The Pelican Brief

1993 film directed by Alan J. Pakula
Movie film Q728404
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The Pelican Brief

Summary

The Pelican Brief is a film[1]. It ranks in the top 2% of film entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (32,753 views/month).[2]

Key Facts

  • The Pelican Brief is the creator of Alan J. Pakula[3].
  • The Pelican Brief's instance of is recorded as film[4].
  • The Pelican Brief was directed by Alan J. Pakula[5].
  • Alan J. Pakula wrote the screenplay for The Pelican Brief[6].
  • John Grisham wrote the screenplay for The Pelican Brief[7].
  • The Pelican Brief's composer is recorded as James Horner[8].
  • The Pelican Brief's genre is action thriller[9].
  • The Pelican Brief's genre is drama film[10].
  • The Pelican Brief's genre is crime film[11].
  • The Pelican Brief's genre is political thriller film[12].
  • The Pelican Brief's based on is recorded as The Pelican Brief[13].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Julia Roberts[14].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Denzel Washington[15].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Sam Shepard[16].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Hume Cronyn[17].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Stanley Tucci[18].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was John Heard[19].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was John Lithgow[20].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Tony Goldwyn[21].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was James Sikking[22].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was William Atherton[23].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Robert Culp[24].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Cynthia Nixon[25].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Jake Weber[26].
  • A cast member of The Pelican Brief was Anthony Heald[27].

Product Details

The following facts are restated verbatim from public-domain and CC0 open-data sources — every line is independently verifiable against the named source's catalog.

MusicBrainz — CC0 open music encyclopedia

  • Release type: Album[28]

  • Secondary type(s): Soundtrack[29]

  • First release date: 1994-01-11[30]

  • MusicBrainz ID: 4ef9145b-85bf-3c79-9639-2dcb887074c0[31]

Body

Authorship and Creation

The Pelican Brief was produced by Alan J. Pakula[32]. It was directed by Alan J. Pakula[5]. Screenwriters include Alan J. Pakula[6] and John Grisham[7]. Cast members include Julia Roberts[14], Denzel Washington[15], Sam Shepard[16], Hume Cronyn[17], Stanley Tucci[18], and John Heard[19]. It is the creator of Alan J. Pakula[3].

Publication

Publication dates include January 1, 1993[33] and March 10, 1994[34]. The original language of The Pelican Brief was English[35]. Genres include action thriller[9], drama film[10], crime film[11], and political thriller film[12]. It was distributed by video on demand[36].

Reception

Reviews include 5.5/10[37], 56%[38], and 51/100[39].

Adaptations and Inspiration

The Pelican Brief's after a work by is recorded as John Grisham[40].

Why It Matters

The Pelican Brief ranks in the top 2% of film entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (32,753 views/month).[2] It has Wikipedia articles in 24 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[41] It is known by 27 alternative names across languages and contexts.[42]

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [5] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  3. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [11] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  9. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [14] ↑ . stopklatka.pl. Retrieved . stopklatka.pl. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  12. [15] ↑ . stopklatka.pl. Retrieved . stopklatka.pl. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  13. [16] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  14. [17] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  15. [18] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  16. [19] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  17. [20] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  18. [21] ↑ . stopklatka.pl. Retrieved . stopklatka.pl. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  19. [22] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  20. [23] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  21. [24] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  22. [25] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  23. [26] ↑ . imdb.com. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  24. [27] ↑ . Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze. wikidata.org.
  25. [32] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  26. [3] ↑ . moma.org. moma.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  27. [35] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  28. [36] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  29. [37] ↑ . Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  30. [38] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  31. [39] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  32. [33] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  33. [34] ↑ . IMDb. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  34. [40] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Product details (FDA / USDA / NHTSA public-domain catalog data)

  1. [28] ↑ . MusicBrainz (MetaBrainz Foundation). musicbrainz.org.
  2. [29] ↑ . MusicBrainz (MetaBrainz Foundation). musicbrainz.org.
  3. [30] ↑ . MusicBrainz (MetaBrainz Foundation). musicbrainz.org.
  4. [31] ↑ . MusicBrainz (MetaBrainz Foundation). musicbrainz.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [41] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [42] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). The Pelican Brief. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-pelican-brief
MLA “The Pelican Brief.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 7 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-pelican-brief.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_the-pelican-brief_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{The Pelican Brief}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-pelican-brief}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-07}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): The Pelican Brief — https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-pelican-brief (retrieved 2026-10-07)

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Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 10d ago · Ontogon · 2026-09-29 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Wikipedia languages → ['an', 'ar', 'arz', 'bg', 'ca', 'cs', 'cy', 'da', 'de', 'el', 'eml', 'en', 'es',
    Sitelink count → 41
    P14403 → 90370
    Claims rich → —
    "/* wbsetclaim-create:2||1 */ [[Property:P14403]]: 90370"
  2. 15d ago · Criticker-DB · 2026-09-24 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    P14778 → The-Pelican-Brief
    "/* wbsetclaim-create:2||1 */ [[Property:P14778]]: The-Pelican-Brief"
  3. 5w ago · MsMorale · 2026-08-31 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    P14821 → 107798
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ [[Property:P14821]]: 107798, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/269901|batch #269901]]"
  4. 7w ago · Jindřich Rubeš · 2026-08-22 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Filmová databáze film id → 14130
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ [[Property:P12879]]: 14130, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/269265|batch #269265]]"
  5. 15w ago · Yirba · 2026-06-25 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Publication date → +1993-01-01T00:00:00Z, +1994-03-10T00:00:00Z
    Screenwriter → Alan J. Pakula, John Grisham
    Duration → {'unit': 'Q7727', 'amount': '+135'}
    Original language of film or tv show → English
    + 35 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbeditentity-update:0| */ QuickStatements 3.0 [[:toollabs:qs-dev/batch/38225|batch #38225]]: MovieLens IDs (part 1)"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.