True Believer (1989)

Very best movie i ever watch

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A burned out former civil rights lawyer and his hero-worshiping clerk are attempting to free an innocent man, but the web is trickier than they expected. That is the basic plot of this lesser known legal drama starring James Woods and Robert Downey, Jr. The performances by Woods and Downey, Jr. are the film's highlight. James Woods brings his trademark sarcasm and wit to the role of Eddie Dodd, the disillusioned lawyer who went from the best to a low-level defender of drug peddlers. When Downey, Jr.'s Roger Baron arrives on the scene and fanatically pushes Eddie to take the case of a Korean inmate who might've been wrongly convicted, Woods goes just barely over the top as he chews Downey out for his idolization of him. However Eddie Dodd realizes that what he sees in his new clerk is the same spirit Dodd himself once had and pursues the case. The chemistry between Woods and Downey, Jr. make for the best of the film's out of court scenes and for some heartfelt moments.The plot of the film is relatively simple as it plays like a "race against time" to find out the true culprit. However the filmmakers make this cliché work to their advantage as the web of lies grow more elaborate until the final reveal of the true villain. The tension is paced well and doesn't try to move into a genre the film is not.

Eddie Dodd is a New York City lawyer with a noted history of sixties civil rights cases who has lapsed into defending drug-pushing hoodlums. He takes the case of Shu Kai Kim, a man wrongfully convicted for a streetgang killing eight years prior, and discovers that Kim was just the patsy in a big operation stretching all the way to the DA's office.Even if you don't normally rate courtroom thrillers or cop movies, check this one out - it is handsomely made by a much underrated director, has a terrific script that keeps pulling off great twists and features a sensational show-stopping performance by Woods. Eddie Dodd is a fascinating character type almost unique in eighties movies; a pot-smoking old hippy who used to have a set of principles and is trying to pretend he still does. It's the only example I've ever found that picks at the hell-no-we-won't-go generation who turned into BMW-driving executives for life insurance companies, and Woods (complete with a poofy ponytail) revs it up for all it's worth, sleazy and well-intentioned at the same time. When the conservative whitebread DA accuses him of being a man who defends coke pushers for free, his response is, "Coke pushers pay cash, Mr Reynard. That subsidises the pot possession cases. They're free.". The rest of the cast are excellent, with lots of great players in the small roles (Hallahan, Bower, Guzman, Fuller) and Wesley Strick's great dialogue makes them jump off the screen with immediacy. Equally good is the piano and bass score by Brad Fiedel and there is some inspired use of classic sixties anthems, as well as a great end-credits song by Lou Reed (another sixties survivor) called Busload Of Faith. All this, combined with Ruben's assured direction and classy photography by John W. Lindley, add up to a legal thriller that is way above average; atmospheric, exciting, dramatic and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Don't miss it. The UK print of this movie I own has a dumb alternative title, Fighting Justice.

Eminently watchable drama from 1989 with Woods as burned-out lawyer Eddie Dodd, formerly idealistic & successful civil liberties attorney who's now a callous defender of drug dealers ("No, pot possession cases are free. Coke dealers pay cash: that subsidizes the pot possession cases." Character reputably based on real-life S.F. lawyer J. Tony Serra; hence the long hair), & Rbt. Downey, Jr., as his idealistic law clerk, fresh out of school. (Downey, Jr.'s, @first incredulous: "You were my age when you defended that case," to which Dodd retorts, "I was never your age.")There're a few continuity problems here, mainly which fingers the charcoal is on after Dodd's tussle with Chuckie, but they're pretty much overshadowed by some great sub-plots (Manhattan D.A.'s [Kurtwood "70s Show" Smith] curious interest in an 8-year-old murder case, Dodd's faded romance with P.I. Margaret Colin, the sadly schizoid Vietnam vet ["Cecil, are you what heroes are made of?"]) & the main story line, the case of a convicted murderer. Dodd @first dismisses Downey, Jr.'s, suggestion that they take the case but later becomes so emotionally immersed in it that when Roger (Downey, Jr.) spins the futility here with "We all think it's a good fight," Eddie pounces on him with some memorable oratory: "Don't give that liberal, yuppie b***s**t about a good fight; this isn't f*****g Yale! A good fight is one you win!"Directed by Joseph Ruben, with a nice, incidental orig. score by Brad Fidel & some slick ambient tunes (Doors's Crystal Ship, Lou Reed's Busload of Faith).

As a huge fan of Robert Downey, Jr. I anticipated this film for weeks when I heard it was on television. So, last Saturday night I turned on the TV and, I wasn't sorry.James Woods is in a great performance as Edward Dunn, a hotshot attorney who hires Roger Baron (Robert Downey, Jr.) to clerk for him. Woods defends a Korean whom's mother believes that he's been wrongly accused. But all the facts points to the Korean (Yuji Okumodo)...As I said, Woods is in a great performance, which unfortunately could have been much better had it not been for his wiggy hairdo. Downey is excellent, and you can actually feel his character's anticipation. You can also feel the coldness and bitterness of Okumodo's character. Kurtwood Smith is very interesting as Robert Reynard, and the rest of the cast are also in intruiging performances. The film is at some points very hard to follow, but overall this film could well be one of the best crime dramas of the late 1980's.