Rating: 
Summary: Compelling yet Harrowing
Review: Jodie Foster won an Oscar for her portrayal of Sarah, a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks, who is gang raped in a bar after a drunken night out. Foster delivers a mesmerising performance as the traumatised victim fighting for justice against a system that has labelled her as 'worthless' due to her previous lifestyle. Kelly McGillis plays the district attorney who initially lets Sarah down and agrees to a plea bargain that Sarah doesn't want. When the realisation hits of what she has done, she fights to ensure the perpetrators of this brutal rape are brought to justice.
This is never an easy film to watch. The crime is too violent and the emotions too raw for that. The audience is left with a feeling of unease at the brutality of the crime and at the judicial system that is supposed to protect the innocent.It is however, a compelling film due to the outstanding performances of the lead actors and it cannot fail to touch and move the most hard hearted of viewer.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Performance, well meaning, but...
Review: Jodie Foster won an Oscar for this based on a true story film about a promiscuous young woman who is gang raped in a tough bar. Because of her reputation, getting a rape conviction against the brutal rapists seems next to impossible. Kelly McGillis plays the assistant district attorney who agrees to go against the odds and takes the case. The rapists have hired one of the best criminal attorneys in the country and it looks to be an impossible to win case.It's a film that stops just short of pandering to what the audience wants to see and then becomes a riveting court-room type film that almost could play on television. It pretends it has an important message to give, but it's an obvious one and so one must keep in mind, that it does show the audience a very rough rape scene complete with nudity, before making sure everyone in the house is told how sick , violent and unforgiveable such an act is. Foster and McGillis' performances are top notch.. To some this topical film has a powerful message that it communicated effectively. Chris Jarmick, Author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder...
Rating: 
Summary: Falls Short Though Jodie Proves Her Worth
Review: Jodie proved she was no longer the tomboy with this role. The Accused is based on a true story and though it sets out to educate it becomes tedious and falls under the same hole many rape films fall into: focusing too much on the lawyer and not enough of the victim. I think the film should have opened with us seeing Sarah Tobias before the rape. Let us get a chance to see where's she's been, what kind of woman she is, how she handles situations like this. As a woman I find it important to break down the characterization in a movie like this. Starting off with her running from the bar was a good hook but all through the film I felt something was missing because we never got a chance to see who Sarah Tobias really was.
This is a great film to open people's eyes. Women can smoke pot, drink and even strip but that doesn't give anyone the right to rape them. I think that was the best thing The Accused presented. It was important that they focused on that. Sarah wasn't the greatest woman in the world but it was important to show that no matter how a woman acts or was raised it doesn't make her self-worth any less important than anyone else's. Jodie Foster did a good job. She seemed bored with the film until the rape scene when she fully got into character. Some say this rape scene was horrifying. Well it's nothing compared to watching or being a victim of a real-life rape. Compared to that this movie was like watching Barney. Hollywood can't begin to imitate the act of a true rape, though this film comes closer than many.
The Accused is not for everyone. Some people claim they can't see it more than once. If you haven't seen it you're missing out on a very powerful film. But don't expect to be entertained all the time. The Accused managed to let down as much as it educated.
Rating:
Summary: This film saved Jodie Foster career, reason enough for 5 sta
Review: Ms. Foster was ready to pack it in in the late 1980s, she starred in many films and did small roles in others and all of it in vein, the films played to empty theaters and Luke warm reviews (Hotel New Hampshire, Stealing Home,Mesmorised, etc.). She fought hard to play the rape victim in this film and was told she was not "rapable" enough, she lost weight and showed them that she could be [assaulted] as well as anyone, that's our girl. This is not so much a film about rape as about society willingness or non willingness to deal with it, even another women who was present and was on Sarah's (Fosters) side isn't much help, Sarah's tough exterior is a shield, she is broken and vulnerable and shows this, her life hasn't been great but look at the total lack of support she gets from her mother, she is more concerned with her boyfriend situation then with her daughter and her louse, idiot boyfriend (all of Jodie Fosters boyfriends are louses), Her performance on the stand is what won her the Oscar, "I heard someone screaming, and it was me" sums it up pretty well, she ditached herself as a means of survival. Jodie Trivia: Watch the young man who testifies on her behalf and wins the case for her, he was in Freaky Friday, and I could be wrong but I think one of the rapists was her creepy boyfriend in Foxes, is that right? Anyway I'm glad this film is finally out on DVD, it's been far too long.
