Texas Justice (1995) (TV)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Dick Lowry

Writers (WGA):

Gary Cartwright (book)
T.S. Cook (teleplay)

Release Date:

12 February 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Two Part TV Movie | Beautiful Woman | Based On Book

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Peter Strauss	...	Thomas Cullen Davis
Heather Locklear	...	Priscilla Davis
Dennis Franz	...	Richard 'Racehorse' Haynes
Lewis Smith	...	Dennis Church
Susan Walters	...	Karen Masters
Chris Mulkey	...	Lanny Shelton
Linda Hart	...	Darlene
Ned Vaughn	...	Glen Sculley
Dean Norris
Shannon Whirry	...	Rebecca
Brandon Smith	...	Pete Hardigan
Greg Michaels	...	Woody
Matthew Faison
Bill Smitrovich	...	Mitch Conlon
Blue Deckert

Also Known As:

Blood Will Tell (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

175 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Iceland:12 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Nancy Hardin Productions

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Texas license plates on the vehicles were of the style and numbering system in use in the mid nineties when the movie was made, not from the mid seventies when the events happened.

Actors do well with terrible script

Locklear and Strauss are badly addled with a terrible screenplay here, but they both turn in fine performances.

Given the length of the film, one would think a great deal more actual detail could have been given to the viewer. So much was left out, and so much more was just wrong. A good example is the infamous house on Mockingbird Lane. At the time this film was made (and even today) the mansion is still standing and it would seem that the actual house could have been used for exterior shots (or even architectural renderings), but instead, a completely different house was inexplicably used. The house on Mockingbird Lane was extremely modern and minimalist in design (by late 1960s standards), and the producers of this film instead used the generic tasteless quasi-European Tudor McMansion of the 1990s. Pointless stupidity.

And this script fairly reeks with similar factual missteps, and for no justifiable reason. As a native Texan who closely followed the trial at the time (you couldn't be here and NOT follow it), this sort of thing is extremely irritating. If the viewer can get past that, both Peter Strauss and Heather Locklear turn in fine performances (one of Locklear's best) and seem to have some genuine understanding of the characters they are portraying. Given the scarcity of film on the Cullen Davis trial (the only other instance I am aware of is an episode of A & E's American Justice devoted to the subject), I recommend this as the best of the very little that is offered.