01
Prince of the City
Why this pick
Like The Onion Field, it turns a police case into an exhaustive moral ordeal, using procedural detail and a steadily tightening sense of institutional pressure.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1979 2h 2m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Onion Field
CrimeDrama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Onion Field, try these.
01
02
The Offence
Why this pick
Its bleak, intimate examination of a detective damaged by violent work matches The Onion Field’s refusal to treat policing or trauma as cleanly heroic.
03
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Why this pick
This shares the unsensational 1970s crime realism: patient observation, compromised people, and tension built from the fatal weight of ordinary decisions.
04
In Cold Blood
Why this pick
Its measured true-crime approach and stark location work create the same chilling sense that one violent act leaves permanent damage far beyond the crime itself.
05
Q & A
Why this pick
A dense, unsparing police-corruption drama whose interrogations and shifting loyalties echo The Onion Field’s interest in how authority and violence deform lives.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
Our curator needs a little longer. Please come back shortly.
No confident matches yet. Try our personal film finder.
01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Hollywood, Saturday, March 9th, 1963: Los Angeles Police Department detectives Karl Hettinger (Savage) and Ian Campbell (Danson) are kidnapped by criminals Greg Powell (Woods) and Jimmy "Youngblood" Smith (Seales). They are driven to an onion field near Bakersfield, California, where Campbell is shot and killed before Hettinger narrowly escapes as a cloud passes in front of the moon, plunging the onion field into darkness.
Showing saved details. Some information may be out of date.
02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
James Woods
Gregory Ulas Powell
Franklyn Seales
Jimmy Lee 'Youngblood' Smith
Ronny Cox
Det. Sgt. Pierce R. Brooks
David Huffman
Dist. Atty. Phil Halpin
Dianne Hull
Helen Hettinger (as Diane Hull)
Beege Barkette
Greg's woman (as Beege Barkett)
Le Tari
Emmanuel McFadden
Richard Venture
Det. Glenn Bates