. Gerard is a classic Western lawman, akin to “Gunsmoke” protagonist Matt Dillon, called in to catch the bad guy, because the law must be upheld. The hunt is on.
Kimble runs through the film claiming his innocence, but alas, the courts have made their decision, and Gerard, “does not care,” as he says while pointing the gun at Kimble on the dam in an iconic scene. One can’t fault Kimble for running, nor can one blame Gerard for chasing. They are both doing what they have to do.
It is comforting when good and evil are clearly defined, and draining when the differences are murky. Most devastating of all, however, is when both sides are presented as good, and it falls on human judgment to decide. “The Fugitive” lands in the third option; the story of two good men seeking incompatible justice.
While the movie may initially present the possibility of Kimble being guilty, the audience never once believes it. Kimble’s good nature is present in every scene, even as the most wanted man in America.
He demonstrates unwavering loyalty to his moral principles, at one point posing as a children’s doctor and saving a child from death after he corrects a misread X-ray. He is a doctor, after all, bound to the Hippocratic oath because he wants to be.
Kimble also deeply loves his wife, to the point that he escapes a train crash, jumps off a 50-foot dam, and evades a national manhunt to find her true killer. Like so many great Ford characters, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, until at the very last moment Kimble pulls through once again, defying all odds.
But Gerard is similarly a fighter to the end. He can’t let Kimble escape, not because of his conviction that he is guilty, but because he is deeply dedicated to his job.
Like Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in 1995’s “Heat,” the audience knows that neither man can quit until they get what’s theirs; Kimble’s justice, and Gerard’s fugitive.
The adage, ‘unstoppable force meets immovable object’ is accurate, but doesn’t quite fit. These aren’t superheroes. Kimble limps through the whole film, and Gerard just can’t seem to find him. Neither is unstoppable, and neither is immovable. They are both just humans, doing what is required.
Kimble is guided by the absolute values of a good doctor, doing whatever it may take to clear his name and get justice for his beloved wife. Gerard’s sense of duty draws him to the ends of the earth to find Kimble, because that is the law.
And throughout the film, they are both right. Kimble's unwavering loyalty to his moral principles and his relentless quest for justice, fueled by his love for his late wife, contrast with Gerard's equal commitment to upholding the law.
The stunts are great, the music rocks and it’s primetime Harrison Ford, but “The Fugitive” has endured as an absolute hit film for the past three decades because of its humans; men of convictions navigating a world where good and evil and right and wrong aren’t clearly defined, but doing the best they can for those they love.
Kimble and Gerard both are resilient, dedicated, and enduring. Driven by duty and, of course, love. What film better fits Valentine’s Day than that?
