Rotten
The Onion Field is a serious and most uncompromising movie. It lacks, however, the sort of disciplined craft that might have made it a powerful and affecting one.
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine
The Onion Field
What happened in the onion field is true. But the real crime is what happened after.
1979 · 2h 2m · R
Crime, Drama
Directed by
Harold Becker
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The Onion Field
Overview
An LA police officer is murdered in the onion fields outside of Bakersfield. However, legal loopholes could keep his kidnappers from receiving justice, and his partner is haunted by overwhelming survivor's guilt.
Director and cast
- Harold Becker Director
- John Savage as Karl Hettinger
- James Woods as Gregory Powell
- Franklyn Seales as Jimmy Smith
- Ted Danson as Ian Campbell
- Ronny Cox as Pierce Brooks
- David Huffman as District Attorney Phil Halpin
- Christopher Lloyd as Jailhouse Lawyer
- Dianne Hull as Helen Hettinger (as Diane Hull)
- Priscilla Pointer as Chrissie Campbell
- Beege Barkette as Greg's Woman
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
87%
Tomatometer
Fresh
James Woods as the near-psychotic Powell is chillingly effective, creating a flakiness in the character that exudes the danger of a live wire near a puddle.
Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh
It's the usual heavy Wambaugh brew: police procedure closely observed without a trace of romanticism, suggesting simply that life in the force is psychological hell.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Rotten
The film is generally crisp and at times exciting, but it's also full of incidents that are only sketchily explained, and minus the all-important narrative thread that might have provided a clear point of view.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
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