True Crime (1999 film)

True Crime
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Clint Eastwood
Produced by	Clint Eastwood Richard D. Zanuck Lili Fini Zanuck
Screenplay by	Larry Gross Paul Brickman Stephen Schiff
Based on	True Crime by Andrew Klavan
Starring	Clint Eastwood Isaiah Washington Denis Leary Lisa Gay Hamilton James Woods
Music by	Lennie Niehaus
Cinematography	Jack N. Green
Editing by	Joel Cox
Studio	Malpaso Productions The Zanuck Company
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	March 19, 1999 (1999-03-19)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$55 million
Box office	$16,649,768

True Crime is a 1999 American mystery drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, and based on Andrew Klavan's 1997 novel of the same name. Eastwood also stars in the film as a journalist covering the execution of a death row inmate, only to discover that the convict may actually be innocent.

Plot

Steve Everett (Clint Eastwood) is an Oakland journalist recovering from alcoholism, given the task of covering the execution of convicted murderer Frank Beechum (played by Isaiah Washington). Everett discovers that Beechum might be innocent, but has only a few hours to prove his theory and save Beechum's life. Eventually Steve learns that a young man named Warren, who was stabbed to death three years previously, killed the victim but is unable to prove it. After seeing a necklace belonging to the victim on TV, Steve remembers Warren's grandmother wearing it when he visited her, and he returns to her house, where she has come to the same realization about the murder and rushes off with Steve to alert the governor as the execution starts. They reach the governor and tell him what they know and he calls the prison and pardons Frank just in time to save his life.

Cast

• Clint Eastwood as Steve Everett
• Isaiah Washington as Frank Louis Beechum
• Denis Leary as Bob Findley
• Lisa Gay Hamilton as Bonnie Beechum
• James Woods as Alan Mann
• Bernard Hill as Warden Luther Plunkitt
• Diane Venora as Barbara Everett
• Michael McKean as Reverend Shillerman
• Mary McCormack as Michelle Ziegler
• Michael Jeter as Dale Porterhouse
• Hattie Winston as Angela Russel
• Penny Bae Bridges as Gail Beechum
• Frances Fisher as D.A. Cecilia Nussbaum
• Christine Ebersole as Bridget Rossiter
• Tom McGowan as Tom Donaldson

Reception

True Crime was a large box-office bomb domestically; with an opening weekend gross of $5,276,109 and a total domestic gross of $16,649,768, out of a $55 million budget. It received mixed reactions from critics, with a score of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes.

External links

• True Crime at the Internet Movie Database
• True Crime at AllRovi
• True Crime at Box Office Mojo
• True Crime at Rotten Tomatoes
• True Crime at Metacritic