The Fugitive (1993) – Review by Andrea Carnevali

The Fugitive  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

One of the great thriller double acts of the 90s: lean, tense, and enormously enjoyable, with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones operating at very different ends of the same beautifully oiled machine.

Every week, we pick an older film out of ‘family movie night’, and this turned out to be exactly the right sort of old-school blockbuster to show my son, who likes action films and Harrison Ford. On paper, that already sounded like a solid combo. In practice, it was even better than that.

The Fugitive does that thing very few films manage to do properly: it keeps you hooked without ever feeling like it is trying too hard. It starts with a bang, then just keeps tightening the screws. It has a real sense of momentum, but also just leaves enough breathing room to let the cat-and-mouse tension properly land. You’re not just watching a man run.

Harrison Ford is… well, Harrison Ford in one of his most Harrison Ford-ish modes, which in my book never gets old. He has that rare screen presence where even when he’s not talking, you still feel like you’re in the hands of somebody who knows exactly how to survive a film like this. The pointing, the running, the clipped lines, the slightly battered dignity of it all. It just works.

But the real revelation, then and now, is Tommy Lee Jones. He is terrifyingly efficient, funny without ever turning into a clown, and absolutely magnetic. He gives the film its edge, its dry wit, its authority. He could have been just another pursuer with a badge and a frown, but he becomes something much better: a character with his own tempo, his own worldview, and a strange kind of reluctant respect for the man he’s chasing. That’s the trick, really. The film never lets you forget the danger, but it also makes the chase feel like a contest of intelligence as much as a test of endurance.

What also struck me watching it again after what feels like a gazillion years (this is from 1993) is how lean and well-built it all is. It knows how to set up a set piece, how to pay it off, how to move from one complication to the next without losing grip of the story. There’s very little fat on it. No wandering around, no pointless detours. Just pure thriller mechanics, handled with the confidence of a film that knows exactly what it is.

And yet it never feels mechanical. It’s tense, but fun. Serious, but not humourless. Big, but still human. You get the thrill of the chase, the satisfaction of the reversals, and the pleasure of watching two excellent actors operate at very different ends of the same beautifully oiled machine.

Not to mention that train sequence at the front, which is still impressive, more than 30 years later.

So in the end, it turned out to be a bit of a winner at home. My son got his action, my wife got Harrison Ford and we all got one of the great thriller double acts of the 90s. It may not be the deepest film in the world, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s just a very, very good time at the movies (well… on TV this time).

Only 4 and a half stars because the waterfall moment is a bit stupid (even for a film like this).

Andrea Carnevali is a Bafta winning film maker who lives in Chiswick, and a co-creator of the Chiswick In Film festival.