True Believer (1989 film)

True Believer
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoseph Ruben
Written byWesley Strick
Produced byLawrence Lasker
Walter F. Parkes
Starring
CinematographyJohn W. Lindley
Edited byGeorge Bowers
Music byBrad Fiedel
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • February 17, 1989 (1989-02-17)
Running time
108 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$8.7 million[2]

True Believer (also released as Fighting Justice) is a 1989 American 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.[3] 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.[4]

  1. ^ "TRUE BELIEVER (15)". British Board of Film Classification. March 14, 1989. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  2. ^ True Believer at Box Office Mojo Retrieved July 19, 2012
  3. ^ Egelko, Bob (December 17, 2014). "Chol Soo Lee, famed for murder conviction and release, dies at 62". SFGate. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  4. ^ Taitz, Sonia (February 12, 1989). "FILM; 'True Believer' Makes a Case For Idealism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 18, 2020.