The Accused is a 1988 American legal drama film directed by Jonathan Kaplan and written by Tom Topor, loosely based on the 1983 gang rape of Cheryl Araujo in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The film stars Jodie Foster as Sarah Tobias, a young waitress who is gang raped by three men at a local bar.

It also features performances from Bernie Coulson, Leo Rossi, Ann Hearn, Carmen Argenziano, Steve Antin, and Tom O'Brien.

The Accused was released in limited theatres in North America on October 14, 1988, and premiered the following year at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Bear.

Foster's performance marked her breakthrough into adult roles, earning numerous accolades including the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 61st ceremony.

[4][5] The film explores the themes of classism, misogyny, post-traumatic stress disorder, slut shaming, victim blaming and women's empowerment.

Screenwriter Tom Topor was inspired to write the film after the trial involving the rape of Cheryl Araujo became national news.

However, Kaplan wanted the rape victim to be as prominent as the lawyer; the script also featured a pool table (reflecting the real life incident), but the producers were concerned with being sued, so it was changed to a pinball machine.

[6] Due to its hard-edged themes and graphic screenplay, the studio was already skeptical about making the film, and it was essential for the producers to cast a bankable actress in the role of Sarah Tobias.

Numerous actresses were offered or considered for the part including Kim Basinger, Demi Moore, Jennifer Beals, Meg Tilly, and Rosanna Arquette, but all of them rejected the film due to its controversial themes.

[7] Producers Sherry Lansing and Stanley R. Jaffe both had serious reservations for casting Foster since they thought she couldn't be sexual enough for the role of Sarah.

Jane Fonda was initially attached to play attorney Katheryn Murphy but left the project as she found the script exploitative and poorly written.

[8] Ellen Barkin, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sigourney Weaver, Debra Winger, Meryl Streep and Geena Davis were also considered for the part.

After a long career as a child star, including a breakout performance in Taxi Driver, at age 18, Foster had taken a sabbatical from Hollywood to attend Yale, and had experienced a bit of a dry spell upon her return to acting, with several films receiving a lukewarm response with critics and at the box office.

[13] In its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, The Accused was number one at the box office, grossing $4.3 million in 796 theaters.

[16] In a positive review, writing of the two criminal prosecutions in the film, Roger Ebert finds that the lesson of the trial "may be the most important message this movie has to offer...that verbal sexual harassment, whether crudely in a saloon back room or subtly in an everyday situation, is a form of violence - one that leaves no visible marks but can make its victims feel unable to move freely and casually in society.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "A consistently engrossing melodrama, modest in its aims and as effective for the clichés it avoids as for the clear eye through which it sees its working-class American lives".

[19] Marjorie Heins, in the 1998 book The V-Chip Debate: Content Filtering from Television to the Internet, said that educators worried that the film would "receive V ratings and be subject to at least a presumption against curricular use in many public schools.