OK, right welcome to December, its the last month of the year and well I would like to do seven posts for this month before the year ends (at least!) to get this blog's tally up to 80 posts for 2016, which is pretty meagre I must admit but then real life can get in the way of course.
Anyway I digress, so back to business and this post is YET another revisitation of a previous I had ALREADY revisited(!) two years ago and that post is on the film, L.A. Confidential. Now I might not add a great deal more (as the post is long enough!) but I will add in my usual current structure (headings and everything!) to make it a bit more readable.
So without further ado let's re-revist L.A. Confidential and yep the usual warning is coming...
SPOILERS ARE COMING UP!!!
STORY
So the film begins on Christmas Eve 1952, where the hot headed, thuggish police officer Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe) stops a violent domestic dispute between a married couple asBud himself has a thing for punishing women beaters.
After that, Bud and his partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) go back to the police station, where six Mexican suspects are brought into the station who apparently attacked two of the station's officers. In a vengeful mood, Stensland goes down to the cells and beats up on one of the Mexicans, and before you know the whole place erupts into a riot, with the press labelling the riot as "Bloody Christmas".
In the aftermath of the event, Bud refuses to testify against his partner Stensland, and is suspended from duty, meanwhile one of the officers Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) who was witness to the attacks, is more than happy to testify against Stensland the other officers who attacked the Mexicans. At his insistance, in order to play ball, Exley requests that he be made detective lieutenant, something which his late father Preston Exley once held the mantel of.
However in snitching against the other officers, Exley soon makes himself very unpopluar with the other officers. But the police captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) re-instates Bud, and uses him in his scheme as one of his muscle men to beat up and intimidate any criminals who try to make a name for themselves in LA.
But things take a dramatic turn when Bud's ex-partner Stensland, is found murdered in a coffee shop, the Nite Owl, with some other people, among them was a female associate of the millionaire, Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn) who was girl named Susan Lefferts (Amber Smith). The LA police dept then arranges a full man-hunt to try and catch the killers, and soon find three young black men as prime suspects for killings.
On interrogating the men, Exley finds out they actually are holding a young Mexican woman hostage in a house, who has been raped and beaten. On the scene of the crime, Bud sneaks into the house and kills the black man in the house. Later on the young suspects escape the station, but Exley soon tracks them down and kills them, which finally garners him some respect from his fellow officers at the station.
However something doesn't sit right with Exley about the negros being the killers, as he investigates further, he receives help from local cop celebrity Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) who has a sideline in acting as a technical advisor on the show Badge of Honor, as well providing some hot press collars for local sleazy journalist Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) who writes and publishes for the "Hush-Hush" tabloid magazine. Likewise Bud also thinks something is strange about the suspect negro youths, and also investigates, meanwhile he dates Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) who is a movie star look-a-like of the Hollywood actress, Veronica Lake.
Bud after enquiring about the Nite Owl case to one of the forensic staff, finds out one of the victims was a Susan Lefferts. Bud goes to Susan's mother's house and inquires about her, and she finds out that Stensland was her boyfriend, on looking around the house, Bud notices a foul smell, which he tracks to under the house, where he finds the remains of Buzz Meeks, Stensland's former partner. Exley soon follows Bud's tail and he too goes to Mrs Lefferts house where he finds the body, which he takes to the pathology lab to get ID'd.
Exley working with Vincennes, tails Bud's movements, as they spy on him from Lynn's house, as we see them both together. Shortly after Exley goes to meet Lynn to confront her, believing that Patchett has her seeing Bud, but she denies this and instead seduces Exley, as the pair of them have sex, we see Sid Hudgens outside the window, taking pictures to frame him.
Around this time, Vincennes goes to Dudley's house and tells him about an old case involving Dick Stensland and Buzz Meeks (by now his remains have been ID'd by the coroner), when without warning Dudley shoots Vincennes in the heart, he then leans in and asks him "do you have a valediction, boyo?" to which Vincennes quietly gasps "Rollo Tomasi" and then dies (a name that Exley told him earlier, which was a made-up name he gave to the man who killed his father, Preston Exley).
