True Crime (DVD Video Review)

I grew up disliking Client Eastwood movies, and it wasn't even the movies' fault... I surely am not alone on this, as probably many other people didn't appreciate the action, due to the horrible PAN & SCAN treatments that were (and are) popular.

PAN & SCAN is the process of scrolling a small window over a bigger picture area, in order to pick "what's relevant" on the bigger portion; this happens a lot when movies are being broadcasted on TV. As most of the movies are now filmed in a 2.35:1 aspect (width:height) and TVs usually have a 4:3 ratio, you'll easily understand that for a movie frame to properly fit the TV box, it has to be vertically distorted, *or* PAN & SCANNED, *or* horizontal bars that "smash it down" have to be used. Bars are the best choice for 4:3 displays, but they are also necessary for 16:9 TVs (16:9 is NOT 2.35:1)...

Ah, back to Mr. Clint... so I was late understanding the power in many of early Eastwood's pictures, but since the day I bought a Laserdisc player and (later) a DVD reader, I can make up for the mistakes. And I have become an Eastwood addict...

My latest Clint Eastwood movie is "True Crime". The old man produced and directed it, but that wasn't all: he also wrote the song "why I should I care", performed by current Jazz babe, Diana Krall. Ah, of course Clint also stars, in the role of Steve Everett.

The greatest thing in all Eastwood movies is the anti-hero figure. The main character is always someone very un-perfect - that is to say, very human. It sure is easy to understand the un-perfection of a killer in "Unforgiven", but we are in gray zone, with Steve Everett...

Steve "fucks everybody's wives", was / is an alcoholic, forgets dates he sets with his own child, has a past with an underage girl, and can give nothing to his job (investigative reporter for the "Tribune"), other than (literally) his nose, which feels the right answers to the wrong questions...). Can he be a regular hero? If this still is gray zone, Everett also "doesn't give a fuck about Jesus Christ". That is it - that is Steve Everett, the movies' main personage.

It all begins in a bar, with Steve trying to pick a 23 years young "piece of ass" for the night; unfortunately the pick fails and the girl dies, when driving home, alone and drunk. The girl was also a reporter, working on the case of Frank Beachum (played by Isaiah Washington), a black man on death row, because of a crime he insists he didn't do, though there are witnesses and there were many (failed) appeals.

To make it short and avoid being a spoiler, Steve will get the dead girl's case, hours before the Beachum's execution. While the case should be plain simple (an interview with the convicted), Eastwood suddenly *sniffs* (exactly) that something is wrong... and that the man may be innocent. This same feeling, for an similar case, had cost him is previous job in the NY Times...

Steve Barret will fight the clock, just because of a sniff.

This is a superb, NOT previewable movie - and that it is so hard to achieve these days, when everything looks like it has been done before. For nearly two hours, you'll live a growing rage and stress, that will end up with Eastwood (again) trying to pick a young chick, with no job and no wife...

I won't tell you more. Highly recommended!

The DVD edition features many extras. Image and sound quality is top notch. As for the extras, I only checked the Diana Krall video, which is fine if you're into Jazz.