L.A. Confidential

The only thread I found dedicated to this is inaccessible due to the forum reboot.

So the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis is showing this tonight as part of its LA Noir series, but due to my parents visiting, it's a no-go for me. So I drown my sorrows in throwing up a thread commemorating the film's greatness and ordering it on Blu-Ray.

One of the very few film adaptations that succeeds where its estimable source material falls short, the dramatic impact of the movie satisfies on a level the labyrinthine plot of the novel never reaches. The movie makes everything tighter, leaner, but not in any way lesser. While a mainstream Hollywood movie could never delve to the bleakness Ellroy is able to wallow in with his prose, the sleaze and corruption that is visible is so effectively displayed on screen that it's obvious there's even worse under the surface.

First movie I ever saw Spacey, Pearce, or Crowe, and I was banking on Pearce to be the breakaway star between the two Aussies; hindsight and Crowe's resultant career shows my preference for Exley as a character in the book tainted my perception. Crowe is absolutely electrifying, every twitch of eyelid a glimpse into the darker impulses he's trying to rein in. One of the most compelling aspects of Bud as he's written in the script and played by Crowe is that even though he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, he's just as multifaceted as the smarter playmakers like Exley and Vincennes. It would have been too easy to go the dumb brute route.

What in Curtis Hanson's filmography indicated he could have pulled this feat off? Hand That Rocks the Cradle? Just a great film in every way, its Basingerity notwithstanding. God, I wish I were watching it right now.

ETA: And David Straithairn became one of my favorite actors with his subdued turn as as the ubersmooth pimp Patchett. His performance here seems to be unfairly overlooked in discussions.

I couldn't agree more. I love the guy's work, but frankly, your reading palate craves something else after the 400th page of terse sentences without subjects. I'm referring more here to American Tabloid than Confidential, although my favorite Ellroy, White Jazz, is the guiltiest offender. I love it so, regardless.

The last film shown at the LA Noir festival was Chinatown, a film that is often mentioned as the kind of movie Confidential aspires to be, successfully. Will it be esteemed in the same way Chinatown is in 20 or 30 years from now? Having only just seen Chinatown last week, I would say yes, which is all the more impressive considering the context of Polanski's oeuvre compared to Hanson's. It's interesting to think about what the films do differently and when they're on the same track. What I thought of recently is that while Gittes is a lone wolf poking holes in the corrupt system, the ensemble cast of Confidential are all working from inside the system from different angles, all of them corrupted and very culpable for the injustice that occurs.

Good points on the LA/Chinatown comparisons. LA Confidential will always hold a special place in my heart, but when thinking of some of the shot compositions, the Dunaway breakdown, that plot twist, Chinatown probably swims in a bigger pond.


That aside, am I alone in thinking Basinger didn't do anything special in her performance? Even as a consolation nod in the wake of the Titanic juggernaut, she is just such a glaringly weak link amongst all the incredible performances. (I've never been a Basinger fan, and I acknowledge my bias.) In some great movies, the lesser players are elevated by the stellar work of their costars, but here the work of Pearce, Spacey, and Crowe make Basinger look like she's completely unprepared to play in their league.

Am I wrong?

Not yet mentioned:

The dual interrogation scene where Exley handles the intercom speakers like a symphony.

Bud and Exley duking it out in the file room one minute, the next minute becoming allies.

"Shut up! A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker."
"She is Lana Turner."

ETA something shamelessly copped from imdb memorable quotes:
Pierce Patchett: I use girls that look like movie stars. Sometimes I employ a plastic surgeon. When the work had been done, that's when you saw us.
Bud White: That's why her mother couldn't I.D. her. Jesus fucking Christ.
Pierce Patchett: No, Mr. White. Pierce Morehouse Patchett.

Joe Carnahan has been trying to make the last book of the LA Quartet trilogy, White Jazz, for years. For a while, George Clooney was attached to star, but he dropped out. Exley is a player in that book, and I think I remember Pearce said he wasn't interested in reprising the role. Issue's moot anyway because it's been in development hell for so long.