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The Onion Field
This film is based on an actual 1963 case. L.A. plainclothesmen John Savage and Ted Danson routinely investigate a pair of suspicious types. Unexpectedly, one of the men kills Danson in cold blood. Savage manages to escape and the men are arrested. But that is not that.
1 August 1925, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
21 April 1946, Ohio, USA
1 June 1930, Dallas, Texas, USA
1 October 1957, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
10 May 1945, Berwyn, Illinois, USA
28 July 1939, Niagara Falls, New York, USA
29 December 1947, San Diego, California, USA
23 February 1921, Los Angeles, California, USA
9 January 1936, Dallas, Texas, USA
28 March 1926, Woodstock, Illinois, USA
September 10, 2011
Good acting and careful direction by Becker make it worth seeing, but the violence and the language may be too graphic for some tastes.
May 09, 2005
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.
January 01, 2000
Thoughtful trial movie with a disturbing edge.
March 26, 2009
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.
January 26, 2006
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.
September 10, 2011
Brutal, even sordid, but compulsive viewing.
September 10, 2011
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.
November 08, 2002
Ranks among the best crime films of the late 1970s...and that puts the flick among some rather impressive company.