Following the recent death of Gene Hackman, a forgotten 2003 crime thriller, Runaway Jury, has come to prominence on Netflix. Runway Jury is one of only two movies starring Hackman available on Netflix, and it’s by far the better of the two. The film was the penultimate feature-length production Hackman worked on before he retired from acting in 2004, but it was the last role in which he leaned into the cinematic archetype he’s most known for.
Gene Hackman will forever be remembered by movies, many of which in he plays a variation on the hard-boiled police detective persona he crafted in the early 1970s, such as The French Connection and The Conversation. He developed a penchant for crime thrillers, and the part of Rankin Fitch in Runaway Jury, a film based on a John Grisham book, confirmed that Heckman still had what it took to play an unsentimental, mean-talking man of the law at the very end of his career.
Runaway Jury Was Gene Hackman’s Final Crime Thriller Before He Retired
Hackman Quit Acting A Year After The Movie Came Out
With his heart no longer able to handle the physical and emotional stresses he exerted on it while acting, Gene Hackman retired at the age of 74 to look after his health. He left behind one of the most accomplished acting careers in Hollywood history, with two Oscar wins, Academy nominations across four different decades, and half a century of great movies.
It was only fitting that the actor bowed out with the type of role that cemented his legacy, a no-nonsense law enforcer in a crime thriller. In fact, Hackman’s final movie was actually the forgettable political satire Welcome to Mooseport, which bombed at the box office and was promptly consigned to oblivion. However, the John Grisham novel adaptation Runaway Jury gave us one last look at Hackman doing what he did best as an expert in big-screen crime thrillers, playing the kind of role in which few others could match him.
Hackman’s Role As A Jury Consultant Recalls His Classic Detective Roles
Rankin Fitch Is Unsentimental And Hard-Headed Like “Popeye” Doyle
In Runaway Jury, Gene Hackman is an expert consultant employed to help select jurors for legal trials. His character, Rankin Fitch, seems to be very much along the lines of Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection or Harry Caul in The Conversation. Fitch is a hard-headed whiskey-drinker who has no scruples about consтιтutional rights and does whatever he’s paid to do to deliver the jury that’s asked of him.
The twist of the movie lies in the people who are asking Fitch to select the jury for them. Runaway Jury doesn’t actually follow the plot of Hackman’s typical 1970s neo-noir crime movies after all, as much as it appears to be heading that way in its opening act. The actor plays his part superbly to subvert expectations, playing to type but not necessarily to the same side he’s usually on.
Why Hackman Worked So Well In Crime Thriller Roles
He Had The Screen Presence To Lay Down The Law
Gene Hackman was an actor of many talents, but fundamentally, he was able to use his magnetic screen presence to dominate any scene he was in. The larger-than-life presence he had was ideal for a domineering law enforcement chief, whether that was a member of the narcotics squad, a wiretapper, a private detective, an FBI agent, or a jury consultant. Hackman’s big-screen persona could lay down the law like few others.
Gene Hackman’s played dozens of great and reputable parts, and this was arguably his last performance of any real substance.
His final scene in Runaway Jury gives us a glimpse of his ability to command a room as an actor. He leaves the movie’s central heroes, played by John Cusack and Rachel Weiss, in awe of his charisma, regardless of the actual outcome of the story for his character. Gene Hackman has played dozens of great and reputable parts, and watching Runaway Jury is a great reminder of that.
