Take 242: Frantic, Presumed Innocent, & Regarding Henry - Harrison Ford In Review

Mostly Film – Take 242: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 3

The thinking man's thriller era. Jonathan and JP cover three films in three years — 1988, 1990, 1991 — all of them asking Ford to be quieter, more internal, and more uncomfortable than anyone expected from the man who played Han Solo and Indiana Jones.

First, Frantic. Roman Polanski's Paris-set thriller — his comeback after the catastrophic failure of Pirates — with Ford as an American surgeon whose wife vanishes from their hotel room and whose attempts to get anyone in authority to care are met with total indifference. Ford suggested they rename it Moderately Disturbed. Polanski was not amused. Ennio Morricone scored it. Robert Towne rewrote parts of it uncredited. The studio cut 15 minutes and imposed a new ending that neither Ford nor Polanski wanted. It's now a cult classic, and the Hitchcock comparisons have stuck.

Then Presumed Innocent — by far the biggest commercial hit of the three, $221 million worldwide on a $20 million budget, and the one where Ford plays a prosecutor on trial for the murder of his own mistress. Gordon Willis shot it. John Williams scored it with unusual restraint. Raúl Juliá walks away with it. And the 2024 Apple TV+ series with Jake Gyllenhaal remade it entirely — which version holds up?

Then Regarding Henry. J.J. Abrams' first ever produced screenplay, written in his early twenties. Mike Nichols directing. Ford as a ruthless Manhattan lawyer who takes two bullets during a convenience store robbery and wakes up a different person. Bill Nunn doing some of the warmest supporting work in Ford's entire filmography. Critics gave it 47%. Audiences gave it 79%. One of those gaps that tells you something.

All three films are about a professional man whose competence and authority get stripped away by forces he can't control. None of them let him punch his way out. After all three underperformed, Ford went back to Patriot Games and The Fugitive.

The question for the episode: did these films close a door — or did Ford close it himself?