True Crime (1999)

Editor's Note In TRUE CRIME, based on Andrew Klavan's novel, Clint Eastwood plays Steve Everett, a capable reporter who's nearly destroyed his career with alcohol and philandering. When he's assigned to do a human interest sidebar on Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington), who's about to be executed for murder, Everett casually looks into the crime and quickly begins to see how shaky the evidence against Beechum is. As a director, Eastwood is a confident old hand here, and before he builds up the suspense (and don't worry, he will), he takes the time to delve deep into the lives of his characters and explore the sharp contrast between the cynical Everett, who neglects his family for his job, and the circumspect Beechum, whose greatest torment is not the proximity of his own death but the trauma he's causing his loving wife and daughter. Eastwood gives a wonderfully rich performance, and his rapport with James Woods and Denis Leary, as his newspaper bosses, gives the movie a welcome comic jolt. But the scenes of Beechum's family dealing with his fate are where the movie's overwhelming power lies. Eastwood and his screenwriters pull no punches, and it's difficult to bear witness to the painful, simple truth expressed in these scenes.

	Michael Jeter
	James Woods
	Michael McKean
	Mary McCormack
	Bernard Hill
	Marissa Ribisi
	Clint Eastwood
	Isaiah Washington
	Denis Leary
	Diane Venora
	Lisa Gay Hamilton
	Stephen Schiff - Screenwriter
	Lili Fini Zanuck - Producer
	Jack N. Green - Director of Photography
	Joel Cox - Editor
	Andrew Klavan - Source Writer
	Lennie Niehaus - Composer
	Larry Gross - Screenwriter
	Paul Brickman - Screenwriter
	Clint Eastwood - Producer
	Henry Bumstead - Production Designer
	Richard D. Zanuck - Producer
	Clint Eastwood - Director

Sight and Sound
"...A gleeful, cigar chomping performance from James Woods..." 06/??/1999 p.53-4

Entertainment Weekly
"...[A] cannily Eastwood-flattering justice drama..." -- Rating: B 04/16/1999 p.43

New York Times
"...Quietly poignant....TRUE CRIME is directed by Mr. Eastwood with righteous indignation and increasingly strong momentum..." 03/19/1999 p.E13

USA Today
"...This is one of Eastwood's most fully realized performances..." 03/19/1999 p.13E

Chicago Sun-Times
"...A wickedly effective thriller....TRUE CRIME has a nice rhythm....Eastwood gives the movie a nice slow curve and fast break..." 03/19/1999 p.31