Sara Tobias is a hard edged, waitress, who lives with her drug dealing boyfriend in a run down trailer park. One night after a fight with her boyfriend, Sara heads to the local dive bar to drown her sorrows and party the night away with her friend, who is a waitress at the tavern.
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Sara soon finds herself extremely drunk and picked up on by a local bar fly who invites her back into the bar's gameroom for a game of pinball and some drinks. The game of pinball goes a little awry, and Sara soon finds her self atop the pinball machine, being brutally gang raped. The rape also happens to be that evening's bar entertainment as all of the patrons decide to sit back, watch the show, and hoot and hollar to root on the rapist's brutal attack on the small woman.
The district attorney prosecutes the rapists, but only gets a minimum sentence of "Reckless Endangerment". This of course sends the feisty Sara into a tirade against the DA who she believes cheated her. The DA agrees eventually, and decides to go after the rape's spectators and bring charges against them for egging on the rape and doing nothing to stop it.
The review of this Movie prepared by Stephanie
Jodie Foster plays a hard edged sleazy woman who at first is hard to sympathize with. She gets drunk and acts sleazy in a bar full of sleazy men. What did she think would happen? It does and more. It's all about a woman's right to say no. Kelly McGinnis plays her very sympathetic lawyer who later reveals her own rape. The bad guys in this movie are BAD.
The review of this Movie prepared by Angela Cowart
Sarah Tobias, a marginal working class woman, is gang raped in a bar by three men while others look on and cheer. Outraged by the light sentences given to her attackers (partly because of her "questionable character" raised in court), Sarah pushes the female prosecuting attorney, Kathryn Murphy (McGillis) to go after the onlookers as well. It's a tough case to make because the victim had taken drugs and behaved provocatively in the bar that night. The plot of this 1988 film relies on an excruciating recreation of the rape, and an independent male witness to back up Tobias, a luxury most rape victims cannot call on, and there are other problems with the plotting, but Foster puts up a fearless performance of a scared, angry, feral, vulnerable, indignant, and not very intelligent woman, which earned her first Best Actress Oscar. The movie is set in Seattle, but is based on a true incident that occurred in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus