“Two brothers trapped by murder. One hid behind his vowels, the other behind his badge.”
That’s the tagline for True Confessions, a 1981 drama starring Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall. Despite the prestigious talent involved, the movie is rarely mentioned when the Bobbys’ filmography is discussed (or, at the very least, underlooked, given that it lies in the shadow of their other shared movie credit: The Godfather: Part II). Based on the book by John Gregory Dunne, the movie centers around the mysterious killing of a prostitute in 1948 Los Angeles. Thrust into the crime’s orbit are two very different brothers — hardened homicide detective Duvall and corrupt monsignor Robert De Niro. As the murder of a Catholic hooker who becomes dubbed as the “Virgin Tramp” becomes a media firestorm throughout Los Angeles, both men become swept up in the ensuing investigation…with the ensuing story raising several questions about the complicated nature of faith and justice. Both Duvall and De Niro are uniformly excellent in the picture, a slow-burn effort that drew inspiration from the real-life Black Dahlia murder in the 1940s. On October 7th, KL Studio Classics will release the film on Blu-ray, look for it to experience the movie magic that is two legends at the height of their powers sharing the screen.