Themes: Miscarriage of Justice, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: John Savage, James Woods, Ted Danson, Ronny Cox, Franklyn Seales
Release Year: 1979
Country: US
Run Time: 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Joseph Wambaugh's The Onion Field is based on an actual 1963 case. L.A. plainclothesmen Karl Hattinger (John Savage) and Ian Campbell (Ted Danson) routinely investigate a pair of suspicious types, Greg Powell (James Woods) and Jimmy Smith (Franklin Seales). Unexpectedly, Powell pulls a gun on the cops, then forces them into a deserted onion field, where he kills Campbell in cold blood. Hattinger manages to escape, and through his eyewitness account, Powell and Smith are arrested. But that is not that. Thanks to their knowledge and manipulation of the quicksilver legal system, Powell and Smith manage to evade prosecution for years. Meanwhile, Hattinger goes through hell on earth, tortured with guilt over the fact that he lived while Campbell died so ignominiously. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Harold Becker's account of an actual police case that occurred in 1963 features an unforgettably graphic first act that the rest of the film can't quite sustain, yet it remains an absorbing study of the psychological costs of police work. Prolific author and ex-cop Joseph Wambaugh has probably done more than anyone in any media to give the public a real sense of the life of the average police officer. John Savage's cop, the survivor of a terrible ordeal, fits that description closely, and it's his crippling mental anguish over his partner's (Ted Danson) death that is the film's true subject. James Woods, in his breakthrough role as the psycho ex-con, is truly terrifying in the film's opening, and the effect of this sequence is so powerful that it tends to diminish the impact of the rest of the film, although it's undeniably well done. Savage gives what may be his best performance as the tormented cop, but the part leaves him little latitude as a dramatic character. Among the talented cast are Franklyn Seales, Priscilla Pointer, Christopher Lloyd, and Ronny Cox. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
David Huffman - District Attorney Phil Halpin; Priscilla Pointer - Chrissie Campbell; Christopher Lloyd - Jailhouse Lawyer; Diane Hull - Helen Hattinger; Beege Barkett - Greg's Woman; Richard Herd - Beat Cop; Le Tari - Emmanuel McFadden; Richard Venture - Glenn Bates; Lee Weaver - Billy; Phillip Richard Allen - District Attorney Marshall Schulman; Pat Corley - Jimmy's 1st Lawyer; K Callan - Mrs. Powell; Sandy McPeak - Mr. Powell; Lillian Randolph - Nana; Ned Wilson - LAPD Captain; Jack Rader - IAD Captain; Raleigh Bond - 2nd Judge; Bradford English - Redhaired Cop; Stanley Grover - Greg's 2nd Lawyer; Michael Pataki - District Attorney Dino Fulgoni; Steve Conte - 1st Prison Guard; John deLancie
Credit
Tom Mack - First Assistant Director, Harold Becker - Director, John W. Wheeler - Editor, Deodato - Composer (Music Score), Brian Eatwell - Production Designer, Charles Rosher Jr. - Cinematographer, Walter Coblenz - Producer, Richard C. Goddard - Set Designer, Joe Hubbard - Set Designer, Dick Goddard - Set Designer, Joseph Wambaugh - Screenwriter, Joseph Wambaugh - Book Author
The Onion Field is a 1973 nonfiction book by Joseph Wambaugh, a sergeant for the Los Angeles Police Department, chronicling the kidnapping of two plainclothes LAPD officers by a pair of criminals during an evening traffic stop and the subsequent murder of Officer Ian James Campbell.
On March 9, 1963, LAPD officers Campbell and Karl Hettinger pulled over a car containing two suspicious-looking men on a Hollywood street.[1] The two men, Jimmy Lee Smith (aka "Jimmy Youngblood") and Gregory Ulas Powell, had recently committed a string of robberies. Powell, the driver, pulled a gun on Campbell and ordered Hettinger to surrender his gun to Smith. The two officers were then forced into Powell's car and driven to an onion field around Bakersfield where Campbell was fatally shot. Hettinger was able to escape, running nearly four miles to reach a farmhouse.[1] The killing occurred primarily because Powell assumed that the kidnapping of the officers alone constituted a capital crime under the state's Little Lindbergh Law. However, Powell's interpretation was incorrect, as under the Little Lindbergh Law kidnapping became a capital crime only if the victim was harmed. (Today, kidnapping in California, where there is bodily harm short of death, is punishable either by imprisonment for 25-years-to-life, or by life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.)
Powell was arrested on the night of the murder. The following day, Smith was apprehended as well. The lead LAPD investigator on the case was Sergeant Pierce Brooks. Both suspects, convicted of murder and sentenced to death, ultimately received life-imprisonment sentences following a court decision that for a period abolished executions in California.
Though Hettinger was able to escape, he was scorned by his fellow officers. Eventually a police training video was made using his experience as example of what not to do when stopping and approaching a vehicle. Hettinger suffered severe emotional trauma as a result. He was forced to resign from the LAPD in 1966 after committing many acts of petty theft and abusing alcohol. Later in life, Hettinger was appointed to serve as a Kern County supervisor, dying of a liver disease in 1994 at the age of 59. The book details these events, as well as the lengthy trials and continual appeals of the two criminals.
Powell remains incarcerated; his most recent parole-board hearing was in January 2007. Smith was initially released in 1982, but returned to prison several times on drug-related parole violations. In December 2006, he failed to report to his parole officer and a warrant was issued for his arrest. In February 2007, a man matching Smith's description was detained by police in Los Angeles' Skid Row area and eventually identified as Smith. He was arrested and charged with violating his parole, and sent to the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, California. On April 7, 2007, while in that facility, he died of an apparent heart attack at age 76.[2]
