THE PELICAN BRIEF, the film version of John Grisham’s third novel, followed The Firm, made from his second, onto screens in 1993, delivering a one-two punch at the box office, echoing the bestseller status of the books. The summer release of The Firm became the year’s 4th biggest hit, the Christmas season reveal of The Pelican Brief  not far behind at #8. ‘Pelican’s 387 pages run 141 minutes crafted into script form & directed by paranoia ace Alan J. Pakula.

Two Supreme Court Justices are murdered (the urge to snark is strong in this one…) and while the White House, FBI and CIA scramble for answers and turf protection, a bright law student in New Orleans writes a brief outlining her theory on the Why part. This results in her boyfriend’s murder, followed by others. Realizing she’s next ‘Darby Shaw’ (Julia Roberts) turns to respected D.C. newsman ‘Gray Grantham’ (Denzel Washington) for help, putting a target on his back as well. They make a formidable pair, but the ruthless have reach.

Exercising the threat-from-power mood expressed in his The Parallax View and All The President’s Men, Pakula steers his $45,000,000 thriller with Swiss watch precision, decked out in sleek production details (fluid camerawork and sound, superior crowd scenes, James Horner’s able scoring) and while the tension and adrenaline are high, he wisely keeps the violence level in check. The two compelling stars click and they have superior backup from a well-picked array of supporting players. Grosses in the States reached $100,800,000 with another $94,500,000 gathered in other countries.

On deck: Sam Shepard, John Heard, Stanley Tucci (coolly proficient as a killer), John Lithgow, Robert Culp (restrained here, quite good as the President), Tony Goldwyn, James Sikking, William Atherton, Anthony Heald, Cynthia Nixon, Jake Weber, Stanley Anderson and Hume Cronyn.