True Confessions (1981)

Simply A Masterpiece

Blistering performances.

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

True Confessions is a superior movie as Robert DeNiro on unusual role as a Monsignor with ambitious career on Catholic Church which is Cardinal's assessor where get involved with political matters of Church. Your old brother is a bad temper but honest cop they are friends until a corpse found cut on two parts appears on L.A. area which remember Black Dahlia real case.The movie is settled in 1948 and when the Duvall carefully investigating the case found some connections with your brother,so he has to decided what to do!!!Ulu Grosbard made important movies in your life and this picture is one of them and marvelous filmed and directed!!!

Two high powered Actors and an attention to detail Period Piece set in the Post War Film-Noir era, so to call this Neo-Noir would be accurate. It is the story of flawed Characters among corruption and vice and in this atmosphere the gravity is intense.It pulls down righteous Men into a Hellish realm of money scams perpetrated by the Church who seemingly admire surface Saints who are ready to fill the collection plate. It is this hypocrisy that is at the heart of the Brother Detective and the Brother Monsignor Story and with some spice in the form of a Hooker Murder and some embarrassing sexcapades.This is a great looking Movie with some stunning Performances and a terse, if confusing at times, Script with some scenes that simmer, percolate, and are intense from Dialog exchanges. There is virtually no Action and all the Violence comes from either off screen or is buried in the Soul. So the entertainment comes from watching these two Brothers trying to keep from drowning in this cesspool and at least keep their heads and their Spirit (The Holy Ghost) above it all. If this was a True Confession, it would have to be admitted, they both failed. But will be forgiven if they say a few Hail Marys so they can be buried in Sacred Ground.

This was a really good little film. It takes a look at the Black Dahlia killing but it mainly focuses on the relationships between the people. Even though they look and figure out who the killer is, it's a secondary part of the story. The Black Dahlia part in this movie is not accurate to the facts from the real case but it's not really suppose to be. Catholic Church corruption, prostitution and murder all combined for a really quiet meaningful little flick.Long before L.A. Confidential, this film made light of the massive corruption and lack of caring in the L.A. police department back in it's bad years from the 20's through the 50's. You'll be glad you didn't live there back in those days.No action but high on drama/thriller twists and turns. If you like L.A. Confidential, see this. I'm willing to bet, you'll like it.

A rating I think I might amend upwards if I broke my habit of a lifetime and watched films more than once initially, as there's unquestionably a lot going in this post-war drama which borrows from the infamous "Blue Dahlia" murder for period colour and effect, which would be repaid I'm sure through further investigation.What I saw was good enough however, superb ensemble acting (in even the smallest parts). great set design (count the number of authentic cars milling about in the street, or smell the mustiness and dried in blood at the pornographer's studio where the butchery was done) and an absorbing and involving narrative intertwining the lives of the great and the good in a tale taking in sibling relationships, sex, corruption, murder of course and even religion...it's quite a heady mix as you can see from these ingredients.For all that, this is a film with periods of inaction, relying on dialogue and the spaces in between for effect. I had some difficulty believing that De Niro and Duvall were brothers (a character's reference to their family resemblance has to be an in-joke), never mind that one is a cop and the other a priest. Both actors have undeniable presence and certainly inhabit their characters but I didn't think their relationship rang true - the piece could have worked if they were just long-standing friends.The support players are better yet, Kenneth McMillan as Duvall's "look-the-other-way" partner, Charles Durning as the big-fish-in-a-small pool local property baron, greasing the palms of the church and police to further his ends until the tap is turned off on him (and who does a mean Irish jig at his daughter's wedding near the start, indulgently watched by his acolytes) and best of all for me Rose Gregorio as Duvall's old flame, a burned out brothel madame, left to fend for herself.The plotting is intricate and many scenes seem to be inserted purely to define a character rather than to advance the story but in the end this is no accident and you feel at all times that the people and situations depicted are real. Women don't come off very well in the piece, all bar the brother's mother maltreated in some way or other, which is to its detriment.The final scene between De Niro and Duvall effectively reminds the viewer that the story is above all about their fraternal relationship and how that overcomes even career-destroying conflict. Having fractious relationships with each of my own two brothers myself, I could certainly relate to that...