Absence of Malice (1981)

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writer:

Kurt Luedtke (written by)

Release Date:

18 December 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Suppose you picked up this morning's newspaper and your life was a front page headline... And everything they said was accurate... But none of it was true.

Plot:

Michael Colin Gallagher is the son of a long dead Mafia boss who is a simple liquor warehouse owner...

Plot Keywords:

Blouse Ripping | Newspaper | Boat | Ethics | Mafia

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Paul Newman	...	Michael Colin Gallagher
Sally Field	...	Megan Carter
Bob Balaban	...	Elliott Rosen
Melinda Dillon	...	Teresa Perrone
Luther Adler	...	Uncle Santos Malderone
Barry Primus	...	Bob Waddell
Josef Sommer	...	McAdam
John Harkins	...	Davidek
Don Hood	...	Dist. Atty. James A. Quinn
Wilford Brimley	...	Asst. U.S. Atty. Gen. James A. Wells
Arnie Ross	...	FBI Agent Eddie Frost
Anna Marie Napoles	...	Nickie
Shelley Spurlock	...	Sarah Wylie
Shawn McAllister	...	Santos Hood 1
Joe Petrullo	...	Santos Hood 2

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:PG (certificate #26332) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | West Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Coral Gables, Florida, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Paul Newman and director Sydney Pollack were both gourmet chefs and had a running culinary competition throughout filming with Sally Field as the judge. Though a good sport at first, Sally grew tired of eating gourmet night after night, and began begging off her judging duties in favor of hamburgers and omelettes at local diners.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Megan sends Gallagher a copy of the front page of the next morning's daily newspaper at least 12 hours before the edition even went to print. In reality, the front page is never laid out until the last minute before deadline to insure the most current news.

Quotes:

James A. Wells, Assistant U.S. Attorney General: What'd you figure you'd do after government service, Elliott?
Elliott Rosen: I'm not quitting.
James A. Wells, Assistant U.S. Attorney General: You ain't no Presidential appointee, Elliott. One that hired you is me. You got thirty days.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Seinfeld: The Junk Mail (#9.5)" (1997)

Stinker, Spineless Film with Great Cast

The acting in this film is uniformly excellent - just look at the cast! For the most part, the tale is told well, too. I just have 2 problems with this film that arouse my complete disdain.

First, after having seen this movie at least twice in its entirety, I am still mystified about what is the least bit attractive about Sally Field's character. That Paul Newman's character is attracted to her is inexplicable; it simply doesn't work for me. She is a self-righteous "journalist" who is absolutely reprehensible and is responsible for the death of Newman's dear friend!

Secondly, while this film certainly exposes abuses within the criminal justice system, that is not the main theme. The main object of this movie's criticism (and justifiably so!) is the press. Yet, in the end, it is too spineless to stick to its guns. In the final scene at Newman's boat, it makes a wretched, misguided effort to gloss over the irresponsibility of the press (in the person of Sally Fields) and to suggest some reconciliation or continuation of a romance between Fields and Newman. In that scene my sense of disgust was deflected from the sanctimoniousness of the press to the spinelessness of the film. This movie is infuriating.