True Believer (1989)

 True Believer (1989)

True Believer is better than expected. This is a legal courtroom thriller that has everything you would expect in this type of movie; washed-up lawyer, idealistic young man, a man in prison for a crime he did not commit, etc. The plot is predictable, and I can see the ending from miles away. Yet…the film is immensely watchable. The tension builds and builds until it reaches that satisfying crescendo. Why does this film work? James Woods’s hypnotic acting. Never been a fan of the man in general, but his heyday in the 80’s created some performance gems. This and Once Upon a Time in America comes to mind. Joseph Ruben’s feature is on the smaller side. I have never even heard of the movie until I randomly visited a DVD store and found this film and its intriguing plotline.

There is some real history behind the film’s story. Chol Soo Lee, a Korean-American, spent ten years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. He was serving a life sentence which led to death row. With the help of a national Pan-Asian movement, Lee finally earned his freedom. While his story is the basis for the film, it really is a piece of fiction which received ideas from Lee’s case. Lee said he enjoyed the movie as a piece of fiction, but not as a story of his time behind bars and subsequent freedom. Wesley Strick took some liberties with the screenplay, but he wrote something that is thrilling, relevant, and just a tad predictable.

Eddie Dodd (James Woods) is a former radical civil-rights lawyer known for his big cases in the 1960’s. Nowadays, he is just a burnt-up lawyer defending drug dealers and peddlers. After all, these drug dealers pay him lots of money. Roger Baron (Robert Downey Jr) recently graduated from school and works as Dodd’s assistant. He is idealistic and looks up to the man who defended people from the Black Panther party but is disappointed to understand Dodd is a shell of himself. One day, they are visited by a mother whose Korean son, Shu Kai Kim (Yuji Okumoto) has been wrongfully jailed for eight years. With much prodding from Roger, Eddie reluctantly takes the case.

This is James Woods movie. His fast-talking character acts circles around Downey Jr despite giving a decent performance himself. Despite the ridiculous haircut making him seem like a lawyer from the 18th century (maybe that is the point?), Woods immediately captivates you. Downey Jr will become a huge name later in his career, but his performance was good at best. Honestly, each actor does a decent job whether it’s Kurtwood Smith’s opposing lawyer or Margaret Colin’s Kitty Greer.

Overall, True Believer is one of those small movies destined to stay hidden forever. But if you are lucky enough to get your hands on a copy, by all means give it a watch. The story holds relevance in today’s world of wrongful imprisonment and civil rights movements, so there is some meaning. My gripe is the film’s predictability. It follows a certain formula, and I knew what would happen in the end. It is James Woods that carries the movie and saves the day.

My Grade: B


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