"The Fugitive" preserves memories of real Chicago St. Patrick's Day festivities

When it was released in 1993, “The Fugitive” received fairly positive reviews for the way in which the film resurrected the imagery of a hit 1960s television program while not being completely tied to its memory.

The film starring Harrison Ford inspired a sequel based on the activities of minor characters – the U.S. marshal’s agents who “heroically” stand up to an attempt by corrupt Chicago cops to cover up a crime by one of their own (only a Dirksen Federal Building geek could dream up that scenario).

BUT TO ME, the memorable part of “The Fugitive” was the way in which it showed off Chicago. Despite its oversimplification of the way the legal system works in criminal cases, it showed off elements of life in Chicago and its seedy underbelly.

And it also showed off a ritual that has become a part of the Chicago cultural landscape – the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

According to the storyline, the “Richard Kimble” character (played by Ford) is trying to elude federal agents after he escapes from a jail at City Hall. He flees and happens to wander into the parade, which is taking place at that very moment.

A couple of scenes of Ford milling through the crowd were shot specifically for the film. But the bulk of the parade scenery used in the film is a real version of the parade – specifically the one that marked the 1993 version of the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

WHEN THEY WANTED to show off Irish dancing girls in ethnic costume doing their slip jig dance, we got to see the real girls dancing down Dearborn Street.

When we needed to see parade floats, we got to see the real thing. Ditto for a sea of people dressed in Kelly green articles of clothing and girls with shamrocks tattooed on their cheeks, and guys sloshed from drinking too much green-dyed beer.

When the film wanted to show a political person using the parade to attract attention for themselves, they showed a real Chicago politico walking down Dearborn and waving his hands to the crowd with a dorky smile on his face.

That is how then-Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris got his three seconds of cinematic fame. That’s not an actor, Roland was the real thing (which has since inspired him to joke that he should use his royalty payments for his cameo appearance in the film to finance his future political campaigns – the punch line of that joke being that his cameo was an unpaid appearance that he had no clue would happen until he saw himself on the screen while watching the film in the theater.)

AND WHEN THE film needed to give us the appearance of a mayor being hounded by reporter-types, trying to ask him questions while he’s marching down the street, they included a shot of Richard M. Daley surrounded by the City Hall press corps.

I actually covered that particular parade for United Press International (no, I don’t turn up on camera) and was vaguely aware that some sort of film was being shot. But no one had any clue just how prominent the imagery would be in “The Fugitive.”

What makes this cinematic moment so special is that it preserves (in a sense) the way the parade used to be – back in the days when parades were literally held in the heart of downtown Chicago.

Since then, Chicago has shifted its parades from Dearborn Street cutting down a canyon of skyscrapers and other century-old office buildings to the generic confines of Columbus Drive.

ADMITTEDLY, THE CURRENT location of the parades (which was used by the city again on Saturday to celebrate the image of St. Patrick) provides a space that can more easily be isolated from traffic than Dearborn Street.

It also is on the edge of Grant Park, which means that there is more open space, thereby making it more comfortable for people who come from all around the Chicago area to see the parade that is supposed to be the chance for Irish Chicago to show off its numbers, but often turns into a multi-ethnic drink-fest.

But to me, the St. Patrick’s Parade (and all the other citywide parades held on Columbus Drive) lost something when they were taken off Dearborn Street.

Watching the parade go south on Dearborn through the heart of the business district (literally inside “the Loop”) gave the event a feel for being in the strong part of Chicago. One could see the mightiness of the city, could almost feel its strength just by watching the event. One could almost see just what Carl Sandburg was talking about when he labeled Chicago the “City of Broad Shoulders.”

WATCHING A DVD of “The Fugitive” these days and seeing the parade scenes makes the powerful impact of Chicago just jump off the screen.

Now, the current event feels like it’s being held in the park, with trees and nature around it. If one looks off in a certain direction, they can see the downtown Chicago skyline looming over.

But if they look in any other direction, Chicago almost disappears. It’s almost like the parade could be held anywhere.

That was the feeling I got the one other time I covered a Chicago-style St. Patrick’s Day parade. The year was 2003, and the event consisted of a four-block walk along Columbus Drive.

THERE WERE SOME groups that were long finished with their portion of the walk, packed up and gone home by the time other groups at the end of the line were just beginning their part of the parade.

I even recall President Bush, whose participation was the highlight of that year’s event, only marched the first half of the parade, before getting into the heavily-armored limousine and driving off with Mayor Daley for lunch at an overpriced Rush Street restaurant.

My point is that the modern event has become a made-for-television production (literally, it was broadcast live on super station WGN-TV). It has lost much of its feel for the city, which is what made the event so special to begin with – and what made it worthy of comparison to the St. Patty parades in New York and Boston, the two other big festivals that give the Irish in this country a chance to flex their Irish muscle.

FOR A TRUE feeling of what the character of Chicago is about, one has to pay attention to the South Side Irish Parade along Western Avenue (which was held a couple of weeks ago, due to the fact that Easter Sunday is approaching and parade officials did not want their Irish event coinciding so closely with one of the holiest of all Christian holidays), or even some of the parades held for the holiday in surrounding suburbs.

So even though this year’s parades are over, I’m sure the bars – both real Irish and pseudo-Irish (Bennigan’s anybody?) – will be overflowing with people enjoying the drink specials and creating memories for future generations.

They’d be better off celebrating St. Patrick’s Day by getting a copy of “The Fugitive” for a holiday viewing, instead of being the star of a film made by someone with a video camera built into their cell phone that shows them staggering around intoxicated while wearing too much green.

-30-