True Believer

The title role in True Believer is played by Robert Downey, Jr., who is an eager young law school graduate looking forward to interning with famed civil rights attorney James Woods. Woods who's a throwback to the hippie days of the Sixties is now making a living defending drug dealers and other various and assorted dregs of society. He's an attorney and bills have to be paid. By the way note that his office has his living quarters in it, a practice perfected back in the day by Roy Cohn. Out of the blue comes a mother looking for an attorney for her son who killed an Aryan brother in prison. But she's also looking to re-open the case that got him there in the first place, a Chinese gang killing that he swears up and down he did not do. Woods and Downey go to work and what they uncover is a frightening case of official corruption. It's an object lesson in how law enforcement can if it wants to, manufacture evidence to convict someone if they want them bad enough. In this case it's to cover up the real murderer, but I won't say more. James Woods is just about perfect casting in the role of the aged and jaded defense attorney whose young assistant helps him recapture some of his youthful idealism. Robert Downey, Jr. aids and abets Woods every step of the way in this. But the best three performances in the film by far are Miguel Fernandes as the corrupt and maniacal police snitch, Kurtwood Smith as the District Attorney of New York County and Yuji Okumoto as the imprisoned defendant. Kurtwood Smith came to be known to millions as lovable, irascible Red Foreman in That Seventies Show. Here he's one hard-nosed District Attorney who sanctions all kinds of rule breaking for what he considers the greater good. He's far from TV's Adam Schiff or the real life Robert Morgenthau. True Believer is a nice drama about some people who take on the system and win.

I'm a sucker and lover of courtroom dramas, especially the fictional kind and I'm surprised I've never seen this 30-year-old film with a baby Iron Man and a crazy, pony-tailed James Woods. But, alas, it's fairly standard fare. Woods needs to be knocked back to his true believer status and does when Downey Jr. shows up and together, they'll defend a gorgeous client who may/may not have been accused of a crime he didn't commit. I guess I'd recommend, but if you never see it, you're life won't change.

TRUE BELIEVER (1989) *** James Woods, Robert Downey Jr., Margaret Colin. Woods excels as a hippie liberal defense attorney (patterned after the legendary NYC defender William Kunstler) who gets a chance at redemption in the case of an young Asian man accused of cold blooded murder that opens a can of worms including corruption and a life lesson in ideals and dignity.

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.

A slick, lively, pacey and sometimes even funny courtroom thriller, with an intense and commanding performance by James Woods in the leading role (he nearly wipes Robert Downey Jr. off the screen; only Kurtwood Smith matches his intensity). To be honest, it's not that much better than a very well-made episode of a TV series (and perhaps fittingly, it spawned one, albeit short-lived), and the plot has holes in it, but the screenwriter, Wesley Strick, and the director, Joseph Ruben, get a grip on the viewer right from the start and never let go. Vivid on-location New York filming; flavorful score by Brad Fiedel ("The Terminator"). *** out of 4.