# True Crime (1999 film)
**True Crime** is a 1999 American crime drama directed by [Clint Eastwood](https://www.edgepedia.org/clint-eastwood), who also stars as Steve Everett, an Oakland Tribune reporter trying to prove the innocence of a death-row inmate in the hours before his execution. It is based on [Andrew Klavan](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrew-klavan)'s 1995 novel of the same name and was released by Warner Bros. on March 19, 1999.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME) • [2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0139668/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / star | Clint Eastwood, directing himself as reporter Steve Everett; his 21st film as a director[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/true-crime-1999) |
| Source | Based on the novel *True Crime* by Andrew Klavan (New York, 1995)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME) |
| Release | March 19, 1999 (wide), Warner Bros.; 127 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME) • [2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0139668/) |
| Box office | $16,649,768 domestic against a $55,000,000 budget; opening weekend $5,276,109 in 1,852 theaters[2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0139668/) |
| Critical scores | Metascore 64 (Generally Favorable, 26 reviews); Rotten Tomatoes 59% from 41 reviews[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/true-crime/critic-reviews/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084928-true_crime) |
| Key crew | Screenwriters Larry Gross, Paul Brickman, and Stephen Schiff; cinematographer Jack N. Green; editor Joel Cox; composer Lennie Niehaus[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME) |
| Producers | Clint Eastwood, Richard D. Zanuck, and Lili Fini Zanuck; a Zanuck Company/Malpaso production[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139668/companycredits/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Steve Everett is a former alcoholic reporter who has been sober for two months, but his life is in disarray: his marriage to Barbara ([Diane Venora](https://www.edgepedia.org/diane-venora)) is barely holding together, and his editor Bob Findley ([Denis Leary](https://www.edgepedia.org/denis-leary)) resents him because Everett has been having an affair with Findley's wife.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084928-true_crime) When a colleague, Michelle Ziegler ([Mary McCormack](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-mccormack)), dies in a car crash, Everett inherits her assignment: a human-interest story on the final hours of Frank Louis Beechum (Isaiah Washington), a convicted killer on death row scheduled to die at midnight for the shooting death of a pregnant clerk in a convenience store.[7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/true-crime) • [3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/true-crime-1999)
An investigative reporter by temperament, Everett begins researching the case and comes to suspect that Beechum, who maintains his innocence, was wrongly convicted; a witness, he concludes, lied about what he saw.[7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/true-crime) • [8](https://waarkanikdatkijken.nl/true-crime) With roughly twelve hours before the execution at San Quentin, he races to find evidence that can win a stay, over the warnings of both the city editor and the editor-in-chief Alan Mann ([James Woods](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-woods)), who know his habit of turning routine stories into larger crusades.[9](https://www.roku.com/en-ca/whats-on/movies/true-crime?id=1e337251f367501a985802f99298f82a) • [3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/true-crime-1999) The film intercuts Everett's investigation with his problems at home, his interviews with Beechum, and scenes with the prisoner's family, including Bonnie Beechum ([LisaGay Hamilton](https://www.edgepedia.org/lisagay-hamilton)).[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/true-crime-1999)
## Production
The film was produced by Clint Eastwood, Richard D. Zanuck, and Lili Fini Zanuck through [The Zanuck Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-zanuck-company) in association with Eastwood's Malpaso Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139668/companycredits/) The screenplay is credited to Larry Gross, Paul Brickman, and Stephen Schiff, with Andrew Klavan also credited as a screenwriter on some listings; the source novel is Klavan's.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084928-true_crime) Eastwood's regular collaborators worked on the film: Jack N. Green as cinematographer, Joel Cox as editor, Lennie Niehaus as composer, and Henry Bumstead as production designer.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME)
The supporting cast includes [Bernard Hill](https://www.edgepedia.org/bernard-hill) as Warden Luther Plunkitt, Michael McKean as Reverend Shillerman, Michael Jeter as Dale Porthouse, Sydney Tamiia Poitier as Jane March, Frances Fisher as Cecilia Nussbaum, and Eastwood's daughter [Francesca Eastwood](https://www.edgepedia.org/francesca-eastwood) as Kate Everett.[8](https://waarkanikdatkijken.nl/true-crime) • [10](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/True-Crime)
The film's rating is reported differently across sources: the American Film Institute Catalog lists it as PG-13, while [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo), The Numbers, and Rotten Tomatoes list it as R, with The Numbers specifying "R for language and some violence."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME) • [2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0139668/) • [10](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/True-Crime)
