True Believer (1989) on Netflix
Eddie Dodd, a burnt-out former civil rights lawyer, now defends drug dealers. Roger Baron, fresh from law school, pushes him to take Shu Kai Kim's case, an eight-year-old murder conviction.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/106,089 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
Shu Kai Kim, a young Korean man, has spent eight years in prison for a gang-related murder in New York's Chinatown, and his mother says he was wrongfully accused of it. Kim has since killed a fellow inmate in self-defense. Eddie Dodd is a former civil rights lawyer burnt out on the work, and he now earns his living defending drug dealers. Roger Baron is fresh out of law school, has followed Dodd's old cases and wants to learn at Dodd's feet. With the young clerk's idealistic prodding, Dodd reluctantly agrees to take on the case, an eight-year-old murder conviction.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about True Believer (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film is loosely based on a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative series by journalist K. W. Lee about the wrongful conviction of immigrant Chol Soo Lee for a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gangland murder; the coverage led to a new trial and the prisoner's acquittal and release from San Quentin's Death Row.
- Screenwriter Wesley Strick based the character of attorney Eddie Dodd on a real person, Tony Serra, a Bay Area defense attorney.
