True Believer (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	103:44
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joseph Ruben
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	James Woods Robert Downey, Jr. Margaret Colin Kurtwood Smith
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$36.95	Music	Brad Fiedel

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    There is a touch of irony in a character being played by bad-boy Robert Downey, Jr. going to work for a defence lawyer who specialises in getting drug dealers and pot possessors off the hook! The lawyer doesn't even mind the odd joint himself, much to Downey's chagrin. This was in the good old days, when Robert Downey, Jr. was a bright-eyed young man playing bright-eyed young characters. How times change.

    A very cheaply dressed and pony-tailed James Woods plays Eddie Dodd, a one-time high-flying civil rights lawyer in the 60s who now spends most of his time defending drug dealers, pushers, and general low-lifes. An eager young associate played by Robert Downey, Jr. joins Dodd's firm and urges him to reopen an eight year old murder case. The case saw a young man convicted of a murder that he did not appear to commit, and who is now spending time in prison for it. Dodd does some digging and uncovers a maze of corrupt coppers, gang violence, Nazi hate-groups, drug dealers, and a District Attorney (Kurtwood Smith) who seems to have something to hide.

    True Believer is essentially a courtroom drama with a touch of investigative thriller thrown in as well. Apparently, it has been released previously as Fighting Justice. I'm not too sure why it warranted a name change.

Video

    I wasn't expecting too much from a late eighties film in terms of video quality but I was mostly surprised.

    The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    This is pretty much standard fare from a Columbia Tristar title in terms of sharpness. These guys really know how to produce top quality transfers and this is no exception, being consistently sharp throughout, with only a small trace of edge enhancement that is in no way disruptive to the viewer. There are many darker scenes and these are handled well. Grain is probably the biggest problem area throughout the film with some really glaring examples at 6:15-6:20, 11:40-12:10, and 20:38. The grain at its worst is quite noticeable and disruptive to the viewer. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are pretty drab. Much like the jacket cover, there are plenty of browns and tans. They are certainly not vibrant but there is also no hint of oversaturation or bleeding.

    There are no apparent MPEG artefacts. Making a pleasant change is the lack of aliasing in any form. There are plenty of occasions when this is likely to raise its ugly head on several car grilles and street grates, but it does not. The usual smattering of film artefacts in the form of white and black spots and flecks appear throughout. These are not overly disruptive.

    There are a staggering 21 subtitle options present. I verified the presence of them all and extensively sampled the English flavour. No apparent problems were noticed and the subtitles were extremely accurate.

    This is a single sided, single layer disc so there is no layer change to contend with.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Filmographies-Cast & Crew

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Full Screen version on flip side of disc.

• 2 bonus trailers for 'Absence of Malice' and 'A Few Good Men'.

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Nothing.

    There is nothing compelling in the Region 1 offering that makes it preferable to the Region 4. The local disc is the better choice here for PAL formatting and cheaper price.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall