Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1068 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-09-25
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 135 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Another John Grisham legal thriller comes to the screen, pairing Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts in a film directed by Alan J Pakula, who is known for dark-hued suspense pictures such as Klute, The Parallax View, All the President's Men, and Presumed Innocent. The Pelican Brief isn't up to the level of those films, but it is a perfectly entertaining movie about a law student (Roberts) whose life is endangered when she discovers evidence of a conspiracy behind the killings of two Supreme Court justices. She enlists the help of an investigative reporter (Washington) and the two become fugitives. The charisma and chemistry of the leads goes a long way toward compensating for the story's shortcomings, as does a truly impressive supporting cast that includes Sam Shepard, John Heard, James B Sikking, Tony Goldwyn, Stanley Tucci, Hume Cronyn, John Lithgow, William Atherton and Robert Culp. --Jim Emerson

Special Features
Wide Screen
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers
Arabic
English

Synopsis
Julia Roberts (ERIN BROCKOVICH) stars in THE PELICAN BRIEF as sharp law student Darby Shaw whose querying mind gets her into trouble. A faithful adaptation of John Grisham's (THE FIRM) best-selling novel, this taut thriller follows the travails that beset Shaw when her theory on the cause of the deaths of two Supreme Court Justices lands her name on the conspirators' hit list. When Shaw teams up with reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington--THE HURRICANE) they find themselves dodging deadly assassins in a suspenseful story that weaves complex narrative strands. The well-cast film also features a cameo by playwright-actor Sam Shepard (TRUE WEST).

Customer Reviews

Excellent Film - disappointing DVD version
I've always loved this film, I had it on tape for years. It's a great story, intelligent, with superb acting. Other reviews say it all

What did annoy me was that the DVD is two-sided. You have to watch half the film, then turn the DVD over to watch the other half. This isn't going to be enough to irritate everybody but it really irrited me, and I really wouldn't have bought it if I'd known about the format.

I'm the lazy type who likes to settle down, surrounded by food, and not get up again until the film is finished and there's no food left. Like I said, not going to bother everybody but still worth knowing.

a bit slow moving and not as watchable as "The Client"
I thought that the dvd of "The Client" - also a novel by John Grisham - was a lot more exciting to watch and had a more interesting storyline.
This was undoubtedly because in the Pelican Brief the criminals are the
government and so everything happens in a more slow and predictable fashion - as though the public servants who feature in the film wrote the script! The Pelican Brief is worth watching once but if you have the choice watch "The Client" instead - it's a gem of a movie with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones starring.

John Grisham's Second Best
Have watched this a numerous amount of time and enjoy it each time. However, I prefered A Time To Kill. I enjoy books that turn well into films and I definately thought that this was one occasion where it succeeded.