People are voting emotionally.

A Disappointing Continuation

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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!!!

After the end of World War II, Americans turn their attention to other stories. Capturing the country's attention is the 1948 murder of a young woman known as "The Virgin Tramp". Her body is found in Los Angeles, neatly cut in half. There is some disagreement about whether the body requires one or two stretchers on its way to the morgue. My vote is one, but forensics folks like to keep the body as it was discovered. Arriving at the murder scene is police detective Robert Duvall (as Thomas "Tom" Spellacy). His brother is Catholic priest Robert De Niro (as Desmond "Des" Spellacy). There will be a connection...You would expect a crime story involving a policeman and priest played by Mr. Duvall and Mr. De Niro to be better than this. There is also a great supporting cast, led by Duvall partner Kenneth McMillan (as Frank Crotty) and De Niro associate Charles Durning (as Jack Amsterdam). And, it's obviously well-produced. The story should have stuck with Duvall and the murder mystery. De Niro's character might have been more minor - the film is, simply, too sluggish. Also, there was no need for the bracketing opening and closing scenes set in the present. Surely, the brothers had more to reminisce about than this incident.***** True Confessions (9/24/81) Ulu Grosbard ~ Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro, Charles Durning, Kenneth McMillan

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.

There are so many excellent reviewers on this site that I hesitate to improve upon all of their fine treatises, but here goes. Obviously, we have two of our finest living actors portraying the cop and rising priest. Maybe against type, Robert DeNiro is a quiet,thoughtful, somewhat hypocritical cleric, with a cynical, yet forgiving nature (later he forgives his brother in the final scene), and we compare this to modern performances of today in which he appears to take the money and run, i.e., Meet the Parents, etc.......here he is completely believable as an ambitious priest with obvious flaws and foible's. It may cause us who have become friends with various religious professionals to be more tolerant of their flaws after seeing Dez (his priestly character) second-guess his character and bounce off of his cop-brother, Duvall, in the script. It is a character study of all of us who have had or still have, an older or younger sibling with whom we battled and argued as children and young adults, and with whom we still have unsolved issues even now as adults. To try to communicate our feelings is so tough and so revealing for both of us.A fabulous movie. I have watched it 10-12 times over the years. Where are the scripts like this today??? Where are the actors who can so throw themselves into projects like "True Confessions" and give us our $10 bucks worth at the theaters? Not many, as I see it. Get this movie and watch it from time to time. You will discover yourself looking at these characters, all of them, from the Monsignor, the prostitute, the crooked cops, and the old burned out priest (Burgess Meredith) ,and you will pass judgment on yourself, more so than you pass it on others. A wonderful film.