| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | TRUE CRIME (1999) |
| Director | Clint Eastwood |
| Writer | Andrew Klavan, Larry Gross, Paul Brickman |
| Lead Actor | Clint Eastwood |
| Cast | Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington, LisaGay Hamilton |
| Genre | Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller |
| Release Date | March 19, 1999 (United States) |
| Duration | 2h 7m(127 min) |
| Budget | $55 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 6.6/10 |
WATCH NOW
TRUE CRIME
Actor-director Clint Eastwood’s disreputable hero (“I don’t care about right and wrong I never have”) plays a crack reporter hustling against a deadline to save an innocent man about to be executed. The heroics strain belief, but the film offers good performances and documentary detail bound to help in the struggle against capital punishment.
Clint’s aging Steve Everett is a womanizing ex-drunk assigned to the story at the last minute when his Oakland Tribune colleague, a 20-ish beauty he’s trying to seduce, is killed in a car crash. Everett has few redeeming virtues except persistence and an instinct for the truth. He believes that despite six years of litigation and appeals the born again black convict (impressive newcomer Isaiah Washington) is innocent of a $96 convenience-store holdup and murder.
There are predictable events (frantic search for witnesses, cuts to clocks and preparations for the execution, wild car chase to the judge’s mansion) and characters (skeptical editors, neglected child and angry wife, bigoted white-suburban witness, self-important death-row chaplain). But how things are done in this film makes a qualitative difference.
Eastwood’s direction is subtle, the script is both tough and humane, and ensemble acting (by James Woods, Denis Leary, Diane Venora and others) is gutsy, tense, emotional. We’re under no illusions about Everett, who is aware and regretful of the general misery wrought by his faults and infidelities.
The Eastwood formula, with the multi flawed hero in a sinful world still capable of using his skills to perform a good deed, mixes modern cynicism with old fashioned uplift. Beyond the suspense stuff, True Crime scores in exposing the cold bloodedness of execution (even by “humane” lethal injection). For example, the farewell scenes between the condemned man, his wife (Lisa Gay Hamilton of The Practice) and young daughter pack tremendous but understated heartbreak. Recommended, with reservations, for adults.
To watch more movies like TRUE CRIME (1999) visit Fmovies.
Also watch