True Believer (1989)

Directed by

Joseph Ruben

Genre

drama film, prison film, crime film, trial film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 44m

Rated

R

Rating

6.2 of 10 from 121 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A burnt-out but brilliant defense attorney takes on a seemingly hopeless case. He works to free a young Korean American man who was wrongly convicted of murder and sent to death row. The film follows the legal fight and the team's efforts to uncover the truth.

grittyintelligenttensehopefulmelancholicfast-pacedsomberinspiring

What happens

True Believer (also released as Fighting Justice) is a 1989 American neo noir courtroom drama directed by Joseph Ruben, written by Wesley Strick, and starring James Woods, Robert Downey Jr., Yuji Okumoto, Margaret Colin, and Kurtwood Smith. The film is loosely based on an investigative series of articles written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist K. W. Lee on the wrongful 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. Strick based the character of Eddie Dodd on real-life Bay Area defense attorney Tony Serra. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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