A few weeks ago the LA Times did a special on films devoted to those situated in Los Angeles. This list had one caveat in that the films had to be released in the previous 25 years, which meant only pictures released from 1984 on would be considered.
Being a resident of Southern California I was immediately interested in examining the list. I was surprised to learn that I had seen only seven of the 25 films selected by the newspapers film critics. It was also easy for me to come up with a complementary list of twelve additional films, most of which I felt could have easily been substituted for some of the films on the Times' list. However, most impressive to me was their selection of L.A. Confidential as the most important film made during this period with a Los Angeles setting.
I would totally agree with that judgment and would note that L.A. Confidential would probably rank very high in any list of the best pictures over all during the time period specified. Surprising as it may seem, L.A. Confidential didn't win the best picture Academy Award for that year. That was the year of Titanic, a film that won several awards. Today, as an after thought, I checked the comparative merits of the two films and found that L.A. Confidential ranks much higher on rating lists.
Kim Basinger was the only Academy Award winner for a performance in L.A. Confidential, when she won for best actress in a supporting role. Basinger received nominations from several other groups and was named as either best actress or best supporting actress in two such groups. The BAFTA, the British equivalent to the Academy Awards named her best actress. All three of the male leads, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe received nominations from other award organizations with Spacey receiving two such nominations including a best actor win, while Pearce and Crowe received one nomination each.
The film was derived from a novel by James Ellroy which dealt with Los Angeles crime and law enforcement in the period shortly after World War II during the late 40's and early 50's. Ellroy's book, as with Academy Award winner Chinatown a few years earlier, borrows from some real LA history. The movie opens with a Christmas Eve jailhouse assault on Mexican-American youths that had occurred a few years earlier in LA. He used this thread to develop a story that delves deeply into police corruption, which was not a new, isolated event LA.
To develop this theme the film focused on four members of the police department, Ed Exley played by Guy Pearce, Jack Vincennes played by Kevin Spacey and Bud White played by Russell Crowe, plus in addition the Captain of the detective bureau, Dudley Smith played by James Cromwell.
The story is complicated and quite realistic until a shoot-out in the end involving various members of the police department. Though the later event is overdone, it doesn't take away from the central premise involving crime and law enforcement.
Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito and David Strathaim have important supporting roles as a call girl, a supermarket tabloid-type reporter and the operator of a high class call girl operation, respectively.
Basinger as Lynn Brackett is one of the call girl prostitutes who works for Strathaim. Strathaim as Pierce Padgett lives in a Richard Neutra designed house in the Los Feliz district which is locally famous as the Lovell Health House. DeVito as Syd Hudgens is a writer who knows all there is to know about crime and notoriety in the City. He has a working arrangement with Jack Vincennes where he gets a tip when an arrest is about to be made and in particular if the arrest involves illegal activity such as adultery, or a celebrity.
The film covers the interplay of all these people plus a series of other criminal types including the real life Mickey Cohen and Johnny Stompanato. The latter was particularly interesting because of his involvement with film star Lana Turner and his eventual real life shooting by Turner's daughter.
There are numerous critiques available on the internet discussing the details of the film. What I want to do here, however, is to discuss the roles and performances by those playing the three detectives.
Guy Pearce does an excellent job at showing he's a straight shooter but also is very clever at trying to get ahead and gain stature in the department. Both of these characteristics come out early and are easy to follow as the film progresses. By the end of the film he has had several opportunities to exhibit his smarts.
Russell Crowe, on the other hand, plays an entirely different character. He's a tough guy by nature and likes to lay his weight on antagonists. Not a nice man to run into if you are a criminal or if he perceives you to be an enemy. There is some background to his behavior, which helps to explain him but not justify it. He really does the brawler role well. He also has a fixation on helping women.
Kevin Spacey has a much more difficult characterization to establish. He likes the celebrity side. He's the technical advisor for a TV show much like the old Dragnet series with Jack Webb. Yet he can be tough if motivated, and is smart but not obviously so. He also has real moral character which you gradually become aware of. Essentially, he has to project a far more complex person.
My personal opinion is that he had the hardest role to successfully
interpret.
One last thought. The concept used in the films to have prostitutes look like film actresses is actually true. There was a call girl ring operated out of the Hollywood Hills that had prostitutes dress and make up to represent particular actresses. One very popular one at the time was Jean Harlow, the peroxided blonde bombshell who was perhaps the most recognized screen actress in the middle 30's. The actress portraying Harlow had her hair peroxided and was made up to look like the actress plus some other useful tricks.
L.A. Confidential is a really thought provoking film, and like many unusually good ones, takes several viewings to really understand its complexities.
Dick Gardner, Classic Films
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