The next day Dudley let's slip this name to Exley to follow it up, who pretends he doesn't know anything about it, but then realises that Dudley was behind everything to do with the Nite Owl murders. And after Dudley questions Sid Hudgens, with Bud, Bud learns of Lynn's liaison with Exley from Sid, and angrily confronts him back at the station, but Exley convinces Bud that Dudley is behind everything and they decide to put aside their differences and work together to try and bring Dudley down and end the corruption in the LAPD.
THOUGHTS
L.A. Confidential is without any doubt a great film, and for me one of the best films of the 1990s. Curtis Hanson who after directing some fairly pedestrian thrillers such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild, really established himself as a filmmaker here. The film itself is of course based on the same titled novel by James Elroy, and the book features many more characters and detail which isn't in the film, but what the film presents is surely a great representation of the book.
And its the characters in L.A. Confidential that make this film work so well, and if you look at it, there actually isn't a morally decent character in the film, everyone is essentially a sleazeball in one way or another, but they are all something of a dichotomy as well. Exley, may appear to be a stand-up cop with integrity, who refuses to get his hands dirty with planting evidence or beating up suspects, however he does ruthelessly rat on members of the police force, in order to further his own career.
Bud on the other hand, appears to be as Exley puts it a "mindless thug" but he does have another side to him, as ultimately he wants to be a detective also working cases, but his temper and violent streak threaten to alienate him from the audience at times, but behind it all he is a somewhat sensitive guy with a troubled past and has a thing for punishing women beaters as a result of his own mother being beaten to death by his alcoholic father when he was younger.
Jack Vincennes is also corrupt character in that he gladly takes money from Sid Hudgens, the local Hush Hush magazine reporter, as he sets up arrests and the suspects get unwanted publicity in Sid's mag, but again behind that, Jack starts to feel guilty about his activities and questions himself as the film goes on.
The film also has several excellent supporting characters, particularly Dudley Smith, as the slight yet intimidating police captain who has another agenda, while he looks after the men under his command, he also ironically has a line in corruption and tampering with evidence as well as police brutality.
And then we have Pierce Patchett, the mysterious millionaire, who while he hosts high class sex parties, and makes pornographic films, he has ambitions beyond that to invest in freeway construction. And there's Lynn Bracken, meanwhile she isn't the most interesting character in the film, she is also another one who is wishing to escape from her sleazy lifestyle, as a wannabe film actress, who is engaging in Patchett's sexual enterpises.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES
Overall the film's performances are great, particularly the three main leads are very strong, with Guy Pearce, who prior to this was in Priscilla, The Queen of the Desert, as a transvestite and playing Mike from Neighbours, playing the part of the ice cool Exley to perfection.
Pearce has many highlights in the film and the first one that comes to mind is the scene where Exley meets with Vincennes and tells him of "Rollo Tomasi" and says "Rollo Tomasi was a purse snatcher, and he shot my father six times and got away clean. I didn't even know who he was. I just made up the name to give him some personality. Rollo Tomasi was the reason I became a cop, I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. But somewhere along the way I lost sight of that. It was supposed to be about justice."
Another one of Guy's best scenes is where Dudley asks him if he has heard of a known associate which alarms him but in a way in which he tries not to show it, and in this moment we see Guy give a very subtle reaction with his eyes. Its a very subtle and deft moment in his performance.
Then there is the scene from Pearce is where Exley interrogates the negro youths about the Nite Owl murders in the interrogation rooms and he slyly turns the PA speakers on in the other rooms for the other youths so they can hear what the one Exely is interrogating is saying. And Pearce has a good line in the scene where he says to one of the youths, Ray, "You know, Ray, I'm talking about the gas chamber and you haven't even asked me what this is about. You've got a big "guilty" sign around your neck!".
