Clint
Eastwood has not given up acting as an eccentric do-gooder
who gets the job done even if nobody respects him. In True
Crime, in the role of aging Oakland newspaper reporter
Steve Everett, he saves Frank Beachum, a black man (played
by Isaiah Washington) from the gas chamber by discovering
clues ignored by the police and following them to find the
truth. Rather than a film to preach against the death penalty,
similar to several recent films (such as Dead Man Walking),
Eastwood prefers to have Everett finds redemption in his act
of conscience from his many past compulsions—alcoholism, womanizing,
neglecting his son, smoking in a smoke-free work environment,
and even getting facts wrong in a previous news story to save
someone from injustice. His wife divorces him, he loses his
job, but an innocent man goes free. However, the film footage
of San Quentin and how the death penalty is executed, along
with the film’s website links to anti-death penalty sites,
make clear Eastwood’s intentions. Instead of Dirty Harry,
he has become Sad Harry, certainly not Saint Harry, but the
political is unfortunately lost in the personal. MH
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