LA Confidential Review

 

LA Confidential

Director: Curtis Hanson

Stars: Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey,Kim Basinger, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn, Graham Beckel, Darrell Sandeen, Ron Rifkin and Simon Baker.

Running Time: 138 mins.

Release: 31^st October 1997

The film is based on the James Ellroy novel of the same name. It's set in the 1950's LA and the film focuses on three different cops in the same precinct; Jack Vincennes (Spacey) a supervisor to a cop show, he's a sleazy detective and always after fame and money, he gives his friend Sid Hudgens (Vito) the writer of the magazine Hush Hush information and he in turn gives him tip offs. Edmund J. Exley (Pearce) the police force's golden boy who believes in 'Absolute Justice' and would do anything to get ahead and Wendell 'Bud' White (Crowe) a cop who's more than willing to break the rules to seek justice but has a near uncontrollable violent rage of which his superior Dudley Smith (Cromwell) uses to his advantage.

Mickey Cohen has been locked up for 10 years on tax evasion and two mysterious hoods are wiping out his underlings, there's been a robbery & mass murder at The Night Owl and one of the dead vic's is a recently fired cop who was Bud's partner Dick Stensland (Beckel), a young out of work actor has been murdered and a multi millionaire business magnate is suspected of a running a high class prostitution and porn company, are they all linked ?

This film is a homage to Noir in it's purest sense with glamour, sex, corruption and cold blooded murder. I should note that I have seen this film before, a few years ago, though I did not watch it properly but now that I have seen it again a few years older it's like watching a brand new film and it's simply an amazing masterpiece. I should note there is some humour throughout.

Guy Pearce is an Australian actor who's breakout role was in Neighbours back in the day then on to Australian film of which he still dabbles into today with The Rover coming out later this year, anyway this is his first Hollywood break out role.

Exley is at heart a good cop who, one who's willing to do anything to get ahead even if his own department hates him for it to impress his superiors and get results. Early on in the film you sense he wants to do right and root out the bad apples of the police force but as the events of the film roll around he becomes more career minded and selfish and loses his sense of morality but the hospital scene there is a change which i'll mention later, he goes back to whom he was early on though more hardened. Exley is a well rounded character He's absolutely fantastic in every scene, my favourite scenes with him in are his interrogation with the three initial suspects of The Night Owl, his confrontations with Bud, when he's with Jack Vincennes at a bar where he meets Lana Turner there is a joke, I am not going to spoil it but it's really funny !. Also the last half hour. He's very intelligent and ruthless and has a moral code to him like Bud.He does a really good a american accent and this is one of my favourite roles that Pearce has done.

A pivotal scene is when the rape victim Inez Soto (Marisol Padilla Sanchez) talks with Exley in hospital and he's wheeling her around in a wheelchair and the media are there and they brand Exley a hero and she tells him would people really care for her as she's mexican woman who was raped by three black young men if they did not kill the ex-cop ?, it makes Exley think and change his outlook to what he's doing.

Bud is a detective, well more like Smith's personal muscle as Bud has a violent temper and in my opinion he's the most fleshed out and sympathetic by that I mean giving a background. Bud is a great cop who bends the rules to get justice by killing a perp and and using another gun firing a shot into a wall and planting a gun in his hand so it looked like self defence, he also despises woman-beaters with a passion due to his father beating his mother to death in front of his eyes, he defended her before but could not that time. He defends women, I really love the scene where after they find a rape victim tied up in a hovel where the three perps raped her, Bud goes in and free's her and is the only one to protect her and cover her up and when she's being sent to hospital in an ambulance , Exley tries to question her about her ideal and Bud stops him as Exley was being insensitive and only trying to further his career. Like Exley he changes in his growling relationship with Lynn Bracken (Basinger) who brings him out of his shell and is the driving force for him to become a proper detective instead of beating up perps that Smith wants to interrogate. It's a stunning performance by Crowe I have not seen him in that many movies but he's brilliant in this. He's determined, driven, angry and intelligent. He's a Kiwi and like Pearce he does an american accent very well.

