Intrigue

LA cop Ian Campbell is killed in the onion fields outside of Bakersfield. But legal loopholes could keep his kidnappers Greg Powell and Jimmy Smith from receiving justice, and his partner Karl Hettinger is haunted by survivor's guilt.

Gregory Ulas Powell is a disturbed ex-con who recruits Jimmy Lee "Youngblood" Smith, a petty thief, as his partner in crime. Powell panics one night when the two of them are pulled over by a pair of cops for broken brake lights. Powell decides to kidnap the cops, and Smith, as always, reluctantly goes along with Powell's crazy scheme. The group drives out to a deserted onion field in Bakersfield, California, and one officer is shot while the other escapes. The remainder of the film explores the nature of the American justice system, as well as the devastating psychological effects of this event, and the trial on the surviving officer.—Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>

Two new partnerships have a fateful encounter late one evening in Los Angeles in early 1963. Patrolling, Los Angeles Police Department Detectives Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger pull over what they consider a vehicle carrying two suspicious looking men. Those two men are Greg Powell and Jimmy Smith aka Jimmy Youngblood, who indeed are petty crooks - although Powell is more of a minor thug - and who were on their way to commit the latest in a string of robberies. This encounter escalates to a standoff culminating in an onion field outside of Bakersfield, where one of the four is shot dead. Beyond the shooting, the evening does not end as any of the men would have envisioned when the encounter began. In the aftermath of this event, the three survivors recount the activities of the evening in the trial into the shooting and in their everyday lives, the most contentious issue being what happened immediately following the firing of the initial shot. In recounting the event, they contemplate what went wrong and what they would have done differently if given the chance again. That evening has a profound effect on the lives of the three survivors, who have problems emotionally dealing either with what happened that evening or the consequences of their actions that evening, especially in the issue of if the justice system was indeed just both in its process and outcome.—Huggo

In Los Angeles in 1963, police officers Karl Hettinger and Ian Campbell stop a car with two suspicious looking men inside. The two, Greg Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith, are in fact small-time hoods who rob liquor and convenience stores for relatively small amounts of cash. The hoodlums take the two policeman prisoner and drive them out to an onion field in Bakersfield California. There, Campbell is killed while Hettinger escapes. Greg Powell is quickly arrested and blames the shooting on Jimmy. There begins a legal saga that will stretch out over many years. Although originally convicted and sentenced to death, both Powell and Smith successfully appeal leading to re-trial after re-trial. Karl Hettinger meanwhile feels that he was somehow responsible for his partner's death and should have been able to do more. He's an emotional wreck and begins to shoplift eventually being caught and forced to resign. Based on true events.—garykmcd