INNOCENT MAN (DVD) DVD

An Innocent Man
In Peter Yates' crime drama An Innocent Man, Tom Selleck plays Jimmie Rainwood, a stock figure airline maintenance supervisor with a perfect family. Then, one day, Jimmie decides to take a shower. While scrubbing himself clean, two crooked cops are getting themselves dirtier. Mike Parnell (David Rasche) and Danny Scalise (Richard Young) are the kind of bad cops who bust the drug dealers, steal their supply, and sell it back to the local drug lords. On this day, unfortunately for Jimmie, they get the wrong address and bash down his door. When Jimmie comes out of the bathroom wielding his hair dryer, Parnell and Scalise think it is a gun and shoot him. Realizing their mistake, they cover themselves and frame him as a drug dealer. Jimmie refuses to take a plea and he is sentenced to six years in the slammer. In the brutal prison environment, he is taken aside by long-timer Virgil Kane (F. Murray Abraham), who gives him a bleak collection of options to chose from in order to survive prison. After seeing a prison gang rape, Jimmie chooses the kill-or-be-killed selection and stabs to death the nasty black convict who has been bothering him. After three years, Jimmie is released on parole, and he tries to pick up his life again. But Parnell and Scalise return to threaten Jimmie and his family. Realizing that his prison lessons must be carried over into civilian life, he sets up a situation in which the bad cops' drug dealings are revealed, and Jimmie prepares for a final reckoning between the cops and himself. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Cast Tom Selleck as Jimmie Rainwood F. Murray Abraham as Virgil Cane Laila Robins as Kate Rainwood David Rasche as Mike Parnell Richard Young as Danny Scalise Badja Djola as John Fitzgerald Todd Graff as Robby

Crew Frank Richwood - Art Director Larry Brothers - Associate Producer Joel Salce - Consultant/advisor Neil Machlis - Co-producer Ted Field - Co-producer Robert W. Cort - Co-producer Rita Ryack - Costume Designer Peter Yates - Director William Scharf - Editor Stephen A. Rotter - Editor Howard Shore - Composer (Music Score) Lon Bentley - Makeup James McCoy - Makeup Stuart Wurtzel - Production Designer William A. Fraker - Cinematographer Scott Kroopf - Producer Sig Tingloff - Set Designer William H. Schirmer - Special Effects John Moio - Stunts Larry Brothers - Screenwriter Michael Burton - Screenwriter

An Innocent Man
It's hard to know if Tom Selleck can portray anything other than stalwart, forthright heroes because his rugged good looks have typecast him in variations on the square-shouldered protagonist. His role here is no exception. His character is such a one-note fellow, in fact, that it's hard to work up the emotional engagement the film clearly wants to convey. Surprisingly, what's left instead is a compelling and interesting drama. The film is a tightly structured potboiler that quickly recovers its footing after some wobbly exposition to become an absorbing if shockingly violent peek under the lid of the racism, gang warfare, and daily humiliations of prison life. F. Murray Abraham turns in one of his best pre-ham performances as a wily con who becomes the lead's cunning mentor, acting as a tour guide of the hellish institution for both Selleck's naïve character and the viewer. If not as emotionally captivating as it should be, director Peter Yates' film is a tough, stimulating entry in the prison genre. Compared to such superior later fare as television's gritty, no-holds-barred Oz, An Innocent Man (1989) pales due to its clichés, simplicity, and predictability, but judged under its own merit, the film is engaging. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
 

(no awards)

General Specifications: Language Options: French, English Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: DD5.1: Dolby Digital w/ sub-woofer channel Additional Features: cc French-language track Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound Widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16 x 9 televisions DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1: Theatre Wide-Screen MPAA Rating: R DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 113 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. Opening Titles/A Regular Guy [10:39] 2. The Wrong House [7:10] 3. A Matter of Persuasion [10:07] 4. Oroville State Prison [13:26] 5. Advice [10:31] 6. Necessity [4:59] 7. Without Proof [7:05] 8. Parole [9:20] 9. Whatever It Takes [10:51] 10. Criminal Justice/End Credits [13:43]