European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 24, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse One Tough hero by Bob Thomas associated Pressi f a four year interlude at College hampered Jodio Foster s film career it in 1 noticeable. She has already Mado three screen appearances this year and has another movie on the Way. The movies Are five Corners in which she plays a Young new yorker preyed upon by a Demon led sex convict stealing Home with Foster As a free spirit who ends her life in suicide and the accused which cases her As a swinging waitress who becomes the victim of a gang rape in the game room of a bar. Next year will bring another Strong drama. Back tracer directed by and a Larking Dennis Hopper All this activity has come since her 1985 graduation from Yale University where she received a Bachelor s degree in literature. Obviously she has no regrets about taking four years Oil for higher education. I loved every minute of it i can l imagine where i d to without she commented. I can t imagine what i d be doing i know i d have a different personality for a lot of reasons. Did i learn anything yeah. I did. The same books Are everywhere you just need to go to a Library to them. I can t remember anything i Learned in English classes but i do feel strengthened. I feel there is an intellectual strength that to did 1 have cynics mag he say that she wasted four years that could have been devoted to building a career and Fortune. She disagrees. Any decisions made from tha heart Are generally right Lor you Foster said. I Don t think i would be a very Happy person if i had t gone to College. In a lot of ways i never thought that i would be an actor or the real of my life. A other ways i thought that if i was going to be an actor chances Are that if i did in with integrity i d be around a Long time critics have More or less predicted just thai. While some have had reservations about the three 1988 Foster releases her performances have elicited raves. Her beleaguered Sarah Tobias in the accused seems certain to attract Academy attention. In the accused Jodie Foster portrays a provocative woman who gels gang raped Stop a Pintail machine. The character is not far removed from the role that catapulted Jodie Foster to Fame As the prostitute in taxi Driver. Sarah Tobias is no Hooker but she is a Oul mouthed hard living Urban survivor whose Only Friend appears to be Kelly Mcgillis a City prosecutor. I like Foster remarked about her role. I think the audience likes her. There Are probably moments when they Don t like her but she s human. She has flaws she says the wrong thing she can be too loud and she repeats herself. She s somebody you can know which makes the Issue of the objectification of what rape is All about. It makes it even More cruel when in happens to someone you the rape is depicted in Flashback toward the end of the movie and it seems certain to arouse controversy. Some May complain that director Jonathan Kaplan s depiction of the rape is overlong and exploit live. I Don t in Init s too much the actress said. It s rape. I Don t think it s titillating or exploitive. The scene Prelly much explains things in a lot of ways. There is a lot of judgment going on with the audience As Well As the characters. Which Side Are you on who s telling the truth once you get to the act in sell and the cruelty Ofil i think it s Prelly undeniable. You realize How sad a Tot of judgments Are Aslo social born in los Angeles in 1962, Foster started performing at the age of 3 in suntan Lolion commercials. She began acting a year later in Mayberry f1f.d. And was a cast member of Trio courtship of Eddie s father my three sons and paper Moon taxi Driver established her Fame and attracted the unwanted attention of John Hinkley jr., who tried to assassinate president Reagan in 1981 to impress the Young actress. Foster no longer wants to Lalk Aboul the incident she has inc to put the error behind her and concentrate on work. The accused shows what rape is really about i by John Horn associated press Side a scruffy tavern called the Mill patrons sip Beer a boxing match dickers on television a Jukebox plays and Back in the game room a group of men gang rape a woman atop a pinball machine while others cheer them on. In the new movie the accused it s just another wild night out Lor the rapists and their chanting throng. The accused which chronicles the crusade of a rape victim Jodie Foster to bring both her As Saulters and their applauding spectators to Justice shows in rank detail what rape is really about. And Lor actress Kelly Mcgillis who plays the prosecutor the movie had an even More personal Nole. I was raped by two men in my apartment in new York City in 1982, so Lor me it s Lar More than a said Mcgills. Who found that while watching the completed film was difficult in did address some important issues. The actress Only recently began talking publicly Aboul the crime. In a recent interview with the new York daily news she said she decided to speak out alter attending a fund Raiser at a los Angeles rape realm enl Center. I was overwhelmed by the strength of the women i met and though that i had been a Coward by not speaking out myself she said. Mcgillis was not the Only person associated with the film who had an intimate knowledge of rape and its aftermath. A former Girlfriend of Jonathan Kaplan the movie s director was gang raped for 12 hours in their apartment White Kaplan was out of town he said. Rape has almost become a right of initiation at fraternity houses said Sherry Lansing who co produced the accused with Stanley Jat e. Thai s appalling. What 1 Hope will happen is that no one will Ever look at a rape victim the same Way again. No one will Ever say. She asked for it " Foster s character Sarah. Tobias is a provocative and foul moulded waitress who likes to have a Good time. But the film Points Oul. As courts and women s groups have Over the past Tew years that the Sarah to biases Are just As much victims As women who Are More demure and sheltered. The incredible thing about the rape scene in the movie is that it in t Foster said. It s about violating humanity and saying this in t a person. This is like a piece of something to serve my purposes " Hollywood has confronted rape before and fairly graphically in movies such As lipstick and extremities. However the accused comes More directly from real life. In is strongly reminiscent of a 1983 Case in new Bedford mass., in which a woman was gang raped on a Pool table at big Dan s bar As several patrons either whooped encouragement or failed to intervene. The tavern was in a Section of new Bedford heavily populated by portuguese americans. Six men. All of portuguese descent were charged in the Case. Four were convicted and two were acquitted. Paramount pictures responding to criticism from portuguese american groups who said the movie will open old wounds issued a disclaimer saying Trio accused was not based on the new Bedford incident. Monday. October 24, 1988 the stars and stripes the movie in pan. Focuses on the Pioso cution of the onlookers who Are charged with criminal solicitation the movie came about because i be wanted to do a movie Aboul the responsibility thai you have As a bystander a witness and How sometimes you re just As culpable when you Walch something As when you a Lually participate Lansing said. To Challenge the myth that women who say no actually mean yes Sarah Tobias is Brazen that she chooses on one evening at the Mill to be sexually aggressive and let her guard Down does nol mean she wants men to do a Halver they please for a minute in her life she said i m not going to feel danger and she ends up paying Tho consequences for being herself and that s a really sad thing Foster said. Iii want to show that a woman always has the Light to say no no matter in she s drunk or stoned or sexy or whatever i have to paint a character who. In the beginning i want to dismiss Lansing said. Bui by the time you see what happened i Don t think anybody could walk out of thai movie and think that girl deserved to be Lansing said in would be wrong to consider this a message film. First and lorem Osl she said you have to do a piece of entertainment that people will enjoy. And then you slip your message in. The Best film entertains you and then you walk out of the healer and Start to said Mcgillis i Don t think a film can change a whole social pattern. But i do Hope that what this film will do is to inspire people to Start asking questions. That s the beginning of Paga 17
