L.A. Confidential – 1997
OK, this was a really awesome movie. I had seen it once a long time ago, and had completely forgotten how incredibly good it was. It was done in the style of a crime drama or a film noir. The plot twists and turns in so many different directions. The casting and the acting were perfect, and the sets and costumes were completely appropriate. The film-score was exciting, lending a serious and dangerous tone to the whole thing. Director, Curtis Hanson, really knew his stuff and did a great job paying attention to the aesthetic details that marked the story as taking place in California in the early 50s.
The incredible main cast included two unknown Aussie actors and three well-established American actors. From Australia, we got Russell Crowe and Guy Pierce, and from the States, we got Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, and Kim Bassinger. We also got James Cromwell to play a great villain. But that was one of the things that was so great about the complex plot. There were so many twists, double-crosses, and misdirections that it was often unclear as to who the good guys were, and who the bad guys were.
The movie presents itself as a crime drama, but it was character driven. You would expect there to be a specific crime like a murder that propelled the plot, and there was… kind-of. But the drama of the movie came from following the characters and witnessing the psychological journeys they each took. This is a notable departure from your typical noir crime drama, which doesn’t often delve into the inner workings of the cops or the criminals.
Arguably, there are three leads. Pierce plays Ed Exley, a young PD officer who has an idealistic sense of duty and morality with a clearly defined code of ethics. He has ambitions of rising through the ranks of law enforcement. Crowe plays Bud White, a muscly thug of a police officer. He is ruled by his own absolute sense of right, wrong, and the law, and has no problem beating the crap out of those who break it. Spacey plays Jack Vincennes, a high-profile officer who has long since abandoned his sense of ethics and morality, and who advises a popular crime-based TV show. He regularly accepts bribes from Sid Hudgens, played by DeVito, the sleazy publisher of the tabloid magazine, Hush-Hush, in order to give him the juiciest crime stories.
The movie starts off in a 1950s-style pitch, advertising Hollywood and Los Angeles as a paradise on earth. But then it quickly tells us of the seedy underbelly of the City of Angels. The plot follows gangsters, corrupt cops, violence, pornography, prostitution, drug trafficking, and of course, murder. But the big questions about which we are kept guessing are who is behind it all and how deep does the corruption go?
Bud White was such a great character. On the surface, he appears to be a tough guy with no emotions except a special hatred for criminals who abuse women. But as we get to know him, we learn the reason for that singular obsession, and we discover the softer side of him as he falls in love with a high-class hooker who is made up to look like movie star Veronica Lake. She is Lynn Bracken, played by Bassinger. As Bud treats her like a woman instead of a whore, she falls in love with him. Bassinger took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the roll.
But as much as I liked Crowe’s character and his intense performance, it was Guy Pierce whose character had the best arc. He starts off as a naïve idealist who would refuse to dispense field justice, or shooting a criminal in the field if he knew that they would get away with their crimes in a court of law. He believed in the rightness and integrity of his job. But by the end of the film, he learns to not only break this moral code, but to take advantage of the corrupt system for personal gain. The character’s transformation is completely believable in light of the way it betrayed him over and over again.
Kevin Spacey is always good in whatever part he plays. His little character arc follows him as he attempts to keep his celebrity, while regaining the code of ethics that he had lost. After a sleazy deal with Hudgens goes bad, ending in the death of a bisexual hustler, he develops a conscience and tries to help Exley solve his case, which he suspects is related to the hustler’s death.
And that’s another thing about the script that was so great. Everything was actually related. As you watch the movie, there seem to be a slew of unrelated crimes and arrests. But in the end, they are all tied together and are proved to be pieces in a much larger puzzle, a conspiracy that was huge and complicated, and yet made complete sense. The plot was incredibly well-crafted and it easily draws you in. At first, you might not like any of the characters, but by the end, you do. And it is satisfying. All the loose ends are tied up and all of the questions are answered. It was a great movie that was well-paced and exciting to watch.