## Reception
**Critical response.** The film scored 64 on Metacritic from 26 critic reviews, with 17 positive, 8 mixed, and 1 negative.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/true-crime/critic-reviews/) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 59% Tomatometer from 41 reviews, with the critics consensus reading that the film "has the potential for a gripping character-driven mystery, but a pedestrian story and a miscast Clint Eastwood undermine its effectiveness."[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084928-true_crime) [Individual](https://www.edgepedia.org/individual) reviews ranged widely: Michael Wilmington of the [Chicago Tribune](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-tribune) gave it 88 and called it "an old-fashioned movie done with wit, grace, smarts and style," while Janet Maslin of The New York Times (80) wrote that Eastwood directed it "with righteous indignation and increasingly strong momentum."[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/true-crime/critic-reviews/) Roger Ebert, film critic of the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) and winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for criticism, gave it three of four stars and called it "a wickedly effective thriller."[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/true-crime-1999) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084928-true_crime)
Ebert's review praised the film's structure, saying it "follows the rhythm of a newspaperman's day," and noted that Eastwood's experience showed in his pacing: "even in a deadline story like this, not all scenes have to have the same breakneck pace."[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/true-crime-1999) Time Out's review found the closing quarter of an hour flawed by race-against-time contrivance but judged it "another typically intelligent Eastwood film, a thriller that's unusually and movingly perceptive about human emotions."[7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/true-crime) Recurring criticisms, echoed in the Rotten Tomatoes consensus and in audience reviews, focused on the implausibility of the premise, a reporter resolving a six-year-old case in a few hours, and on Eastwood's casting in the role of a womanizing journalist.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084928-true_crime)
## Box office
True Crime opened on March 19, 1999 in 1,852 theaters, earning $5,276,109 on its opening weekend, 31.6% of its final total.[10](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/True-Crime) It grossed $16,649,768 domestically according to Box Office Mojo, against a production budget of $55,000,000; The Numbers reports the domestic total slightly higher at $16,676,845.[2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0139668/) • [10](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/True-Crime) Both sources record no international gross, giving a domestic share of 100%.[2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0139668/) • [10](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/True-Crime) The film ranked 106th among 1999's domestic releases.[11](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1999/)
## Realism and the journalist figure
The film drew comment for its portrayal of newspaper work. A 1999 [San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-francisco-chronicle) article noted that Eastwood's character solves a murder mystery in one day and single-handedly stops an execution after driving to the governor's mansion with new evidence, and quoted a Chicago Sun-Times copy desk chief saying such a thing "never happens (in real journalism)."[12](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Stop-the-Presses-Nobody-says-that-at-a-real-2939282.php) The same article observed that the film shows its reporter smoking at his desk and breaking into a colleague's home in search of evidence, actions that would violate newsroom policy and the law respectively.[12](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Stop-the-Presses-Nobody-says-that-at-a-real-2939282.php)
## References
1. [True Crime (1999), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61756-TRUE-CRIME)
2. [True Crime (1999), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0139668/)
3. [True Crime movie review & film summary, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, March 19, 1999](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/true-crime-1999)
4. [True Crime critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/true-crime/critic-reviews/)
5. [True Crime, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084928-true_crime)
6. [True Crime (1999) company credits, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139668/companycredits/)
7. [True Crime 1999 review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/true-crime)
8. [True Crime (1999) kijken, WaarKanIkDatKijken](https://waarkanikdatkijken.nl/true-crime)
9. [How to watch and stream True Crime on Roku (Canada)](https://www.roku.com/en-ca/whats-on/movies/true-crime?id=1e337251f367501a985802f99298f82a)
10. [True Crime (1999), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/True-Crime)
11. [Domestic Box Office For 1999, Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1999/)
12. [Stop the Presses! Nobody says that at a real newspaper, San Francisco Chronicle, March 28, 1999](https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Stop-the-Presses-Nobody-says-that-at-a-real-2939282.php)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1990s films › Thrillers › Released 1996 to 1999*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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