The Onion Field (film)

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The Onion Field
OnionFieldPoster.JPG
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Harold Becker
Screenplay by Joseph Wambaugh
Based on The Onion Field
by Joseph Wambaugh
Produced by Walter Coblenz
Starring John Savage
James Woods
Franklyn Seales
Ted Danson
Ronny Cox
CinematographyCharles Rosher, Jr.
Edited byJohn W. Wheeler
Music by Eumir Deodato
Production
company
Black Marble Productions
Distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures
Release dates
  • September 7, 1979 (1979-09-07)(Toronto [1] )
  • September 19, 1979 (1979-09-19)(New York City)
Running time
126 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.6 million [2]
Box office$9,890,597 (US) [3] or $5 million [4]

The Onion Field is a 1979 American neo-noir [5] crime drama film directed by Harold Becker and written by Joseph Wambaugh, based on his 1973 true crime book of the same name. The film stars John Savage, James Woods and Franklyn Seales, as well as Ted Danson in his film debut.

Contents

Woods' performance as Greg Powell was the film's most widely praised element, earning him a Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award and his first Golden Globe nomination.

Plot

In 1963, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives Karl Hettinger and Ian Campbell are kidnapped by criminals Greg Powell and Jimmy "Youngblood" Smith after being pulled over for an illegal u turn. They are driven to an onion field near Bakersfield, California, where Campbell is shot and killed before Hettinger narrowly escapes as a cloud passes in front of the moon, plunging the onion field into darkness.

Hettinger's eyewitness account leads to the arrest of the two men, who are tried and convicted of first-degree murder. While they languish on death row, Powell and Smith learn how to exploit the legal system, and after a series of appeals, their sentences are reduced to life imprisonment following a court decision abolishing executions in California.

Meanwhile, Hettinger's physical condition and emotional state slowly deteriorate as his failure to act more aggressively on the night of the incident is questioned by those in authority and his fellow officers. Wracked with guilt and remorse, he experiences nightmares, impotence, weight loss, kleptomania and thoughts of suicide. Hettinger is forced to resign from the police department after being caught shoplifting and opens up his own gardening business.

Cast

Production

The film was shot on location in Valencia, Los Angeles, Maricopa and Taft in California. A courtroom of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County was used for the trial scenes. The jury panel was taken to an onion field in Valencia to inspect it as a replica of the scene of the crime.

Wambaugh helped to produce the film and chose the cast and crew, including actor Ted Danson, who made his film debut. Wambaugh reportedly was determined to make a film superior to the 1977 adaptation of his novel The Choirboys , the script of which written by another writer. Wambaugh sued the makers of The Choirboys and his name was removed from the credits.

Release

The Onion Field premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 1979 [1] before opening in New York City on September 19. It grossed $196,716 in its first 5 days from 10 theatres in New York and then expanded to open in Los Angeles and Chicago. [6]

Reception

The movie opened to positive praise as a true story of justice mishandled. Janet Maslin of The New York Times observed: "This is a strong, affecting story but it's also a straggly one, populated by tangential figures and parallel plotlines. The criminals' histories are every bit as convoluted and fascinating as those of the policemen they abducted. Even the courtroom drama is unusually complicated, introducing a new legal team with each new trial.... The film is generally crisp and at times exciting, but it's also full of incidents that are only sketchily explained, and minus the all-important narrative thread that might have provided a clear point of view." [7]

Variety called the film "a highly detailed dramatization" and wrote that James Woods "is chillingly effective, creating a flakiness in the character that exudes the danger of a live wire near a puddle." [8]

Time Out London thought the film was "expertly performed" and added: "It's the usual heavy Wambaugh brew: police procedure closely observed without a trace of romanticism, suggesting simply that life in the force is psychological hell. So far, so good. But that very insistence on authenticity is followed by the film to the detriment of the narrative's dramatic structure; half way through, the whole thing begins to ramble badly. Engrossingly sordid, nevertheless." [9]

The Onion Field holds an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews. [10]

Accolades

Recipient(s)AwardCategoryResultRef(s)
James Woods Kansas City Film Critics CircleBest Supporting ActorWon [11]
New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actor (3rd place)Nominated [12]
National Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actor (4th place)
(tied with James Mason for Murder by Decree )		[ citation needed ]
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama [13]

Home media

MGM Home Entertainment released the film as a Region 1 DVD on September 17, 2002. The film is in anamorphic widescreen format with subtitles in English, Spanish and French. Bonus features include commentary by director Harold Becker and a featurette about the making of the film.

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The Onion Field is a 1973 nonfiction book by Joseph Wambaugh, a sergeant for the Los Angeles Police Department, chronicling the kidnapping of two plainclothes LAPD officers by a pair of criminals during a traffic stop and the subsequent murder of one of the officers.

Franklyn Vincent Ellison Seales was an American film, television and stage actor. He was known for his portrayals of business manager Dexter Stuffins in the 1980s sitcom Silver Spoons, and real-life convicted cop killer Jimmy Lee (Youngblood) Smith in the 1979 film The Onion Field.

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<i>The Secrets of Harry Bright</i> Novel by Joseph Wambaugh

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Powell (murderer)</span> Accomplice in The Onion Field murder

Gregory Ulas "Greg" Powell was an American criminal who kidnapped Los Angeles Police Department Officers Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger on the night of March 9, 1963. Assisted by accomplice Jimmy Lee "Youngblood" Smith, Powell took the officers to an onion field near Bakersfield, California, where Officer Campbell was fatally shot.

Karl Francis Hettinger was an American police officer of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1958 to 1963. Hettinger formerly served in the United States Marine Corps from 1952 to 1958 and served in the Korean War and Vietnam War. He was known for surviving the "Onion Field" incident, in which he and his partner, Officer Ian Campbell, were kidnapped on the night of March 9, 1963, by criminals Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith and taken to an onion field near Bakersfield, California where Officer Campbell was fatally shot.

Jimmy Lee Smith, also known as Youngblood, was an American criminal who assisted Gregory Powell with the kidnapping of Los Angeles Police Department officers Ian Campbell and Karl Francis Hettinger on the night of March 9, 1963. There, Smith and Powell took Campbell and Hettinger to an onion field near Bakersfield, California, where Campbell was fatally shot. Infamously known as one of the "Onion Field" killers, Smith's story was depicted in Joseph Wambaugh's 1973 nonfiction book The Onion Field. The book was adapted into a 1979 feature film of the same name in which Smith was portrayed by Franklyn Seales.

References

  1. 1 2 Adilman, Sid (September 12, 1979). "Strong Opening For Toronto Festival". Variety . p. 7.
  2. ↑ "AFI|Catalog".
  3. ↑ "The Onion Field (1979) - Box Office Mojo". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 293. ISBN   9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  5. ↑ Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; eds. (1992). Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN   0-87951-479-5
  6. ↑ "'Field' full of dollars". Screen International . September 29, 1979. p. 1.
  7. ↑ Maslin, Janet (September 19, 1979). "The Onion Field (1979)". The New York Times . Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Review: 'The Onion Field'". Variety . December 31, 1978. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  9. ↑ GA (10 September 2012). "The Onion Field". Time Out London .
  10. ↑ "The Onion Field". Rotten Tomatoes .
  11. ↑ "KCFCC Award Winners – 1970-79". Kcfcc.org. 14 December 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  12. ↑ "The Day - Google News Archive Search". News.google.com. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  13. ↑ "Onion Field, The". Goldenglobes.com. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
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