# The Pelican Brief (film)
**The Pelican Brief** is a 1993 American legal-political thriller directed, written, and produced by [Alan J. Pakula](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-j-pakula), adapted from [John Grisham](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-grisham)'s 1992 novel of the same name. It stars [Julia Roberts](https://www.edgepedia.org/julia-roberts) as Darby Shaw, a Tulane University law student whose speculative legal brief about the assassination of two Supreme Court justices makes her a target, and Denzel Washington as Gray Grantham, the Washington Herald investigative reporter who helps her.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | December 17, 1993 (Los Angeles and New York openings); Warner Bros.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627) |
| Director / writer | Alan J. Pakula, from the novel by John Grisham[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627) |
| Runtime / rating | 141 minutes; MPAA rating PG-13[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627) |
| Leads | Julia Roberts (Darby Shaw), Denzel Washington (Gray Grantham), Sam Shepard (Thomas Callahan), John Heard (Gavin Verheek)[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-pelican-brief-1993) |
| Rights cost | Carolco Pictures acquired film rights for an estimated $1.3 million; Warner Bros. later paid $1.75 million to option them[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627) |
| Box office | $100.7 million gross in the United States[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief) |
| Critical scores | 56% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (52 reviews); 51 on Metacritic from 15 critic reviews[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief) • [4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-pelican-brief/?hd=1) |
| Music | Original score by James Horner[5](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-pelican-brief) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
When Supreme Court justices Rosenberg and Jensen are killed within hours of each other, Darby Shaw, a 24-year-old law student at [Tulane University](https://www.edgepedia.org/tulane-university) in New Orleans, investigates the double assassination. Determining that the main link between the two justices was their environmentalism, she develops a theory of who ordered the killings in a report titled "The Pelican Brief." She shares it with her law professor and lover, Thomas Callahan, who passes it to his friend Gavin Verheek, a lawyer for the FBI.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59627-THE-PELICANBRIEF?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=8&sid=22e87189-ff39-4d2d-9412-23f1b91adc32&sr=0.10726797)
The brief makes its way to White House chief of staff Fletcher Coal, who believes it could topple the current administration, and the FBI director, Denton Voyles, begins looking into a document that implicates the White House in a conspiracy. After Callahan is killed by a car bomb, Darby goes into hiding, stalked by the assassin Khamel ([Stanley Tucci](https://www.edgepedia.org/stanley-tucci)). Her theory, as she later explains to Grantham, concerns a Southern oil magnate, Victor Mattiece, the President's largest campaign contributor, who has been locked in a seven-year legal battle against the Green Fund, an environmental group opposing his plans to dredge a channel through protected Louisiana marshlands.[5](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-pelican-brief) • [7](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59627-THE-PELICANBRIEF?cp=1&cxt=Filmography3&pos=7&sid=aad06d22-80b0-4d7f-a46c-188781fed75f&sr=0.24067533) Grantham, who has already had one confidential source back out of sharing information about the assassinations, becomes her only route to proving the theory and surviving.[5](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-pelican-brief)
## Production
A Daily Variety article of October 23, 1991 announced that Pakula would write, direct, and produce an adaptation of Grisham's then-forthcoming novel, to be published by Doubleday in spring 1992. [Carolco Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/carolco-pictures), with which Pakula had a first-look deal, acquired the film rights for an estimated $1.3 million. Financial problems at Carolco dissolved that deal; Pakula was released from his contract in February 1992 and took the project to Warner Bros., which paid $1.75 million to option the rights.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627)
**Casting and filming.** In June 1992, Julia Roberts ended a yearlong retreat from the film business by signing on to play Darby Shaw. Shooting began on May 21, 1993, with locations in New Orleans, Louisiana; Roberts attended law classes at Tulane University in preparation for the role.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627) In July 1993, the production spent a day filming on the east lawn of [Mount Vernon](https://www.edgepedia.org/mount-vernon), George Washington's estate in Virginia, with hundreds of crew members and extras. The scene, in which reporter Gray Grantham confers with his editor Smith Keen ([John Lithgow](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-lithgow)) away from his bugged home and office, was rewritten for the location; in the novel the two talk during a drive to Virginia. Several Mount Vernon employees made their motion-picture debuts as extras, and the producers made a sizable contribution to the estate for the privilege of filming there.[8](https://www.mountvernon.org/preservation/mount-vernon-ladies-association/mount-vernon-through-time/the-pelican-brief)
The crew included cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, editors Tom Rolf and Trudy Ship, production designer Philip Rosenberg, and composer [James Horner](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-horner).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627) • [5](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-pelican-brief)
