'' is a
Legal Thriller Film released in
1993 , directed by
Sydney Pollack , and starring
Tom Cruise ,
Jeanne Tripplehorn ,
Gene Hackman ,
Ed Harris ,
Holly Hunter ,
Gary Busey , and
David Strathairn . The movie is based on the novel, ''
The Firm '', by author
John Grisham .
: ''Power can be murder to resist.''
Mitch McDeere has just qualified third in his class in
Harvard Law School and is in demand by all the big law firms. But the best offer comes from Bendini Lambert & Locke, a relatively small firm in
Memphis , which he accepts.
He settles in, works hard and starts earning big money, with a mortgage and car paid by the firm. His future seems rosy indeed — until he is approached by the
FBI . They reveal that the Firm is a front for the
Mafia and does all the crime family's legal work, engages in corruption, money laundering and has engaged in murder. The FBI plan to get information, without which they cannot get the indictments they need, but for this they need an insider. And Mitch, as the newest associate, has been chosen.
Desperate, and with no options open to him, Mitch plans a way to copy and deliver documents from secret files, including some stored in the
Cayman Islands . In return, he demands that the FBI give him protection and a big monetary payout. He also wants his brother out of jail, where he's serving a long sentence for manslaughter.
Little does Mitch know that his house and car have been bugged by the firm. So with both the Firm's hired goons and FBI on to him, he goes on the run with Abby, his wife, and now-released brother.
The film follows the book in most respects, but changes the ending. Mitch doesn't end up in the Caribbean, as in the book; he and his wife simply get into their vehicle and drive away from Memphis.
A more fundamental departure from the book is the motives and manner in which Mitch extricates himself from his predicament. In the book, Mitch is unconcerned about scrupulously following the ethics required by lawyers in the United States. By copying the information and giving it to the FBI, he acknowledges to himself that he is betraying the lawyer-client privilege. Rather than dwell on this fact, accepting that he will not be allowed to practice law anywhere again, he shrewdly swindles $10 million from the mob law firm, along with receiving the $2 million from the FBI for his cooperation. He then disappears with Abby to the Caribbean.
In the film, apparently in order to preserve the personal integrity of the protagonist, Mitch steals no money from The Firm, and instead, exposes a systematic overbilling scheme by The Firm, thus driving a wedge between the Mafia and its law firm. This dramatically alters the character of the Mitch McDeere created by Grisham. Rather than capitalizing on his circumstances for personal gain, as in the book, the movie's Mitch McDeere ends up battered and bruised, but with his integrity and professional ethics intact.
