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Format: DVD
Mar 1998
Rated PG
Recording Mode: (unknown)
Closed Captioned
117 min.
Color
Extra Info: Jewel Case
UPC: 043396269552 |
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Details
Movie Description
While investigating the death of a local union leader, an ambitious young reporter (Sally Field as Megan) becomes involved in a dangerous triangle of love, deceit, and national espionage. After all story leads fall through, shady government agent Rosen cajoles Megan into befriending financier, Gallagher (Paul Newman), a man with filial ties to the Mafia. Becoming Gallagher's confidant, Megan conducts a secret investigation of his life and is soon convinced that Gallagher is involved with the murder. Megan then publishes an article containing a staggering amount of incriminating evidence against him.
Written by American journalist Kurt Luedtke, ABSENCE OF MALICE takes an honest look at the world of journalism. Its dialogue and characters are of the upmost realism. Newman delivers a riveting performance as the innocent "patsy," fingered by the government. Director Pollack and writer Kurt Luedtke team up again four years after this film to script the epic OUT OF AFRICA.
Synopsis
Sydney Pollack directs this gritty star-driven drama in which Paul Newman plays Michael Gallagher, a legitimate businessman with family ties to a crime family. When a local prosecutor becomes frustrated in his attempt to solve the murder of a union head, he leaks a false story to Megan Carter (Sally Field), an unwitting but relentless newspaper journalist, who prints it. The resulting story links Michael publicly to the murder, and he becomes the undeserving subject of a criminal investigation. The prosecutor hopes that Gallagher will seek protection from the prosecutor's office and thereby aid him in the investigation. As Michael's life proceeds to fall apart, he finds that his friends and family are also in danger. Despite Megan's legal immunity, she is in the clear under the absence-of-malice rule in slander and libel cases, and she begins to realize that Michael has nothing to tell the prosecutors and therefore no way to be protected. To save his name, reputation, and career, Michael has no choice but to accept Megan's help and take the actions necessary to uncover the truth.
Film Notes
Theatrical release: November 1981.
Filmed on location in Dade County, Florida.
"A leak? You call what's going on here a leak? Last time we had leak like this, Noah built himself a boat."--Wells (Wilford Brimley)
Industry Reviews
"...A whale of a good story with something important to say..."
Variety - Har.
"...Unusual and rewarding....One of [Newman's] better characters in years..."
New York Times - p.C21 - Janet Maslin
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