A Crime Film That Pays

The Onion Field is an utterly honorable movie; therein lie both its strength and its weakness. Joseph Wambaugh, the policeman-turned-novelist, found the film versions of two of his previous novels so offensive that he resorted to litigation to regain control of this one, then went into hock to finance it and have it produced as he wanted it. He wrote the script and closely supervised all stages of the film-making. The result is a movie that is faithful to the book—a long book, however, that forced the filmmakers to use a telegraphic style where more leisurely development was needed.

Indeed, The Onion Field is a picture with far too many transitions left out, so that the plot twists and climaxes come at us thick and fast, often puzzling and sometimes even seemingly arbitrary, despite the fact that this is a true story. It is all rather like a controversial lecture full of provocative and haunting pronouncements, but with the dialectical underpinnings elided. One is often left in the awkward situation of having to take the truth on faith.

JS

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John Simon

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The Onion Field is an utterly honorable movie; therein lie both its strength and its weakness. Joseph Wambaugh, the policeman-turned-novelist, found the film versions of two of his previous novels so offensive that he resorted to litigation to regain control of this one, then went into hock to finance it and have it produced as he wanted it. He wrote the script and closely supervised all stages of the film-making. The result is a movie that is faithful to the book—a long book, however, that forced the filmmakers to use a telegraphic style where more leisurely development was needed.

Indeed, The Onion Field is a picture with far too many transitions left out, so that the plot twists and climaxes come at us thick and fast, often puzzling and sometimes even seemingly arbitrary, despite the fact that this is a true story. It is all rather like a controversial lecture full of provocative and haunting pronouncements, but with the dialectical underpinnings elided. One is often left in the awkward situation of having to take the truth on faith.