Jodie Foster won her first Oscar for this film and boy, did she deserve it. However, top billing was given to Kelly McGillis, famous in the 80s but she's since faded from the limelight though I don't understand why, she was solid here though Foster had the showy role.
Foster is Sarah Tobias, who is a waitress and I guess you could call her white trash, but when her father left when she was an infant, she was at an instant disadvantage, but she was brutally gang-raped in the back room (the game room) of a seedy bar and only one of the on-lookers even has the audacity to look disgusted while the rest remain stony-faced or cheer them one and eventually urge the third man to rape her.
Sure, Sarah was a bit drunk and her clothes left little to the imagination and she wasn't even wearing a bra, but she absolutely did not consent to the sex and it was brutal, none of them even bothered using protection, which is also rank. Still, she runs away and manages to get to the hospital and reports the rape where the investigation takes off. And despite Sarah's character, the assistant DA, Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) believes her but knows that it will be a difficult case to win so she manages to get the defendants to agree to a plea deal. And they take it.
And that's the first half an hour of the film so I wondered where it was going to go next. A chance meeting with an asshole at a record store leads Kathryn to take a different approach, she charges to bystanders, though who egged on the rapists.
Some movie magic and sleuthing lead Kathryn to Kenneth Joyce (Bernie Coulson), the other frat boy in attendance with his bowl-cut mullet, the one who calls the cops but refuses to give his name. She gets him to testify and he does, in the end though his friend begs him not to and he testimony makes all the difference. Against the odds, the three men are found guilty which they are, and they will face some time. And they deserve it, for not stepping in, for not doing the right thing, for believing a woman is nothing more than an object to please and satisfy men.
The film has a basic appeal to it, with mostly unattractive actors playing real roles but Foster is brilliant, fully deserving of every award she won and she won plenty of them. But this story is important and it shows that you cannot get away with just being a bystander, with encouraging a crime to take place, there is punishment and justice was served in the end. Sure, Sarah's trust was destroyed, but at least they didn't get away with it. This film shows a valuable lesson and that cannot be forgotten. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-One of the side plots, of Kathryn's job being threatened because of her gamble is not brought up again. Who knows what will happen to her after the verdict is read?
-I find it just a little odd that Ken was able to visit both his frat brother in prison and then was left alone in a room with Sarah all before he testified on the stand.
-I cannot believe that a gang rape happened in the game room of a seedy bar and no one in the front room seemed any the wiser. Those men had real nerve.
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