## Adaptation from the novel
The film is described as fairly faithful to the best-selling novel, but one change drew comment: the book's interracial romance between Darby Shaw and Gray Grantham was left out of the finished film.[5](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-pelican-brief) Variety's Brian Lowry took the opposite view of the adaptation's fidelity, writing that Pakula had improved on Grisham's book by excising much of its detritus and crafting a taut, intelligent thriller.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-pelican-brief/?hd=1)
## Reception
The film opened on December 17, 1993, the second Grisham adaptation of the year after *The Firm*. Roger Ebert, film critic of the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times), gave it two and a half stars and wrote that it proved the value of star power, praising Roberts as a warm, courageous heroine in her return after two years off the screen and Washington's screen credibility.[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-pelican-brief-1993) Aggregated scores were middling: 56 percent on the Tomatometer with 52 reviews, and a Metascore of 51, categorized as mixed or average, based on 15 critic reviews, of which 4 were positive, 10 mixed, and 1 negative. Audiences were warmer, giving it 61 percent on the Popcornmeter from more than 50,000 ratings.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief) • [4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-pelican-brief/?hd=1)
**Common criticisms.** Reviewers repeatedly flagged length and pacing. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calls the film overlong while crediting Roberts and Washington as a compelling team.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief) The Washington Post's review found the plot so complicated that by the end it was unclear who committed the crimes or why.[9](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/17/reviews/c3aae9a2-496d-4215-884c-197858db10f4/) David Ansen of Newsweek compared it unfavorably to Pakula's own *All the President's Men*, noting the director's cool, solemn style.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief) Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader wrote that Pakula dawdles after the climax but is adept before it at suggesting unseen menace and keeping things in motion.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief) Radio Times gave it 4 out of 5 stars, singling out the supporting cast, including [Sam Shepard](https://www.edgepedia.org/sam-shepard), John Heard, and [Robert Culp](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-culp)'s witty portrayal of a shifty president.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief)
## Context in Grisham adaptations
The film belongs to the wave of 1990s Grisham adaptations that included *The Firm* (1993), *The Client* (1994), and *The Rainmaker* (1997).[10](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-rainmaker-john-grishams-iconic-thriller-now-a-sopay-tv-show/) Grisham himself credited the annual-release habit of best-selling authors such as [Tom Clancy](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-clancy), Robert Ludlum, and [Sidney Sheldon](https://www.edgepedia.org/sidney-sheldon), overheard on the publicity tour for *The Firm*, with prompting him to finish *The Pelican Brief* quickly.[11](https://time.com/6317634/john-grisham-the-exchange-book-interview/) The novel's plot centers on a legally protected Louisiana marshland with a delicate ecological system, an ecological setting unusual in the legal-thriller genre.[12](https://www.the-criterion.com/V14/n6/AM03.pdf)
## References
1. [The Pelican Brief (1993), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59627)
2. [The Pelican Brief, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pelican_brief)
3. [Roger Ebert, The Pelican Brief (1993), Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-pelican-brief-1993)
4. [The Pelican Brief Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-pelican-brief/?hd=1)
5. [The Pelican Brief, American Film Institute](https://watch.afi.com/movie/the-pelican-brief)
6. [The Pelican Brief, AFI Catalog synopsis](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59627-THE-PELICANBRIEF?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=8&sid=22e87189-ff39-4d2d-9412-23f1b91adc32&sr=0.10726797)
7. [The Pelican Brief, AFI Catalog synopsis (continued)](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/59627-THE-PELICANBRIEF?cp=1&cxt=Filmography3&pos=7&sid=aad06d22-80b0-4d7f-a46c-188781fed75f&sr=0.24067533)
8. [The Pelican Brief, George Washington's Mount Vernon](https://www.mountvernon.org/preservation/mount-vernon-ladies-association/mount-vernon-through-time/the-pelican-brief)
9. [Reviews, The Washington Post, December 17, 1993](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/17/reviews/c3aae9a2-496d-4215-884c-197858db10f4/)
10. [John Grisham's Iconic Thriller 'The Rainmaker' Gets Soapy New TV Version, The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-rainmaker-john-grishams-iconic-thriller-now-a-sopay-tv-show/)
11. [The Enduring Charm of John Grisham, Time](https://time.com/6317634/john-grisham-the-exchange-book-interview/)
12. [Ecological Concerns in Popular Crime Fiction: Analyzing John Grisham's The Pelican Brief, The Criterion](https://www.the-criterion.com/V14/n6/AM03.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1990s films › Thrillers › Released 1990 to 1995*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license