Let's discuss the political thriller The Pelican Brief. When two Supreme Court justices are assassinated, a young law student discovers a deep conspiracy so complex that it climbs all the way up to the President of the United States.

Written, produced, and directed by Alan J. Pakula

Based on the novel by John Grisham

Music by James Horner

Starring Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Stanley Tucci, Robert Culp, Tony Goldwyn, Hume Cronyn, William Atherton, James Sikking, Jake Weber, Anthony Heald, Cynthia Nixon, Stanley Anderson, Ralph Cosham, and JOHN LITHGOW

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by Anonymous

reply 50

September 10, 2023 12:20 AM

It is one hell of a political thriller until the parking garage scene, then it gets a little too much.

by Anonymous

reply 1

March 6, 2023 11:32 PM

Paul Rudd named his daughter Darby after the book and film

by Anonymous

reply 2

March 6, 2023 11:32 PM

Around this time Julia matured as an actress and decided real drama could only be whispered.

by Anonymous

reply 3

March 6, 2023 11:49 PM

I like the scene at Mount Vernon

by Anonymous

reply 4

March 6, 2023 11:50 PM

She whispered all her lines in this movie R5. You could barely hear her.

by Anonymous

reply 6

March 6, 2023 11:53 PM

r3 made me laugh because I've seen this movie many times and it's totally true.

by Anonymous

reply 7

March 7, 2023 12:07 AM

I like how Robert Culp was obviously a reference to George H.W. Bush

by Anonymous

reply 8

March 7, 2023 12:23 AM

I think this was my first exposure to Stanley Tucci and I was quite taken by him (despite his psychotic character.) I sure prefer his trade-y clone version of a gay guy here to the foppish depictions he's adopted in more recent films. Choke me, daddy!

(Also how filthy is that popcorn bucket? Do porn theaters really sell popcorn?)

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by Anonymous

reply 9

March 7, 2023 12:23 AM

R9 lol Tucci was hot in this for sure!

by Anonymous

reply 10

March 7, 2023 3:32 AM

I was an extra but they stuck me in the back of a bar so far in that the camera never even came in the bar. They turned off the AC, gave us all cups of fake beer and told us not to drink it. I was supposed to be there for 3 days but they filmed from 10pm ton 6am and it was so incredibly boring that I skipped the second two. But a friend of mine is in 3 shots in a row that were filmed over the 3 nights. You can see her at a table in a bar, then Julia Roberts runs outside the bar, right past her, then stops in front of another bar and there she is again. In 3 different outfits.

When it came out, I already knew I wasn't in it, but we laughed so hard at the magical geography. A parking lot across the street from Arnauds that doesn't exist. And she tells some guy on a phone to take the streetcar from the Westin hotel to the Riverwalk to meet her. The Westin is catty corner from the Riverwalk and they share a stop.

by Anonymous

reply 11

March 7, 2023 3:42 AM

R11 interesting! Did you meet any of the stars?

by Anonymous

reply 12

March 7, 2023 3:50 PM

R12, I met Julia. Twice actually. She was young and nice back then. Very pretty. I didn't spend a ton of time around her but she sat on the curb with all the extras waiting to get placed somewhere and she talked to us. And I'm sure she can be a demanding diva (especially now) but she was nice to all the extras and crew and laughing CONSTANTLY. She genuinely seemed like a happy fun person. I think Hollywood turned her into a not so nice person.

I saw Stanley Tucci but didn't get to talk to him (and had no idea who he was. He was very much not famous yet if I recall).

Overall, it was a nightmare of an evening. They spent 8 hours filming about 10 seconds of film of her running about 15 feet down the street, then swapped to a stunt Julia running into Stanley Tucci. And then a big bouncer grabs Stanley Tucci, then they switched to a stunt Stanley who gets dragged inside the un-air conditioned bar I was in. Where the camera never came inside.

EIGHT HOURS. For ten seconds of film, half of which was done by stunt people for stunts that weren't even that dangerous.

But they fed us and paid us like $60 (which was almost twice the minimum wage we got working in college).

I couldn't bare another night of shooting.

I was working at a movie theater at the time and we were all 90s grunge punks, and a producer just walked up and asked if basically everyone working there wanted to be an extra in a movie and we all shrugged and said "sure".

The big news was she was spotted dancing with Lyle Lovett at Tipitina's during the filing and then a few days later (some time later) she married him.

Whenever I've heard anyone say they were going to be an extra in a movie that was being filmed, I've told them "don't do it. You'll regret it".

by Anonymous

reply 13

March 9, 2023 4:34 AM

I did it once and only once.

by Anonymous

reply 14

March 9, 2023 4:44 AM

Julia is soooo bad in this. It's one of her very worst performances.

by Anonymous

reply 15

March 9, 2023 4:47 AM

R13 Wow. That is so much waiting and filming for nothing

by Anonymous

reply 16

March 9, 2023 4:51 AM

So many of those 90s potboiler legal thrillers were bad. But they're sort of like comfort food, eating a pot pie when you know it's nothing but fat and calories.

by Anonymous

reply 17

March 9, 2023 4:58 AM

The Pelican Brief had a great cast though

by Anonymous

reply 18

March 9, 2023 5:16 AM

[quote][R13] Wow. That is so much waiting and filming for nothing.