I have not seen Spacey in anything much aside Superman Returns and I know he has a penchant for playing villainous characters and this he's know villain but he has traits of one in the role of Vincennes, a detective who is a supervisor on a 1950's cop show which is based on his own career. Who get's his name mentioned in Hush Hush because he gets tipped off by his friend Hudgens who runs the magazine and they are friends. Vincennes is an amazing character and Spacey plays him with such conviction and honesty he's very sleazy but somewhat likeable. Like Exley and White he changes by regaining some morality. Like Crowe and Pearce he's perfect in his role

I particularly love the scene where he tells Exley that he's forgotten the reason why he became a cop, he has a blank & pitiful look in his eyes like he wants to remember why he but he can't due to all the things he's done. One thing I should really credit this film for is that it wants me to see more films with Spacey in.

I have only seen Basinger in Batman, another film I have to revisit, she's a very good actress but has not done all that much but as the saying goes it's more about quality than quantity. Basinger plays Lynn Bracken a high class prostitute that is cut to look like Veronica Lake, as her boss Pierce Morehouse Pratchett (Strathairn) and being honest in the film she very much looks like Veronica Lake !. Not much background is given to her though it's not necessary but if you've read a Ellroy novel before you may know what I mean. Her role easily could have been a tart with a heart role but it's much more than that, she wants to get away from Hollywood, she knows her dream of Hollywood has faded, she wants to do something that she really wants to do. At first you don't know what to make of her but the intimate scenes between her and Bud share bring more out about them as they reveal more about themselves than they do to anyone else and develop as characters. She's a very beautiful woman and she smoulders in this film and her performance is just as good as the three leading men.

James Cromwell is an actor I recognize as an actor but I have forgotten his name on numerous occasions, you may know him most famously from Babe and Spiderman 3, I have always thought he was British due to his name and that he does an English accent so well in some films, to my shock I found out he's American. In this film he does an Irish and American accent and he plays Captain Dudley Smith, his character reminds me of a certain someone from the video game LA Noire . He is very charismatic and very confident in himself and has the steel to rule his men, he's never questioned and does not like to be challenged.

The final big part of this film is Danny DeVito as Sid Hudgens, Vincennes friend and business partner. DeVito is known for his comedy roles like in Matilda, Throw Momma From The Train, Romancing The Stone and many others. This and Batman Returns (somewhat) are the most serious roles that I know DeVito has done and he's really likeable despite the fact that he's character is a magazine editor who's looking for more fame and money and would easily double cross some of his friends (aside Vincennes) for a quick buck. So he's like most people in his position. I particularly love the scene when Smith and his men rough him up, you really feel sorry for him and how it shot is very well done, it does not flinch from the violence.

To mention any more about the acting will spoil so I won't say no more on it.

It's a real shame Curtis Hanson has not done a film on this level since, it's masterfully shot and he's hit the nail on the head for authenticity, there's not a shot that didn't feel right or fit in. It's simply perfect. From Bud and Stensland stopping off at marital dispute on Christmas Eve to the drive away at the end. I love Sid Hudgens narration at the beginning glamorizing LA and it's criminal underbelly using stock footage it's brilliant, it really sums up the film for me.

I love the sets, costumes, automobiles, interiors everything it's amazing it's flawless, they really went out on this it's incredibly authentic, it helps you get lost in the film, you get encapsulated into the world that Hanson and Ellroy have created.

Jerry Goldsmith has done it again, an iconic, classic score to a neo-noir classic film every scene gets a superb accompanying piece of music and I have to say it's my favourite score that Jerry Goldsmith has done even better than Chinatown.

I should note there's some differences between the film LA Confidential and the book which is more in depth with subplots and changes in events and the book spans a few years, the only book I have read by Ellroy yet is The Black Dahlia.

There's a lot of themes throughout racism, morality, corruption, sex, glamour, murder and redemption it's an absolute fantastic film I love it even more now that I have revisited it and it has rejuvenated my interest in James Ellroy, I think i'll read The Big Nowhere this summer.

This film has it all, a perfect cast, rich characters, a perfect cracking script, brilliant authentic production design a iconic score and beautifully shot, what else could you ask for ?, this for me is the best noir I have seen it beats Chinatown and Blade Runner, I love those but I love this even more, if you love noir and have not seen this your in for a fine fine treat..