A pair of Australians teamed with some great American actors give us one of the best crime dramas in many a year. Aussies Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce work the mean streets of LA in this latter day film noir effort from Director Curtis Hanson. The two play LAPD detectives with very different approaches to their job.
Based on a story by James Ellroy, rewritten for the screen by Hanson and Brian Helgeland, LA Confidential is a hard-hitting tale of corruption and greed where honest police work consists of framing known criminals, or killing them, to close cases for the overworked detectives.
Set in the early 㣖s, before freeways changed the landscape of Los Angeles forever, it is the story of crime in the city after crimelord Mickey Cohen was sent up the river for ten years for income tax evasion. The resulting power vacuum sucked every known type of sleazeball into LA, hoping to get rich quick off of drugs, women, violence, and gambling.
Bud White (Crowe) is a detective known for getting results, quite a few years before Dirty Harry. White is a brutal, dumb cop who wises up by the third reel. White realizes there is a conspiracy behind the Night Owl shootings and is eager to get to the bottom of it.
A rising star in the department is the apparently milquetoast college-boy Ed Exley (Pearce) who wants to root the all-too-obvious corruption out of the department, single handedly if necessary. Exley's idealism is soon put to the test, however. His mentor is police captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) who encourages the young Exley to be a little more brutal if he wants to rise much further. Just after that fateful conversation, desk jockey Exley is forced to shoot it out with half a dozen bandidos wanted for the Night Owl shooting. Exley manages to come out on top, much to the other officers' surprise. For this housecleaning, Ed receives the Medal of Valor, the police department’s highest honor. None of his fellow detectives are impressed, but at least the case is closed. Except for White, who thinks there is more behind the crime these slugs were wanted for. Soon Exley begins to suspect that it was a set up, too. The two, formerly at odds colleagues now become partners in rooting out the muck that has filled the police department up to their knees.
Kevin Spacey plays a Hollywood detective Jack Vincennes who hobnobs with movie stars and moonlights as a consultant to a television show obviously meant to evoke memories of Dragnet. Kim Bassinger plays a Veronica Lake lookalike call girl whose pimp is the distinguished looking David Straithairn, who specializes in porn featuring star doubles. There is also an unsavory undercurrent of drugs in the background that may be contributing to the killings. Danny DeVito is a tabloid reporter of a scandal sheet from which the movie derives its title. All of the performances large and small are spot on. The director took time to develop the characters with all sorts of little details, like Spacey's hunger for press and cooperation with the tabloids to insure his name stayed in the papers.
The photography is stylish and offers a good view of the LA that may have been in the early 㣖s. Sets and costuming are wonderful, as are Kim Bassinger’s fashionable gowns. Plenty of early 㣖s late 40s cars add to the atmosphere. The props are outstanding as every detective carries a Colt snub nose 38, plenty of medicine for bad guys before Dirty Harry made it fashionable to sport a big magnum. The props, sets, and costumes give the film the look and feel of the time period. The film editing also was very well done, with very few dead spots. Music is by Jerry Goldsmith, who ties together the action into a tight little package along with popular hits by singers like Dean Martin and Bing Crosby interspersed throughout the movie.
Don’t bring the kiddies, as there is plenty of mayhem and f-words liberally strewn about. But for adult entertainment, LA Confidential is hard to beat.
For those who like crime movies, see this one first. After that, I recommend the noir classics
Product DetailsOriginal Title:L.A. Confidential - Special EditionActors: Basinger, Kim - Cromwell, James - Crowe, Russell - DeVito, Danny - Pearce, G...More at iNetVideo.com
Director Curtis Hanson captures the duality of 1950s Los Angeles in this striking film noir adaptation of James Ellroy's novel. The City of Angels mig...More at Family Video
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