L.A. Confidential | | Cast : | Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger | | Director : | Curtis Hanson | | Studio : | Warner Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | September 19, 1997 | | DVD Released Date : | June 07, 2005 | | Language : | French (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 08, 2005 | | Summary | "Silent Night for the Hollywood P.D." | Content
 | "LA Confidential" is a totally hardcore ride through the underside of human nature. When I use "hardcore", of course, I refer to it in its adrenaline filled sense (as opposed to its "wonk-wonk" music meaning). The setting of the film takes place in the "the gray area" between right and wrong. There's so much deception and intrigue that it becomes practically impossible to guess as to what will happen in the end.
Eventually, we see that, regardless of surface differences, the three main characters, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and Russell Crowe, are all united by their distain for the mercenary and extortionate atmosphere on the LA police force. Early on, when we hear the chief say to Crowe, "I particularly admire your use of violence on the job," we know exactly why he acts as he does. All three men have consciences and would prefer protecting and serving over the role they have been dealt. They became policemen for the right reasons, but the wash of time eroded the clarity of what they stood for.
Is this classic film noir? Absolutely, and maybe better in quality than many of the classics. The movie is so watchable that it seems to be over before it starts. Not a shot or scene is wasted. It's everything that a dud like "Cop Land" was not. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 13, 2005 | | Summary | Dark Noir in Bright Daylight | Content
| This was the best film made in '97 but like Polanski's "Chinatown" it is destined to become one of the finest movies not to take the Oscar home. Curtis Hanson took James Ellroy's novel, a book many doubted could be translated to the film medium, and co-wrote one of the finest adapted screenplays ever done. He then brought on board a couple of Aussie unknowns, a gorgeous star who had never lived up to her potential, maybe the finest actor working today, and began filming one of the darkest noir films of all time, in sun drenched daylight.
The end result is a dark and twisted tale of personal redemption told against the backdrop of the bright lights and sunshine of Hollywood in the early '50's. Hanson contrasts the brightly lit exteriors with the dark storyline of police corruption and Hollywood decadence. This is a movie about facade, not just Hollywood's but our own personal facade as well.
Russell Crowe became a star as LA Detective Bud White, a tough cop willing to do whatever is necessary, something the political up and comer Guy Pearce finds archaic about the force and wants to change. What may stop him from doing so is his investigation of the murder of several people at "The Night Owl" cafe, one of which is Crowe's partner, who recently "retired" after a well publicized jail brawl christened "Bloody Christmas" by the papers.
Crowe and Pearce come at this from different angles but the road for both leads right to beautiful Kim Basinger and a millionaire in the lush Hollywood hills played by David Strathairn. There is a reason Basinger looks a little like Veronica Lake the first time we see her in this film; she's suppose to. Hollywood legend has it that a string of expensive call girls were cut to look like stars during the forties and fifties and Hanson has made this darker side of Hollywood part of the story. Basinger is one of the lucky ones, close enough to the actual look of Veronica Lake not to have been cut on.
Crowe falls for the real girl inside Basinger, but in spite of her opulent lifestyle, her low self-esteem comes to the forefront when she sleeps with Pearce in an attempt to "help" Crowe. We realize as she nearly destroys Crowe by doing so that she perceives herself as a whore on the inside, beneath the facade. Her logic is as twisted and tainted as the corruption Crowe and Pierce are about to uncover as they follow the trail linking Basinger's boss Strathairn to the Night Owl killings and the vice surrounding them on every side.
Basinger may have garnered the Oscar for her role, but Crowe's performance as the tough cop with some soft spots after all is something you'll always remember. The coolest job done here, however, is by Kevin Spacey. Hanson told him before filming began to think Dean Martin and he'd have it down pat. Spacey did just that, playing the ultra cool cop, the one in the tabloids for his Hollywood connections. He is a consultant on the TV show "Badge of Honor" (think Dragnet) and is hooked up with slimy but likeable Danny DeVito, a writer for a Hollywood tabloid. Spacey grabs the spotlight and DeVito gets the headlines as Spacy collars Hollywood stars in compromising situations, DeVito's camera flashing.
Spacey seemingly has it all, but like the rest of this film, it is just a facade. While sitting in a bar listening to Dean Martin in the background he looks up into the mirror behind the counter and doesn't like what is staring back at him. He has all the tools to be a great cop but he knows he has sold his soul for the fifty in front of him. He becomes involved in the case because of a murder in a hotel room he feels responsible for that leads right back to the Night Owl, and hooks up with Pearce to redeem his soul. You will never forget the name "Rollo Tomasi" or what it means for Pearce, and ultimately Spacey in this film.
Adding to the atmosphere more than just a little is the score by Jerry Goldsmith, his finest work since "Chinatown" and just as haunting. It does more than help enhance the atmosphere, it truly is the atmosphere of this one of a kind masterpiece. This film has the kind of ending dreams are made of and someone (I won't give it away) holding up their badge to the oncoming rush of cop cars in the Hollywood hills at night is a scene you'll never forget.
There is not a bad performance in this film. It is complex and riveting. If you haven't seen this before, don't rent it, buy it. You'll watch it over and over. But don't tell anyone-this is Off the Record, On the QT, and Very Hush Hush! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 18, 2005 | | Summary | A great trip to a foreign land (The Past) | Content
| As someone who lives in LA, it was a flash to the past with this film. I can not recommend this film too much! Some films just seem to have the magic touch, where everything seems to push it toward excellence. The writing , photography, location selection, musical score, direction, the selection of the cast,the actors dedication in this film are top drawer. This film just shows what Hollywood could do but usually does'nt.
This film I believe will stand the test of time as one of the great classics of film. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 07, 2005 | | Summary | A Complex and Absorbing Thriller! | Content
| Manohla Dargis, a film critic for The New York Times and former editor for the L.A. Weekly film section, presented L.A. Confidential, one of her favorite movies, for the Cal State Northridge Cinemateque Critics Series, where I saw this film a few weeks ago. The film was followed by an insightful Q & A between Dargis and David Kipen, a book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, and continued with answers to questions from members of the audience.
As mentioned by Dargis, L.A. Confidential was released in 1997 to huge critical acclaim. It went on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards and is now considered a key film for the 90s. In fact, in answer to a question from an audience member, Dargis feels that had Titanic been released another year, L.A. Confidential would have garnered all the major awards of 1997. Although it didn't, it is still widely regarded as one of the best movies of that year.
Based on the novel by James Ellroy, the film is a dark and gritty noir set in 1950s Los Angeles and deals with police corruption and Hollywood sleaze. The seemingly idyllic Los Angeles of the early 1950s provides the glitzy backdrop for the grisly crime that is the focus of the story: a bloody shotgun slaying of the patrons at an all-night diner. One of the victims was Dick Stensland, a subpar police officer forced into retirement after a drunken brutality incident not long before his death.
Heading the investigation are three very different cops. Stensland's former partner, Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe), a man willing to break the rules to seek justice; Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), an ambitious but naive golden boy who is willing to do almost anything to get ahead; and Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), a slick operator who collaborates with a celebrity magazine to insure high-profile arrests.
What follows is a powerful and stylish mystery with an ever-twisting plot that continually surprises the audience without insulting its intelligence. The compelling blend of L.A. history and pulp fiction makes for an intense and fascinating film that definitely deserved more audience attention than it got.
This is my second viewing of the film, but my first as a student of film. With Dargis' commentary following the feature, I now have a deeper appreciation for this unique motion picture and liked it even more upon second viewing. A rich and complex mystery full of astonishing performances (including an Oscar for Kim Basinger's supporting role), this will definitely be remembered as a landmark film for the 90's. Its comparisons to Chinatown are inevitable. This is modern noir at its finest.
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| Rating | | | Date | April 20, 2005 | | Summary | One of the top films of the decade... | Content
| Winner of two Academy Awards, and nominated for seven others, LA Confidential was the surprise thriller of 1997. Prior to American Beauty and Gladiator, Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe starred in this seedy crime and suspense film - one of the best of the decade. Set against the backdrop of 1950's Hollywood and the celebrity culture of that era (quite indistinguishable from the celebrity culture of this era), LA Confidential projects a LA police department filled with corruption and a town obsessed with acquiring fame, money, and celebrity at any cost.
When members of imprisoned mob boss Mickey Cohen's gang start showing up dead, it's up to three cops on the LA police force to get to the bottom of the mystery. Their superior, Capt. Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) convinces wiseguys from other parts of the country to go home. It seems that someone is moving in on Cohen's underworld territory, but who? The police are led to the home of wealthy developer Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn), who runs a prostitution ring of Hollywood look-alikes.
The investigative task falls to three cops, each of whom goes about his business in a different way. Deputy Lt. Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce) is a by-the-book officer, following in the footsteps of his dead father - a former cop himself who was mysteriously murdered. Officer Wendell 'Bud' White (Russell Crowe) is a vigilante agent of law enforcement who believes in personally exacting justice and punishing those who fail to subscribe to his own perceived morality. As the son of a wife-beater, White has zero tolerance for abusers of any type. And rounding out the three is Sgt. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), a self-absorbed cop in search of Hollywood celebrity (he consults for TV shows on the side) and money. In the end, these three men of differing realities must come together if they hope to uncover the truth surrounding these mysterious killings.
In the meantime, the conflict between the three men and Capt. Smith heats up. Each must wage a personal battle against the fraternity culture of the police force, the bureaucratic machine, and the rampant corruption that infests every corridor of city hall. Along the way, Bud White strikes up a relationship (as does Exley) with one of the prostitutes from the investigation, Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger), which complicates the investigation and compromises his judgment. But when a break in the case takes place, Exley and White put their differences aside and work together to solve the case...
With a surprise ending that's one of the best of the decade, LA Confidential is a cinematic masterpiece. Wrought with symbolism, and sporting a well-written screenplay, the film captured critical acclaim as well as box office success. Highly entertaining, and dripping with suspense, LA Confidential more than qualifies for its designation as a must-see film. If you haven't seen it, then don't wait another minute longer...
The DVD Report |
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