Movies - TV
Harrison Ford Was Acting On the Fly In One of The Fugitive's Best Scenes
By JOSHUA MEYER
It’s easy to mistake the moment in “The Fugitive” where Harrison Ford’s protagonist, Dr. Richard Kimble, pulls a green hat out of the trash and joins a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Chicago as a staged movie scene. However, director Andrew Davis got permission from the city to film in a real parade, placing the actor and the camera operator in the middle of the action.
Leading to the moment, Kimble is able to flee Chicago City Hall from the U.S. Marshalls and blend in with the nearby parade. The scene was “a largely improvised affair,” according to RogerEbert.com, and put Ford, much like his character, in a situation where the actor needed to go on unnoticed in the crowd — which he succeeded for several minutes.
“The Fugitive” scene gave a sense of authenticity as audiences felt deputy U.S. marshal Samuel Gerard’s (Tommy Lee Jones) frustration trying to find the frightened Kimble in the crowd. Movies like “Spectre” have tried recreating the same feeling for their film with a fake Day of the Dead parade, but they couldn’t capture the same spontaneous feel of this run-and-gun filmmaking approach.