Rating: 
Summary: Really about male-bashing, not about rape
Review: Ostensibly a polemic against rape, this movie is actually an exercise in male-bashing. What proves that is one line in which the "heroine" just has to say to the one man most sensitive to her cause and the one who deplored her victimization all along, "You're not like all the others -- you're worse!" I suppose defenders of the movie will say that, since it's based on a true story, it should realistically portray its subject, right down to what she (understandably?!?) said in a moment of anger. But like most movies based on true stories, it's based only loosely on its true story, and if there was any one detail to leave out, that would be it. A lot of movies loosely based on true stories seem to have a knack for leaving in the one thing best left out. In her acceptance speech for her ill-gotten Oscar for playing this caustic "heroine", Jodie Foster said the movie's message was about treating people nice. Too bad she was so apparently clueless as to how un-nice it is to tell the one man in the movie sympathetic to her cause that he wasn't like the rapists but worse. We really need to ask what kind of message it sends - if you're a man who deplores rape and tries to be helpful to a victim, you'll get told you're not like the rapists but worse. Surely the truth of the matter must be that such a deplorable attitude does more to encourage than to discourage rape. Three years later in what should have been her first Oscar-winning role, Jodie Foster has a memorable line, saying "It Matters". If you want to know the context of that, watch THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, a movie worth watching. Too bad the wisdom of "It Matters" couldn't have occurred to her character in this earlier movie before she told her sympathizer that he was worse than the villains.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent movie
Review: Pros:
1)DVD has some good features and history
2)Talks about a sensitive subject- rape
3)Jodie Foster does a A+ job acting as a rape victim.
4)A good teaching too for Women's group, organizations, or rape training. Cons:
1)You can get away with this for VHS. A good movie
Rating: 
Summary: Sublime acting, but slightly dated.
Review: The Accused has a distinctly '80s flavour to it in terms of cinematography, design, and style. Aesthetically time hasn't been completely kind to this film. I also have a mild issue with this film in that its themes are practically directly lifted from I Spit on Your Grave, the infamous 1978 exploitation film that already very fully explored the grotesque idea of rape as male sport. In the 1982 French film L'Amour Viole (Rape of Love) the same themes were explored, with a more sensitive hand and less primal an approach. In this respect The Accused is almost redundant. This is a gross simplification on my part, however, and now I'll go back a bit: Jodie Foster's lead performance here is stunning and brave, recalling the grit she first showed in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Leonard Maltin may argue that the re-enactment of the rape was unnecessary, but as played by Foster, the sequence added much-needed realism to the character's experience. In fact, if the rape were never shown, you could even argue that cinematically it never happened at all. Foster's performance of course carries this film, and The Accused still has a place in history as being a Hollywood rarity: This was one of the first truly mainstream, big-budget Hollywood films to deal with rape as a crime. I would say that I Spit on Your Grave's primitive mindset offers an even more interesting alternate outlook on the victim-perpetrator-spectator dynamic while L'Amour Viole is artier and more intimate. But The Accused, derivative (or at least precursored) as it is, still holds up comfortably.
Rating:
Summary: hard-hitting but forced
Review: the accused is a gripping tale of one woman's fight for justice. jodie foster pulls out a brilliant performance, the movie is hard-hitting, disturbing and very evocative. however at times it seems a little forced and unnatural. a lot of it is due to the inept acting of kelly mcgillis who gives a horrible performance. the story raises a lot of questions about how we perceive people by what comes out first, without looking beyond the external appearances. however this could have been a much better film if handled a little more sensitively. most of the performances are downright horrible and the rape scene shown only at the end seemed a little forced and unnecessary. despite all these flaws the movie is touching and is worth a watch if you're willing to spend a serous 2 hours. A disturbing 7 out of 10
Rating:
Summary: Powerful movie, but Jodie Foster did NOT deserve that oscar
Review: The Accused is the powerful, heartbreaking story of a young woman, Sarah Tobias, brutally gang-raped on a pinball machine, by three boy-next-door rapists, while many other men watch and cheer it on.The movie itself is powerful ,haunting, and the acting of the rapists, and the men who stand by and watch the rape is frightening. However I just cannot see why Jodie Foster won the Oscar. Her portrayal of a woman brutally raped by three guys is extremely unbelieveable. I do not care how ''hardened'' she is by her dangerous lifestyle it is extremely unrealistic to believe that a DAY after she has been attacked she would go back to work and smile, and can act as if nothing is wrong. She showed no distrust of men, no fear, no reaction at all except anger. For a long, long time after rape, a woman is afraid to go near any man- no matter who she is. Having seen other women protray rape victims (notably Rebecca Herbst on TVs 'General Hospital')- I have to say I am thoroughly dissapointed by the lack of vulnerability her charcter shows as she is healing, especially after an able acting job WHILE being raped, and immediately after when she flags down a car and goes to the hospital. The scene where she crashes her car into the car of a man who cheered on the rape after he was taunting her, is perhaps the only vulnerability she shows. However the part of the boy who testifies for Sarah Tobias, a boy who walked away from the rape scene is powerful, as is the man who cheered on her rape.All in all, a haunting movie, with a powerful cast worth seeing, but do not expect a realistic portrayl of a young woman gang-raped.
Rating:
Summary: Please be careful
Review: The movie is wonderful, but it's rape scene is incredibly graphic and very powerful. Not all people, even adults, should be watching it. You can watch the movie without, just skip over that part.
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