What Happened In The Onion Field Is True. But The Real Crime Is What Happened After.


Joseph Wambaugh's The Onion Field is based on an actual 1963 case. L.A. plainclothesmen Karl Hattinger (John Savage) and Ian Campbell (Ted Danson) routinely investigate a pair of suspicious types, Greg Powell (James Woods) and Jimmy Smith (Franklin Seales). Unexpectedly, Powell pulls a gun on the cops, then forces them into a deserted onion field, where he kills Campbell in cold blood. Hattinger manages to escape, and through his eyewitness account, Powell and Smith are arrested. But that is not that. Thanks to their knowledge and manipulation of the quicksilver legal system, Powell and Smith manage to evade prosecution for years. Meanwhile, Hattinger goes through hell on earth, tortured with guilt over the fact that he lived while Campbell died so ignominiously. ~\

The film was shot on location in Valencia, Los Angeles, Maricopa, and Taft in California. A courtroom of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County was used to film the movie. The jury panel was taken to an onion field in Valencia to inspect as a replica of the scene of the crime. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 1979, before opening in New York City on September 19. Wambaugh himself worked hard on producing the film and choosing the people who would work on it, including actor Ted Danson, who made a film debut. In addition, he wanted to make a film that was not messy and sloppy, a thing he discovered when the 1977 film of his book The Choirboys came out with a script done by another writer. He sued and got his name removed from the credits.


Release Date: September 19, 1979


Distrib: Avco/Embassy

Boxoffice: $9,890,597 2013: $31,287,400