One thing I found interesting about "The Accused" - a film that's famous for the vicious rape of a young blue-collar woman - is just how they chose to go about making such a movie. You know going in that there's a bad scene, and that the rest of the movie deals with the repercussions. But the film begins immediately after the atrocity went down. We open with Jodie Foster desperately flagging down a ride to make good her escape, and flow right into the doctor's examination of her ghastly welts, claw marks and bruising. The tone is set without any on screen violence.

Now, there's still a "bad scene" involved, but it doesn't happen until we've spent some time in the courtroom. It's a flashback, although the tension and foreboding have been ratcheted to obscene heights that it's still, to this day, beyond brutal (nauseating would be the better way to put it).

The whole of the movie is not easy to watch, and it's one that doesn't hold a lot of replay value. But the reason to recommend it (and I'm sure it has been for 25 years) is the performances from the two leads. Both are exceptional, but Foster won that Oscar for a reason. At the center of this movie are two women who are fighting; one for her side of the story to be heard (after her character assassination in the eyes of the public),and the attorney who's out to help her find justice.

"The Accused" is not as harrowing as "Leaving Las Vegas", but it's still no day at the beach. Regardless, should this movie ever come up in conversation, my recommendation will be based entirely on those performances from Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis.

7/10

For this role Jodie received bunch of nominations and six awards, including her first Oscar. In my opinion, her role of Nell deserves an Oscar much more than this one or her role in "Silence of the Lambs" and this is far from being her best movie, but it has really strong story and it's worth watching.

7/10

Jodie Foster broke out of her teenage persona in "The Accused", in which she masterfully portrays a rape victim seeking justice. The movie shows how, as often seems to happen, the raped woman gets accused of bringing the rape upon herself because of how she dressed. But her character understands what she has to do. Equally as good is Kelly McGillis as her attorney trying to prove that not only did the men rape her client, but several other men encouraged the rape. A particularly effective scene is when Foster decides to take revenge on one of the men who encouraged the rape; you can feel what she's thinking.

All in all, this is a movie that I recommend to everyone. It shows how our society stigmatizes women, but also reminds us never to give up hope. Perfect.