CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Hard Truth

1994 film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ18511197
Source-derived summary

The Hard Truth is a 1994 American action crime thriller film directed by Kristine Peterson and starring Eric Roberts, Michael Rooker and Lysette Anthony.

Premise

A recently suspended cop blackmails an electronics expert to help him steal $3 million from his girlfriend's boss, a corrupt councilman with ties to the mob.

Cast

Eric Roberts as Dr. Chandler Etheridge

Michael Rooker as Jonah Mantz

Lysette Anthony as Lisa Kantrell

Reception

David Rooney of Variety gave the film a negative review and wrote that it "provides few surprises but should prove serviceable enough as video fare".

Glenn Kenny of Entertainment Weekly graded the film a C− and wrote that director Peterson "pads The Hard Truth with pointless action scenes and sexual interludes that stretch this should-have-been-80-minutes trifle to 100".

Editorial summary

“The Hard Truth” enters the record as 1994 film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hard, Truth and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1994—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1994. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Hard, Truth and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Hard Truth” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Hard, Truth and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18511197. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Hard Truth”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Hard Truth primary sources, The Hard Truth archive and Hard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Hard Truth”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Hard Truth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.