65) L.A. Confidential

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Director: Curtis Hanson

Starring: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin

I can't remember the first time I watched L.A. Confidential. It'd be pushing a decade ago. But I do remember the first time I read James Ellroy's book on which the film was based. I bought it in an English language bookstore in Barcelona in 2003 to read while on holidays. I've never been a huge reader, but that was one book which I genuinely loved. The readings for Introduction to Cinema this week were on crime cinema, and one of them which was examining some of the conventions of crime films and crime fiction made mention of Ellroy, which was enough to inspire me to give this film another viewing.

In 1950s Los Angeles, an ex-policeman is among a number of people killed in a brutal armed robbery gone wrong in an all night diner. Three policemen; the fearsome Bud White (Crowe), the ambitious careerist Ed Exley (Pearce) and the show pony Jack Vincennes (Spacey) all independently take an interest in this case for different reasons only to find this seemingly inauspicious robbery appears to be a part of something much larger. With mob boss Mickey Cohen in prison, a number of his gang members are being knocked off as someone appears to be making a move to take control of the L.A. underworld.

Hollywood has always been a bit black and white morally, so as a result the film smooths over a few of the moral ambiguities that exist in the book. Exley ends up being played as a much more heroic character in the film than he appears in the book, and the films climax is much more cut and dry than how the book chooses to leave things. That being said, L.A. Confidential has an excellent screenplay (it won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay) which does a great job of maintaining not only the mood of the book but the complex and interesting characters.

The characters are what really makes this film stand out from the pack as far as noir-inspired crime movies go. L.A. Confidential nails the atmosphere and the intriguing plot we expect from this genre but adds some really interesting, multi-layered characters to the mix, and these characters are backed up by some great performances from the ensemble cast. The three central figures, White, Exley and Vincennes, are all completely different styles of policeman. White is an angry individual. Haunted by the memories of his father brutally assaulting his mother, he takes a special interest in domestic abuse cases, taking vengeance on wife-beaters. He is seen by other characters as a thug, an animal, but we are shown that he probably has the most astute moral compass of anyone in the film. This was the big coming out party for Russell Crowe, with this role establishing him as a legitimate Hollywood actor. Two years later he would receive his first Best Actor nomination for The Insider. Guy Pearce also made the step up to the Hollywood big time with his performance as Exley, a careerist who lives in long shadow of his well respected father, and who finds being the morally upright cop he considers himself to be is actually not as easy as he'd hoped. For mine, the real gem is Kevin Spacey. This is Spacey doing what Spacey does best. He plays Vincennes, the shameless self-promoter who loves getting his face in the papers and lives for his job as technical advisor on the TV show 'Badge of Honor'. But Spacey gives Vincennes an extra level of depth. Ellroy himself described Spacey's performance as "some of the best self-loathing I've ever seen on screen."

Even the supporting roles are brilliant. Bassinger won her only Academy Award for her role as Lynn Bracken, a high class prostitute who looks like Lana Turner, by turning what could have been a very two-dimensional character into something really interesting. James Cromwell strips away all the kindness we associate with his face from his role as Farmer Hoggett to become something much more fearsome. Danny DeVito is also great in his small but important role as slimy tabloid journalist Sid Hudgens. Hanson really did an amazing job of getting the most out of a solid cast, but a cast which at the time would not necessarily have turned heads, given the low profiles of Crowe and Pearce.

Having shown such great potential with L.A. Confidential, which was magnificently directed and rightly earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director, it is really kind of a shame that Curtis Hanson hasn't really shown that ability since. The most notable films he has made since L.A. Confidential are the Eminem vehicle 8 Mile, where he again cast Kim Bassinger in a supporting role, and the Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette dramedy In Her Shoes. He does seem to have a thing for Australian actors though having cast Crowe and Pearce and also Simon Baker in a small part in L.A. Confidential, Collette in In Her Shoes and Eric Bana in Lucky Me opposite Drew Barrymore. But hey, maybe it's just a coincidence.

L.A. Confidential is a fantastic film. It is one of the best crime/detective films out there. It got a swag of Oscar nominations, but probably didn't stand out as much as it would have at another time because 1996-97 was the summer of Titanic.