The Corner Penthouse

True Believer arrives on Blu-ray as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's Retro VHS Look Series, part of a growing trend of physical media releases with packaging designed to look like the VHS videocassettes of the 1980s and 1990s. I have reviewed several other titles in the series here on The Corner Penthouse.


True Believer (1989) is the story of Eddie Dodd (James Woods), once an acclaimed civil rights attorney of the '60s, now an embittered cynic who makes a living defending drug-dealing low-lifes. Dodd's passion for justice is rekindled when idealistic young associate Roger Baron (Robert Downey, Jr.) urges him to re-open an eight-year-old murder case involving a young prisoner serving life in Sing Sing for a gang initiation killing. Dodd's frenetic search for the truth takes him through a harrowing maze of unscrupulous prosecutors, white supremacist hate groups and corrupt cops. But is he willing to put his life on the line in defense of his beliefs?


Honestly, I did not expect to like this movie as much as I did. Courtroom dramas usually don't interest me very much, but True Believer isn't your standard Law & Order procedural. Much like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, it mixes courtroom drama with another genre; in this case, mystery thriller. That made the movie much more interesting than if they just focused on the courtroom antics.


Everyone in the cast contributes nicely to the film, though James Woods is a standout as the main character, Eddie Dodd. I could totally see Eddie being drinking buddies with Peter Venkman. A young Robert Downey Jr. - decades before he'd don the iron suit - isn't given much to do here, but he's decent in the role. Ghostheads should be on the lookout for Kurt Fuller (Ghostbusters II's Jack Hardemeyer) at 46:54 as a ballistics expert (with the cigarette-dangling skills of Ray Stantz), and fans of character actors will be happy to see Luis Guzman in a small role.


Now I'm, going to break away from the review for a few minutes to do a little bit of a Shot on Site rundown on some of the notable filming locations. The first place I'll look at is Eddie Dodd's office, seen several times in the movie.


If you want to secure Dodd's legal services today, you'll have to go to 108 7th Avenue South in the Greenwich Village area of New York.


In the nighttime shots, we see that there's a subway entrance and newsstand across the street from Dodd's office.


Thanks to this little bit of geography that I recognized, I was able to link True Believer to Girl Meets World. Yeah, no kidding. When the camera is turned around, facing away from Dodd's office, it became instantly recognizable to me. That subway entrance and newsstand appear in many of the quick location montages throughout the series, such as being the opening shot in the episode "Girl Meets Ski Lodge: Part 1" (July 22, 2016) (Season 3, Episode 8).


That's the Christopher Street Station entrance located at 7th Avenue South and Grove Street.


Back in the world of True Believer, Dodd and Baron frequently visit a police precinct.


You'll find it at 8 Henry Street (on the corner with Oliver Street), but you won't find any police there. It's the P.S. 001 Alfred E. Smith elementary school in real-life.


A significant plot point is made that Chinatown is close to the police station, and this is the part of Chinatown that Dodd and Baron always see when they walk away from the precinct.


I expected for this to be a bit of movie trickery, but sure enough, if you walk up Oliver Street from the Henry Street filming location, you WILL see the same part of Chinatown they did: looking down Mott Street from the intersection of Worth Street and Chatham Square. Yes, the Citibank is still there 30 years later.


The crime took place in front of the North Garden Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown.


North Garden was located at 24 Pell Street in New York. It is currently the Vegetarian Dim Sum House. Yes, as explained in the movie, the crime scene and the morgue at the police station ARE really close to each other. Which makes the significant plot point about it not taking an hour to drive from the crime scene to the morgue quite true.


When Dodd and Baron visit the crime scene and go over the details, we see this shot of Dodd conferring with Baron from across the street,


He's standing in front of Doyers Street, right where it intersects with Pell Street, which is truly diagonally across the street from the restaurant. I recognized this location from its usage for a fight scene in the Happy! episode "Year of the Horse" (December 27, 2017, Season 1 Episode 4).


Finally, at 34:20 into the film, Dodd passes by this familiar Ghostbusters II filming location while crossing the street to the Palladian Club.


At the time, Fred's was at 703 Fifth Avenue, where the Statue of Liberty stepped onto a police car.


Okay, now back to your regularly scheduled review...

True Believer is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:48:09. On the audio side, there is only an English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Subtitles are available in English only, though they are about one to two seconds off sync with the dialog. As is the case with most Mill Creek Entertainment releases, there are no special features - just like the original videocassette! The movie was popular enough to spawn a short-lived ABC TV series - Eddie Dodd (1991) - with Treat Williams now in the lead role. It's a shame that all seven episodes (including the unaired pilot) are not included here as a bonus feature.


The real "bonus feature" here is the vintage-looking VHS-inspired slipsleeve, with faux wear and tear, and fake "rental stickers" on it, while giving the appearance of a videocassette being pulled out from the right side (though the original VHS may have been in a bottom-loading box), complete with tape label side on the right spine. Here's a complete look at this special slipsleeve. Click on it to get a better look.


The front artwork is based on the original U.S. VHS box art, as seen below. The back of the slipsleeve bears a similarity to the original VHS box art, but uses different photos in a similar orientation.


The case artwork underneath is of a modern style, which means that the VHS-style slipsleeve may only be available for a limited time. In the photo below, the slipsleeve cover is on the left and the case artwork underneath is on the right.


If you're not already aware of Mill Creek Entertainment, they are a budget company, which results in their products having a lower cost than the big studios. Right now, True Believer is listed on Amazon for less than $10.


The "Retro VHS Look Series" includes the following Blu-ray releases, which are being listed in chronological movie order, and not the order they are being released onto Blu-ray. Some titles below may not have been released yet.



Images used were grabbed by me from the Blu-ray or come from the Internet Movie Database gallery of the film. The Blu-ray has been provided by Mill Creek Entertainment for review on this site.