director
Curtis
Hanson
screenwriters
Brian Helgeland
Curtis Hanson
based on
the novel by
James Ellroy
producers
Curtis Hanson
Arnon Milchan
Michael Nathanson
cinematographer
Dante Spinotti
music
Jerry Goldsmith
editor
Peter Honess
cast
Kevin Spacey (Jack Vincennes)
Russell Crowe (Wendell 'Bud' White)
Guy Pearce (Ed Exley)
James Cromwell (Dudley Smith)
Kim Basinger (Lynn Bracken)
Danny DeVito (Sid Hudgens)
David Strathairn (Patchett)
Ron Rifkin (Ellis Loew)
Matt McCoy (Brett Chase)
Paul Guilfoyle (Mickey Cohen)
Paolo Seganti (Johnny Stompanato)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 138m
u.s.
release: 9/19/97
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
other curtis
hanson films
reviewed on this website:
- 8
mile
- wonder boys
|
Los
Angeles in the early '50s -- the world of the dazzling L.A.
Confidential -- is a well-lit place of darkness. "The
sun shines bright," we're told at the beginning, and even
the night is sliced open by spotlights and tabloid flashbulbs.
This is the L.A. of James Ellroy's "bad white men,"
the brutes and killers driven by ambition and obsession. Are
they cops or mobsters? What's the difference? L.A. Confidential
is part of Ellroy's brilliant "L.A. Quartet," an alternative
gutter history of America mixing sensational fact and corrosive
fiction. Except for a couple of easily overlooked movie-ish speeches
and alterations, the new film adaptation does full justice to
the moral complexity and compulsive sin of Ellroy's universe.
It may just be the movie of the year.
The closest thing to a hero is Bud White (Russell Crowe), a dim
and brutal cop who likes to kick the crap out of wife-beaters.
Bud's willingness to use excessive force has made him both admired
and feared in his department. Bud's opposite number is Ed Exley
(Guy Pearce), a shrewd and virtuous young cop who believes in
integrity and non-violence. Ed also believes in advancement,
and isn't above snitching on fellow cops to nab a Detective Lieutenant
spot. Somewhere in the middle is Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey),
a cop who acts as technical advisor to the popular cop show Badge
of Honor and has a standing deal with tabloid vulture Sid
Hudgens (Danny DeVito) to get himself ink and glory.
Ellroy's cops are haunted by erotic and psychological demons
that drive them far more than any ideal of justice. The film,
directed by Curtis Hanson (The River Wild) from a script
he wrote with Brian Helgeland (Conspiracy
Theory), distills Ellroy's epic into a compact drama
that sketches in the motives that Ellroy plumbed in depth. Gone,
for example, are Jack's addiction to violent porn and Ed's romance
with a rape victim, whose adulation of the brutal Bud compels
Ed to prove his manhood and earn the nickname "Shotgun Ed."
What's left of Ellroy's story is still so dense that I barely
have room to touch on it. A massacre at the Nite Owl Diner leaves
six people dead, among them a dirty cop. Ed takes the case, and
Jack and Bud flit around the criminal margins of L.A., sniffing
after vague scents of corruption. A ritzy call-girl ring of movie-star
lookalikes (including Kim Basinger as a Veronica Lake hooker)
is involved, as well as Mickey Cohen and heroin and pornography
and male hustlers. Yet all of this is easy to follow; the filmmakers
have boiled the story down to its bare, punchy essentials. Several
moments are stunningly violent, especially the death of a major
character (significantly changed from the book).
I regret a few Hollywood touches -- one of which is Ellroy's.
Ed's speech about the death of his cop father is meant to set
up a later revelation, but it rings false anyway. The ending,
which gives one of the men a happily-ever-after exit with Kim
Basinger, is right from the novel; it smacked of wishful thinking
there, too. But overall this is a great achievement. Masterfully
acted across the board (Australian actors Crowe and Pearce deserve
the stardom they're about to get), L.A. Confidential is
dizzying and powerful. James Ellroy is justifiably proud of it,
and Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland should be, too. |