The true story of the so-called Onion Field murder case, in which a pair of ex-cons gratuitously killed a Los Angeles policeman at the Bakersfield location of the film's title, has been adapted by Joseph Wambaugh from his own bestselling novel into a skillful if unimaginative screen drama. It's reassuring to see (for once) an honest film about real cops (however grim the scenario), but except for the more colorful details of criminal low life (a bloody San Quentin suicide; some prison shower fellatio) it might have been just another routine TV movie-of-the-week. As it would in real life, the story begins to drag during the protracted, inconclusive courtroom trials, and did we really need so many scenes showing (in all-too vivid detail) the domestic trauma of surviving cop John Savage? Sitting through his portrayal of an alienated, kleptomaniac, child-beating potential suicide isn't nearly as much fun as watching yet another typically psychotic performance by James Woods, as the bisexual cop killer.
Review of The Onion Field