No joke. At least one hour was spent with them pulling random men and women and having them lean against a wall and look over where the action would be happening. Just a 1-2 second reaction to the chaos. It was SOOOO boring. They'd replace the girl, film it, replace the guy, film it again, then the next girl, then the next guy. And it was summer and even though it was night, it was still like 90 degrees. I was so miserable.

I'll give Julia Roberts credit for sitting through it all with us in the heat. She probably only worked for about 30 minutes, but there was no trailer or special room for her to go to. So she just sat there with us. All night long.

by Anonymous

reply 19

March 9, 2023 5:28 AM

I would think it would be more comfortable in boxers.

by Anonymous

reply 20

March 9, 2023 5:32 AM

Julia was notoriously giddy and nicer than usual during this period in her life because she had finally married someone AND without the press knowing.

She was back to her sour faced self after the divorce.

by Anonymous

reply 21

March 9, 2023 7:24 AM

Filmed on location in New Orleans

by Anonymous

reply 22

March 13, 2023 12:28 AM

R13 or maybe just maybe your actual encounter with her is true gospel and everything else over the years was made up to sell magazines or lies by cunts on DL.

by Anonymous

reply 24

April 30, 2023 3:04 AM

No one else likes this movie?

by Anonymous

reply 26

May 1, 2023 2:27 PM

I liked this movie a lot, actually

by Anonymous

reply 28

May 1, 2023 4:58 PM

The movie was OK, but Ghoulia's smug look at the end (when Denzel is being interviewed and mentions her character) leaves a bad taste.

by Anonymous

reply 29

May 1, 2023 5:25 PM

R13, I've watched this movie many times, but I don't recall any scenes of Kamal (Tucci) being grabbed by a bar bouncer; did that happen before the other "bad guy" at the bar started singing to her? Did Darby (Julia) run into Kamal, literally? I thought they met up in the park or wherever it was.

by Anonymous

reply 30

May 1, 2023 6:24 PM

They had to cut the sex scene because they feared Middle America wouldn't want to see Denzel and Julia going at it.

by Anonymous

reply 31

May 1, 2023 6:26 PM

R31 I like it better without the romance. Denzel is too good for her

by Anonymous

reply 32

May 1, 2023 7:52 PM

I always thought the guy Julia visits in the nuthouse and pretends to be his sister was super cute.

by Anonymous

reply 33

May 2, 2023 5:43 AM

Yes agree with the others saying Tucci was a hottie in this film. Yum!

by Anonymous

reply 34

May 2, 2023 6:18 AM

[quote] "She whispered all her lines in this movie [R5]. You could barely hear her."

The Janet Jackson of A List actresses.

by Anonymous

reply 35

May 2, 2023 6:23 AM

Julia Roberts never seemed too bright to me.

by Anonymous

reply 36

May 2, 2023 6:28 AM

Waste of a very good cast of extremely hot daddies because it was so dragged down by the shitty Julia Roberts.

by Anonymous

reply 37

May 2, 2023 6:30 AM

I mean seriously, every man in this movie is very fuckable to me. Denzel. Tucci. Sam Shepard. John Heard. Tony Goldwyn. All HOT. I might have even have given it up for John Lithgow and Robert Culp here. Who needs horse face/trout mouth?

by Anonymous

reply 38

May 2, 2023 6:34 AM

And yet John Grisham wrote the novel with Julia in mind lol.

by Anonymous

reply 39

May 2, 2023 6:43 AM

I googled and that's true R39. I didn't know that. Apparently she read the book and agreed to the film without ever seeing the script. Interesting.

I liked her in the part.

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by Anonymous

reply 40

May 2, 2023 6:47 AM

John Grisham has no taste then, good lord.

by Anonymous

reply 41

May 2, 2023 6:54 AM

Robert Culp would be a good sugar daddy.

His character was a homage to George H.W. Bush right? Handsome rich older one-term president attached to big oil.

by Anonymous

reply 42

May 2, 2023 3:47 PM

R41 Being a hater is so low brow.

by Anonymous

reply 43

May 2, 2023 4:18 PM

It really is a good political thriller

by Anonymous

reply 44

September 9, 2023 8:07 PM

[quote] It really is a good political thriller

It is the Pelican Brief!

by Anonymous

reply 45

September 9, 2023 8:09 PM

Alan J. Pakula, the director of The Pelican Brief, was born into a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York City on April 7, 1928. A day later, Eric Porter was born in Shepherd's Bush, London. They died approximately three years apart.

by Anonymous

reply 46

September 9, 2023 8:17 PM

One of my all-time favorites.

Stanley Tucci!

by Anonymous

reply 47

September 9, 2023 8:28 PM

I remember it as being blah. That is all.

by Anonymous

reply 48

September 9, 2023 8:49 PM

Julia was horribly cast, despite being the right age. She's one of those "dignified/invulnerable at any age" type of broads, and that simply didn't work for the story of a wide-eyed law student with daddy issues (who happened to be fucking her much older professor) who stumbles upon something she shouldn't have and is now on the run from shady government spooks.

by Anonymous

reply 49

September 9, 2023 11:52 PM

Tony Goldwyn was hot in this

by Anonymous

reply 50

September 10, 2023 12:20 AM