True Confessions
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Movie Reviews of True Confessions
Movie Review: Brings Back Memories
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this movie, and have waited a long time for it to come out on DVD. However, I'm a bit biased as I worked on it. So, for me it's not just a good movie, it also brings back memories of working with some of my favorite actors and on a crew with several good friends. I don't know why it took so long for this movie to make it to DVD. It has an amazing cast... De Niro, Duval, Durning, just for starters. The story is intense and intriging, and the photography is beautiful, with great attention to period details. There's a lot to like about this movie.
A TRUE BEHIND THE SCENES STORY:
The murder victim at the center of the story is alternately played by an ex-playboy model and a full-sized wax casting of her. Supervising the makeup for actress as well as the wax dummy was the renoun makeup artist, Michael Westmore of Star Trek fame. Also, to ensure realism, a L.A. Deputy Coroner served as technical advisor.
However, dispite assurances from Michael and the technical advisor that the "body" looked very real, the director wasn't happy with the skin color. As he said, "it's not a matter of what a REAL body looks like, it's what the audience THINKS a real body looks like." So, Michael loaded the wax dummy in the back seat of his car to take it back his studio. Can you guess what happened next? Driving down the freeway, someone saw the wax dummy in the back of Michael's car and called the police. Subsequently, he was stopped by a roadblock and police with drawn guns. So, obviously the dummy looked real to someone.
Movie Review: Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the truly great overlooked or ignored crime/mystery movies. It is not a pleasant subject: the immorality of seemingly honest men, and the monstrous lengths they will go to to cover up their sins. I believe the story is based on the notorious "Blue (Black?) Dahlia" murder case. I won't go into plot detail, but the film is full of great characters, beautiful recreations of Los Angeles and its environs, circa 1949, wonderful detail in dialogue, image and setting.
It is also a character actor's dream: Charles Durning as a "pillar of the community" but with a lot of messy secrets to hide....Ed Flanders as a nice guy businessman who yields to temptation.....Kenneth MacMillan as a wise-cracking cop--and really, this actor is guilty of stealing most scenes he's been in--who likes to check out dirty pictures. Of course the two leads, Duvall and DeNiro, are two of the greatest film actors of all-time. They play the Irish Spellacy brothers, a cop and a priest, respectively. The cop is tough and honest and transparent, the priest is outwardly pious but venal, self-serving and highly ambitious. And the movie suggests that DeNiro's priest, like his back-slapping, golf-playing buddies from the parish, the richest contributors to the church's coffers, also succumbed to the lustful temptations of the flesh.
L.A. Confidential and Chinatown are usually cited as being the greatest latter-day "film noir" period films. I would rank True Confessions as being their equal.
Movie Review: Inspired by "The Black Dahlia"
Summary: 5 Stars
Though a work of fiction, the mesmerizing TRUE CONFESSIONS (1981) was inspired by Los Angeles' infamous and still unsolved "Black Dahlia" murder case of the post-war 1940s.
Adapted from John Gregory Dunne's novel, the story centers on the Spellacy brothers. One of them, Desmond (Robert DeNio) is a highly regarded Catholic monsignor and the other, Tom (Robert Duvall is a homicide cop.
Both brothers are "corrupt" in their own individual ways. Tom was once a "bagman" for former pimp Jack Amsterdam (Charles Durning), now a building contractor who does much of his work for the Church, thanks to his close relationship with Desmond.
When the dismembered body of a young actress is found in a field, we soon learn that Desmond, Amsterdam and some of the other pillars of the Church knew the girl. Tom, in fact, is convinced that Amsterdam is the killer.
Ulu Grosbard directed this low-key, intriguing drama, which does an excellent job of recreating a bygone era. DeNiro and Duvall are both in top form, and the cast also includes Burgess Meredith and Ed Flanders.
© Michael B. Druxman
Movie Review: Beautiful Review
Summary: 5 Stars
Although the movie is beautiful and heart-breaking and well worth seeing, I'm writing to comment on the great interpretation Mr. Conway has written about it. He has added to my own understanding of the movie (and book), which I, too, saw (and read) when it was first released. What he has to say about Desmond's flawed faith is a wonderful observation. I would only add that the irony in the climactic scene in the confessional between the two brothers is that the pragmatic priest is behaving like the cop, interested only in the technical culpability of Amsterdam, while the cop knows Amsterdam is morally guilty and should be punished ("I don't care!" he shouts, when in fact he seems to be the only one who does). He doesn't want to punish his brother, but he must know that he will fall along with Amsterdam.
Movie Review: Two legends in top form.
Summary: 5 Stars
Fans do not fret, this IS a widescreen and fullscreen DVD. I couldn't wait to pick up my copy of True Confessions this last tuesday. This film is as excellent as I remember it being back in '81 when I first saw it in a theatre. DeNiro and Duvall just don't make movies like these anymore, they both have fallen to the "Hollywood" format these day. This is a must see for fans who may have forgotten just how wonderful these two men were at the top of their game. This film is on the slower side with character and story development happening slowly, but the wonderful performances keep this film moving forward with interest. This film is a 10+!