Former L.A. cop Joseph
Wambaugh forged a new career writing fiction and nonfiction books inspired by
his time in uniform, and the moment his debut novel was published in 1971, he
started getting attention from Hollywood. Yet by the end of the decade, he was
reportedly sick of the liberties filmmakers took in their adaptations of his
work—so for The Onion Field, Wambaugh
insisted on writing the script and working closely with the director. The
result was a highly intelligent look at the unique emotional challenges of
police life, shown through the prism of how one detective is scarred by his
involvement in a killing.
As directed by Harold Becker, whose best movies are
filled with actual and metaphorical shadows, The Onion Field paints a bleak picture of modern law-enforcement: The
policemen in this story are easy targets, while criminals armor themselves with
the legal system. Based on a real case, the narrative takes place in the early
’60s, when newly minted Detective Karl Hettinger (John Savage) is assigned to
work with slightly older partner Ian Campbell (Ted Danson). Hettinger is an
oversensitive ex-Marine, and Campbell is a conflicted soul who plays bagpipes
for relaxation and contemplates whether he should quit police work.
Meanwhile,
simple-minded thief Jimmy Smith (Franklyn Seales) has the bad luck to hook up
with intense career criminal Greg Powell (James Woods) shortly after Smith’s
release from prison. Powell’s a live wire who’s too smart for his own good,
since his hodgepodge education leads him to misunderstand as many things as he
comprehends. These duos from opposite sides of the law intersect when the
criminals take the police officers captive. Soon, Campbell is dead in a
roadside ditch near an onion field in the rural community of Bakersfield.
Ettinger escapes captivity, though his real trauma has just begun. Haunted by
guilt over what he might have done differently, Ettinger spirals into
depression and petty crime, eventually losing his badge. He’s also forced to
relive his worst moments again and again because after Powell and Smith are
arrested, the hoodlums mount endless legal challenges.
Wambaugh’s close
attention to the psychological after-effects of crime ensures that every frame
of The Onion Field is compelling,
even though his handling of the story’s female characters is weak.
Becker’s meticulous images accentuate Wambaugh’s dramaturgy, since Becker uses
long lenses to isolate figures and, at other times, deep shadows to smother
them.
Woods’ performance dominates, not only because he’s got the showy role of
a psychotic chatterbox, but also because Woods adds textures of deviousness,
humor, intelligence, perversion, and self-loathing. (He received his first
Golden Globe nomination for The Onion
Field.) Savage is touchingly vulnerable, though he sometimes drifts into affected, Method-style twitchiness, and Seales displays wide-open
emotion as a loser who stumbles into a situation he can’t handle. Danson is terrific in one of
his earliest roles, putting across something memorably
humane in just a handful of scenes.
The Onion Field: GROOVY
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