Joseph Wambaughs The Onion Field is based on an actual 1963 case. LA plainclothesmen John Savage and Ted Danson routinely investigate a pair of suspicious types, played by James Woods and Franklin Seales. Unexpectedly, Woods pulls a gun on the cops, then forces them into a deserted onion field, where he kills Danson in cold blood. Savage manages to escape, and through his eyewitness account Woods and Seales are arrested. But that is not that. Thanks to their knowledge and manipulation of the quicksilver legal system, Woods and Seales manage to evade prosecution for years. Meanwhile, Savage goes through hell on earth, tortured with guilt over the fact that he lived while Danson died so ignominiously. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide