In 1996 I discovered a love for hard boiled and pulp novels. I started to devour Elmore Leonard novels and short stories. This eventually let to the uniquely hard boiled writing style of James Elroy. Elroy wrote fictional cop stories and also true crime. His books were set in Hollywood's Golden age of the 1940s and 1950s and his cops wanted that Hollywood image. His characters spoke in pulpy short sentences and Elroy's writing style can be difficult to digest at first. Eventually I stumbled onto the novel, L. A. Confidential. It quickly became the gold standard for this type of novel, for me. Everything pulpy, everything with hard boiled detectives and mysterious dames got judged against this novel. The hardest thing to do when you love something in such a way is to watch someone screw it up on screen. Today, I am much more able to separate the love I have of something from its remake or adaptation, but in 1997, I could not. If L.A. Confidential had been a mess, I would have never forgiven anyone involved. Luckily, it was and still is a brilliant detective story full of pulpy twists, wonderful performances, crackling dialog, steamy sexual tension and wonderfully perfect costumes. In fact, I loved this movie so much upon my first viewing that I went back to Blockbuster and rented everything the director, Curtis Hanson, had previously directed. I even went so far as to track down everything the screen writer, Brian Helgeland had written to see if he was always so great (side note, he was not). I could imagine going in how they would get the aura of the novel so well, and they ended up getting everything about what I loved so very right. However, as the years went on and I kept watching the movie, I realized that I loved the movie as a completely separate entity. It was not because it was such a good adaptation, it was because it is just that damn great a movie.
Set in the world of sleaze and glamour of 1950s Hollywood, L.A. Confidential tells the story of three cops all out for a different kind of truth, and realizing that maybe, just maybe, they are all searching for the same thing. Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) is the police force's Golden Boy. He is a pretty face, he is determined and he is always out for truth. He will do anything to get it as long as it stays within the confines of legality. He is a rule follower and it makes him hated among other cops, but loved by his superiors. Bud White (Russel Crowe) uses brute strength to get his justice. He is a cop with a temper and is always on the verge of beating people within inches of their lives. Not known for intelligence, White is feared by all. Finally, Jack Vinscennes (Kevin Spacey) is a pure Hollywood cop,. he wants the glitz and glamour of high profile arrests. He wants to be in the papers and he will always take the easy way out. A multiple homicide in an after hours diner sets the film in motion and the film is about finding out who did the killing, but it is also about uncovering the truth of deep seeded police corruption, a prostitution ring that involves girls made to look like high profile actresses, and the crime boss opening left by Mickey Cohen's arrest.
First of all, L.A. Confidential is based on a novel that runs about 500 pages long. It is a multi layered novel with three cops each getting tons to do. it is the third in Ellroy's L.A. Quartet and some of the characters from the other books show up in this book weaving a complex series of stories spanning years within one book. It is complicated to say the least and Curtin Hanson and Brian Helgeland do an amazing job of capturing the complexities of the stories, and the characrers in the 2 and a half hour film. Every single scene pops with wonderful dialog and insight into this world they recreated with pain staking detail. Hanson blends wonderful action with effective thrills and even manages to have entire scenes of meaty dialog without anything ever feeling boring. The action weaves between the three characters at just the right pace so you do not feel you are missing anything. We are able to digest each new piece of information, but do not have long enough to sit back and wonder what it really means because there is more to chew on coming very quickly. The twists ans turns happen on a dime and even though we follow these three characters, we are never truly sure how many, if any, we can really trust. Dante Spinotti's cinematography manages to perfectly capture both the glitz and the sleaze of Hollywood, which gives the film the perfect backdrop. His camera also captures these wonderfully perfect costumes in all of their glory. The detectives are all in perfectly tailored suits and perfectly fitted fedoras and the girls in wonderfully lush gowns with perfect hair and make up for the time period. These details may seem small, but this is not a small world being created, so every detail helps.
Beyond that, Pearce and Crowe are magnetic. In 1997, Crowe had two American film credits to his name and Pearce had zero. They were nobodies and they were carrying a huge load in this enormous project and they are both outstanding. I have no idea how Pearce did not turn into a massive star after this film launched him. His Exley is the moral center of the film, but he is not always good. He is not always smart. He is kind of weak at first and Pearce shows all of that and as the film goes deeper into sex and murder and mayhem, we see Exley slowly come to terms with what he has to do. He has a few scenes where he just lights up the screen with this intelligent intensity. Crowe, as White makes a seriously imposing figure. It helps that his scenes are in the darkness. His character is not afraid to get dirty and he is no fool, but he lets you believe he is a fool. I feel like Crowe really connected to White's plight in this film. his character, in my opinion, goes through the biggest transformation and he becomes the underdog. He also has some wonderful scenes with Kim Basinger, who won an Oscar for her supporting role as a high class prostitute made to look like Veronica Lake. She and Crowe have a smoldering heat between them. In fact, Pearce and Basinger also have this smoldering tension between them, and the scene where it comes to a head is one of my favorites in the entire film. Crowe and Pearce, while both not being American born, look like they were born to play 1950s cops in Los Angeles. Everything about them works. Of course, Kevin Spacey is no slouch. Coming off a few years where he won an Oscar, played a fearsome serial killer, and the worst boss in the world (The Usual Suspects, Se7en, and Swimming with Sharks, respectively), Spacey is virtual perfection as the ultimate Hollywood cop. He is the collaborating cop on a cop TV show, he gives heads up to gossip rags about drugs and sex busts of high profile actors and Spacey does it all with the easy confidence of a pro. However, he also plays the more intense scenes very well. His ability to move from easy charm to quiet intensity makes Vinscennes my favorite character in the film. If you add James Cromwell and Danny Devito to the mix, you get an incredibly solid cast for an incredibly wonderful film.
L. A. Confidential is telling a tricky story and it allows the film to unfold at exactly the right times. No turn is telegraphed and no twist comes at you too early. It is easily described as Film Noir, but I think it is something different. The story is not really the point. In fact, for much of the film, the events that happen seem incredibly disconnected. What is key to this film is how the characters react. This is a story about how characters are affected and shaped by events. The film is more concerned with how the three protagonists will handle all of the things thrown at them. It is why it was so vital for these roles to be perfectly cast, and they are. The focus on the characters never gets lost, either, even in the most brutal violence and this film has one of the most realistically brutal beat downs I have seen on film. Today, L. A. Confidential seems insanely relevant. We now turn trials into television spectacles and we are all using our cameras to capture wrong doings. We are still obsessed with Hollywood. It would not surprise me if there was a place on-line where you could get girls/guys who look like celebrities to come sleep with you for the right price. That element of the film will probably always be spot on.
For every twist and turn, L. A. Confidential maintains it wonderful easy pacing and its complex characters trying desperately to stay ahead of the criminal underground. It cares about what happens to these people, and it allows us to care about what happened to them. Each of the three protagonists has a distinct personality and a very distinct way of reacting to every single thing that goes on. We understand that morality is not black and white and that these characters are at once, moral and immoral and that is a magical thing to watch.
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