The Onion Field (film)
| The Onion Field | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Harold Becker |
| Produced by | Walter Coblenz |
| Written by | Joseph Wambaugh |
| Starring |
John Savage James Woods Franklyn Seales Ted Danson Ronny Cox |
| Music by | Eumir Deodato |
| Cinematography | Charles Rosher, Jr. |
| Edited by | John W. Wheeler |
| Distributed by |
Avco Embassy Pictures (1979, original) MGM (2002, DVD) |
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Release date
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Running time
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122 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $9,890,597 (US) |
The Onion Field is a 1979 American crime drama film directed by Harold Becker and written by Joseph Wambaugh, based on his 1973 true crime novel of the same title. The film stars John Savage, James Woods, Franklyn Seales and Ted Danson in his film debut.
Woods' performance as Greg Powell was the film's most widely praised element, earning the actor a Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award and his first Golden Globe nomination.
Hollywood, Saturday, March 9th, 1963: LAPD detectives Karl Hettinger (Savage) and Ian Campbell (Danson) are kidnapped by criminals Greg Powell (Woods) and Jimmy "Youngblood" Smith (Seales). They are driven to an onion field near Bakersfield, where Campbell is shot and killed before Hettinger narrowly escapes as a cloud passes in front of the moon, plunging the onion field into darkness.
Hettinger's eyewitness account leads to the arrest of the two men, who are tried and convicted of first-degree murder. While they languish on death row, Powell and Smith learn how to exploit the legal system and after a series of appeals their sentences are reduced to life imprisonment following a court decision abolishing executions in California.
Meanwhile, Hettinger's physical condition and emotional state slowly deteriorate as his failure to act more aggressively on the night of the incident is questioned by those in authority and his fellow officers. Wracked with guilt and remorse, he experiences nightmares, impotence, weight loss, kleptomania, and thoughts of suicide.
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