1993’s The Fugitive is a classic example of the kind of film Hollywood used to make, but no so much anymore. Its director explains why.
‘They just don’t make them like that anymore’ is on oft-used phrase that can sound like a tetchy, low-key grumble in the face of progress. Or then again, it could be a reaction to the reality that, every time we gain one thing, we tend to lose something else. While we might have more gigantic blockbusters than ever before, there’s no doubt we’ve lost something. The kind of action films not focus-grouped with the aim of being four-quadrant, billion-dollar grossing smash hits, for example.
You could argue that those films have left Hollywood for Silicon Valley’s streaming services, and you’d be partly right. But given that these types of films don’t get cinema releases, we’re right back to that unavoidable opening statement: We’ve lost something. Turning up to the cinema in the 1990s to watch a modest-sized action film with a couple of movie stars was a real treat, because who knew what you’d find? Too often these days, you know exactly what you’ll be getting from an action flick before you’ve bought your cinema ticket – and that’s a huge part of the problem.
One of those 1990s gems was The Fugitive, a 1993 action thriller starring Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones and directed by Andrew Davis. As the film makes its debut on 4K disc, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Davis to reminisce about making the film. The outlet also asked him what the turning point was, when Hollywood decided it didn’t want to make these types of films anymore.
Podcast: The Fugitive (1993) and Hancock (2008)
“I think it started with Jaws,” says Davis. “When you could make a movie that could play all over the world and have all of these incredible box offices, studios wanted to invest in that home run all the time. But Bob Daly and [Warner Bros co-chairman] Terry Semel said, ‘We’re happy hitting doubles.’ They still had Batman [1989] and some other big hits. So they knew this was going to be a popular movie, but they didn’t know it was going to be this popular.”
According to Davis then, that darned shark has a lot to answer for. The director does remind us however, that a film of The Fugitive's ilk was something of a rarity, even back then, adding: “I remember Daly saying to me, ‘It’s rare that we have a box office this healthy, reviews this healthy and all these nominations.’ It was very rare for them to have all of those things happening at once, which was wonderful.”
At a time when UK cinema chain Vue is calling for more modestly-sized films to be released, it does make you wonder if a return to the days of ‘hitting doubles’ wouldn’t be in the best interests for all involved, studios, fans and cinemas. Well, everybody apart from late-stage capitalists, that is.
