True Believer is a 1989

1989 in film

-Events:* Batman is released on June 23, and goes on to gross over $410 million worldwide.* Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million...

 courtroom drama directed by Joseph Ruben

Joseph Ruben

Joseph Paul Ruben is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.-Movie career:Most of his earlier films are B movies, of which some, such as The Stepfather have become cult classics...

 and released by Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

.

Synopsis

The film stars James Woods

James Woods

James Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...

 as burnt-out attorney Eddie Dodd, who has left behind civil rights work to defend drug dealers. Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr.

Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...

 plays Roger Baron, an idealistic young legal clerk fresh out of law school who encourages Dodd to take on the case of Shu Kai Kim, a young Korean

Korean people

The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...

 man, played by Yuji Okumoto

Yuji Okumoto

is an Japanese-American actor best known for his intimidating movie roles, such as Chozen in The Karate Kid, Part II.-Early life:...

, who has been imprisoned for a gang-related murder. Kim's mother believes her son was wrongfully accused. Dodd and Baron's investigation leads to a conspiracy among the district attorney, a police informant, and several police officers.

Real life background

The film is loosely based on an investigative series of articles written by Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 nominated journalist K. W. Lee

K. W. Lee

K. W. Lee is a Korean American journalist who became the first Asian immigrant to work for mainstream daily publications in the continental United States. Lee is also the founding president of the Korean American Journalists Association.-Biography:Lee was born in 1928 at Kaesong, North Korea and...

 on the conviction of immigrant Chol Soo Lee for a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gangland murder. The news coverage led to a new trial, eventual acquittal and release of the prisoner from San Quentin's Death Row

Death row

Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...

. Screenwriter Wesley Strick

Wesley Strick

Wesley Strick is an American screenwriter who has written such films as the comic-horror hit Arachnophobia, the Martin Scorsese remake of Cape Fear and the videogame adaptation Doom.-Life and career:...

 based the character of Eddie Dodd on real-life Bay Area defense attorney Tony Serra

Tony Serra

J. Tony Serra is an American civil rights lawyer, activist and tax resister from San Francisco.-Education:Serra received a bachelor's of art in philosophy from Stanford University and a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, UC-Berkeley.-Biography:...

.

Reception

Strick's screenplay was nominated for a 1990 Edgar Award

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

 for Best Mystery Motion Picture. Film critic Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 commended Woods's performance for being "hypnotically watchable."

At the time of True Believer’s release, K.W. Lee told the Charleston Gazette he enjoyed the film “as fiction … but it was not a true picture. They have completely preempted the struggle of Asians.”

True Believer was popular enough to inspire a spin-off

Spin-off (media)

In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...

 television series, Eddie Dodd, starring Treat Williams

Treat Williams

Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...

 in the title role.

External links

• True Believer at Rotten Tomatoes
  Rotten Tomatoes
  Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...