Presumed Innocent (1990) on Netflix
Rusty Sabich, a Kindle County deputy prosecutor, takes charge of the murder inquiry into his colleague Carolyn Polhemus, with whom he had an affair. His boss is fighting to keep his job.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.9/1053,608 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
Rusty Sabich is chief deputy to Raymond Horgan, the Kindle County prosecutor, and is known as an effective prosecutor. When their colleague Carolyn Polhemus is discovered raped and murdered at her home, Horgan insists that Rusty lead the investigation, even though Horgan is fighting a re-election challenge from Nico Della Guardia and Tommy Molto. Rusty had a brief affair with Carolyn, remains obsessed with her, and has reconciled with his wife Barbara. He replaces the detective in charge with his friend Dan Lipranzer and asks him to keep the inquiry narrow. Horgan loses the election, Della Guardia and Molto take over the office, and Rusty is indicted for Carolyn's murder. He turns to defense attorney Sandy Stern.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Presumed Innocent (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Scott Turow's novel attracted film producers a year before publication and set off a bidding war: David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck bid $75,000 first, while Peter Guber and Jon Peters, and Sydney Pollack and Mark Rosenberg, made $1 million bids of their own money.
- Kevin Costner turned down the role of Rusty Sabich and Robert Redford was vetoed by Pollack because of his age; Pakula, once hired to direct, offered the part only to Harrison Ford, who received a $7 million salary.
- Harrison Ford suggested that Rusty should have a buzz cut, explaining: "There are many things I found I could express with that short haircut. Simplest of all, I wanted to tell the audience to leave their baggage at home - not to expect the Harrison Ford they've seen before."
SPOILER
Warner Bros. requested in press releases that critics not discuss the film's ending, but Richard Schickel of Time magazine disregarded the request and revealed Rusty's innocence in his review.- Coupled with an international take of $135 million, the film accumulated $221,303,188 worldwide, which made it the eighth highest-grossing film of 1990 as well as Warner Bros.' highest-grossing film that year.
- Apple TV+ produced an eight-part miniseries based on the film, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Rusty Sabich, which debuted on June 12, 2024.
