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Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture
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{{Short description|1990 television film}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox television | image = Movie Somebody has to Shoot the picture.jpg | image_size = 220 | image_alt = | caption = | genre = Drama | creator = | writer = Doug Magee | screenplay = | director = [[Frank Pierson]] | starring = [[Roy Scheider]]<br>[[Bonnie Bedelia]]<br>[[Robert Carradine]] | theme_music_composer = [[James Newton Howard]] | country = United States | language = English | executive_producer = William Sackheim | producer = Alan Barnette | location = [[Mount Dora, Florida]]<br>[[Orlando, Florida]]<br>[[New York City]] | editor = [[Peter Zinner]] | cinematography = [[Bojan Bazelli]] | runtime = 104 minutes | company = [[HBO Pictures]]<br>Alan Barnette Productions<br>[[MCA Television Entertainment]] | budget = | network = [[HBO]] | released = {{Start date|1990|09|09}} }} '''''Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture''''' is a 1990 American [[television film|made-for-television]] [[prison film|prison]] [[drama (film and television)|drama film]] written by [[photojournalist]] Doug Magee, inspired by his interviews with and photos of [[death row]] [[prison]]ers.<ref name= "latreview">{{cite news |last=Loynd |first=Ray |url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-08-ca-594-story.html |title=TV Reviews : 'Shoot the Picture' Graphic on Death Row |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=September 8, 1990 |access-date=April 30, 2020}}</ref> The film was directed by [[Frank Pierson]].<ref name= "ewreview">{{cite magazine |last=Sauter |first=Michael |url= https://ew.com/article/1991/05/10/somebody-has-shoot-picture/ |title=Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=May 10, 1991 |access-date=April 30, 2020}}</ref> ==Plot== Ray Eames ([[Arliss Howard]]) has spent seven years on [[death row]] for the shooting of policeman Jackie McGrath in a drug bust gone wrong. His [[electric chair|electrocution]] being finally scheduled, Eames' last request is for someone to photograph his death. Paul Marish ([[Roy Scheider]]) reluctantly takes the job. Upon his arrival at the airport he meets Jake Rusher ([[Tom Schuster]]), McGrath's former partner. Rusher urges Marish not to take the photo β that it will just re-traumatize those who would rather Eames be forgotten. On the day the execution is scheduled, Marish visits with Eames in his cell while Eames gets his head shaved. Eames is taken to the chair and blindfolded; but at the last moment another reprieve is ordered. Marish leaves the prison that night past sign-waving protesters and counter-protesters. Rusher, among the crowd, is not able to reach Marish's car. Rusher returns to his home (which is also the town's [[pet store|exotic-pet store]]), frees the pets, writes "NO JUSTICE" in marker on a [[forensic photography|crime-scene photograph]], and then shoots himself. Dan Weston ([[Andre Braugher]]), a reporter for ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', arrives on the scene to cooperate with Marish in getting the story. Weston and Marish visit McGrath's widow, Hannah ([[Bonnie Bedelia]]), and are present when she and policeman Jerry Brown ([[Robert Carradine]]) receive the news that Rusher has killed himself. Finally, Weston and Marish interview [[district attorney|D.A.]] Steve March ([[Tom Nowicki]]), who tells them the official story of McGrath's murder and reiterates that crimes like Eames' are "why the death penalty was invented." Marish replies that "you scare me a hell of a lot more than he does"; the pair are thrown out of March's office. Eames' latest reprieve expires and he is again scheduled for execution. Marish begins to sense a mystery: Why would Rusher have been so upset as to commit suicide? At the same time, a romance begins to bloom between Marish and Hannah McGrath. Marish discovers that the crime-scene photograph Rusher left behind was photographically reversed with respect to the photograph used in court, indicating that the bullet that killed McGrath must have come from a different direction. Marish begins to suspect that Eames didn't shoot McGrath after all. Assistant D.A. Mike Knighton ([[Antoni Corone]]) tells Marish and Weston that Eames' partner Floyd Tatum ([[Kevin Quigley]]) had been a [[confidential informant]], and that he (Knighton) had shot and killed Tatum several years later. Hannah and Marish discover that in fact Tatum is still alive; Rusher had been sending Tatum $1000 a month to maintain his silence. Marish, Hannah, and Brown locate and confront Tatum. He refuses to testify in Eames' defense, but Marish secretly records Tatum's confession. Tatum tells them that Knighton, Rusher, and himself were trafficking drugs. McGrath had discovered their scheme and tried to stop them, and so they had brought in Eames as a patsy; it was actually Rusher who had shot and killed McGrath. Furthermore, Hannah admits, she had been having an affair with Rusher, thus giving him a second motive for the murder β to get rid of her husband. It is already the evening of Eames' execution as Hannah and Marish rush back to town. Hannah plays Tatum's taped confession for D.A. March and Judge Landis ([[Harold Bergman]]), but Landis refuses to give Eames yet another trial on evidence that March characterizes as "[[hearsay evidence|hearsay]]." Meanwhile, at the prison, Marish tries in vain to stop Eames' execution, yelling and pounding on the glass of the witnesses' chamber. It takes two electrical charges to kill Eames. After he is dead, the phone rings β Landis has reprieved Eames too late. Marish shoots photographs of the stunned warden and the witnesses' confusion. He exits the prison amid fireworks and crowds cheering Eames' death on the one side and [[candlelight vigil|candlelight protesters]] on the other. ==Cast== <!-- just the first two sections of the movie's end credits --> * [[Roy Scheider]] as Paul Marish * [[Bonnie Bedelia]] as Hannah McGrath * [[Robert Carradine]] as Jerry Brown * [[Andre Braugher]] as Dan Weston * [[Arliss Howard]] as Ray Eames * [[Marc Macaulay]] as Superintendent Stanton * [[Antoni Corone]] as Mike Knighton * [[Tom Nowicki]] as Steve March * [[Tom Schuster]] as Jake Rusher ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *{{IMDb title|0100659}} {{Frank Pierson}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Somebody Has To Shoot The Picture}} [[Category:1990 television films]] [[Category:1990 films]] [[Category:1990 crime drama films]] [[Category:American prison drama films]] [[Category:American crime drama films]] [[Category:1990s prison films]] [[Category:HBO Films films]] [[Category:Films directed by Frank Pierson]] [[Category:Films scored by James Newton Howard]] [[Category:1990s English-language films]] [[Category:1990s American films]] [[Category:English-language crime drama films]] {{1990s-crime-drama-film-stub}} {{US-tv-film-stub}}
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