THE FUGITIVE: THE EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE RULE
One of the more dispiriting trends of the 90's was the tendency to turn old TV shows into movies. Obviously, this trend didn't start in the 90's - the Star Trek movies of the 80's were the first - but it became prevalent during the 90's, and this was disturbing for several reasons. Firstly, of course, this was another instance of studio execs preferring recycled, safe ideas rather than daring, original screenplays. Secondly, many of these shows were chosen for their nostalgia value rather than any quality they might have had (CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?, anyone?). Finally, there was little to no thought given as how the shows could translate to the screen (the Star Trek movies didn't really count, as they were essentially two-hour episodes). So, while the occasional good movie came from this genre (the ADDAMS FAMILY movies), most of them sucked. Andrew Davis' THE FUGITIVE is the exception that proves the rule.
The 1960's TV show created by Roy Huggins was one of the most popular shows of the decade. Inspired partly by Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables," and also reportedly inspired by the Sam Sheppard murder case of the 50's (though Huggins and others connected to the show vehemently denied that), it told the tale of Richard Kimble (David Janssen), a doctor wrongly accused of killing his wife. He claims he saw a one-armed man do it, but no one, least of all Lt. Philip Gerard (Barry Morse), believes him. But when Gerard is transporting him on a train, the train crashes, and Kimble escapes, and began a long trek to clear his name, with Gerard on his trail. After this opening, the series became less about the chase and more about how Kimble would go from town to town, fix a problem that was occurring, and then leave before Gerard got wind of him. It wasn't until the finale, which was the most watched TV episode in history until DALLAS' "Who Shot J.R." episode, that Kimble finally caught up with the one-armed man.
Davis and writers Jeb Stuart and David Twohy (the credited writers; about 9 writers worked on the film all told) keep the chase element of it, but change a lot for the movie. Kimble (Harrison Ford), is now a vascular surgeon, and it's believed he killed his wife Helen (Sela Ward) for the insurance money, and because of a 911 call where it sounds like she's naming him as the killer. This time, his escape comes on a bus that's transporting him to death row when a group of prisoners attempt a break, they wreck the bus, and it's smashed by a freight train. Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), now named Samuel and being a U.S. Marshal, is just as obsessive over catching Kimble, but where on the TV show, Gerard didn't believe Kimble, now it just doesn't matter:
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