And another highlight from Guy comes in the scene where Exley confronts Bud after Bud has rescued the rape victim and Exley asks Bud "How do you think it will look in your report?!" and Bud says it will look like justice, and Exely sharply replies "You don't know the meaning of the word you ignorant bastard!".
Yet another good scene is when Exley goes with Vincennes to question Johnny Stampanato, Mickey Cohen's right hand man, who is on a date with Lana Turner. But Exley thinks that she is just a hooker cut to look like Lana Turner and he says to Stampanato "Since when do two-bit hoods and hookers give out autographs?!" and he says "A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner, is still a hooker! She just looks like Lana Turner" but Vincennes tells Exley that she really is Lana Turner, who angrily throws a drink in Exley's face.
And last of all is the scene where Bud out of rage nearly kills Exley when he learns that he slept with Lynn and Exley tells him that (PLOT SPOILER!) Dudley was behind it all. And Exley says to Bud "If we are going to work this out we need to work together" and Bud looks surprised as he says to him "Why are you doing this? The Nite Owl made you, now you wanna tear all that down?" and Exley replies "With a wrecking ball! You wanna help me swing it?".
Russell Crowe, is also excellent as the explosive Bud White, two thirds heavy, one third sensitive, and he provides some of the film's highlights with Bud's brutal and volatile behaviour as well as some of the film's best dialogue.
And Crowe's various highlights in the film include his opening scene where he interrupts a domestic dispute between a couple and he pulls down their Christmas decorations outside to break it up. And as the burly man steps out and asks who he is, Bud replies "The ghost of Christmas past. Why don't you dance with a man for a change?" before he beats him up and cuffs him and says "You'll be out in a year, I'll get cosy with your parole officer. You touch her again and I'll have you violated on a kiddie raper beef!" and he grabs the man's head and says "You know what they do to kiddie rapers up in Quentin!".
Then there is the scene where Exley interrogates the black youths about the Nite Owl murders, but it comes to light that they are holding a girl some place who they have raped and assaulted. And this leads to Bud going ape and barging in on the interrogation and grabbing the youth, Ray and taking out his gun and removing five of the bullets and jams it into Ray's mouth shouting "One in six! Where is the girl?!" and he pulls the trigger again yelling "WHERE IS THE GIRL????!!!!" before a terrified Ray tells him.
Another good scene comes afterward where Bud argues with Exley over the nature of his rescuing the rape victim. And Bud angrily says to Exley "Why don't you give your career a rest and go after criminals for a change instead of cops!" and as Exley asks him what it will look like Bud says "It will look like justice! That's what the man got. Justice!". And Exely taunts him by saying about Bud's ex-partner Stensland "Stensland got what he deserved and so will you!" which prompts Bud to go apeshit and charge at Exley but he is restrained by about six police officers!
Then there is the scene where Bud questions Johnny Stamapanto in a bar about what he knows of the former disgraced cop, Buzz Meeks, but he isn't too forthcoming, so Bud grabs Johnny by his nuts and says to him "What do I get if I give you your balls back, you wop cocksucker?!".
And lastly I will mention the scene where Exley and Bud pay a visit to the D.A. Ellis Loew (Ron Rifkin) who Exley questions but doesn't get far with him, so Bud interrupts Loew in the toilet and violently grabs his head and shoves it down the toilet before letting him up he says "Now I know you think your the A-number one hotshot, but here's the juice...if I take you out, there will be 10 more lawyers to take your place tomorrow. They won't come on the bus that's all!" before he pulls up Loew and then dangles him outside his office window until Loew gives in and spills the beans.
Kevin Spacey who is usually superb, certainly doesn't let the side down, and provides some great moments as Vincennes, the suave celebrity cop who slowly becomes disillusioned with his job. And this brings up one of his best scene being when Exley asks him "why did you become a cop?" to which Vincennes looks lost for an answer and quietly says "I don't remember".
Then there is the scene where he sits pondering in a bar what to do about going through with Sid Hutchins scam to screw over the young actor whom was disgraced at the start of the film by Hutchins. And in the scene Vincennes in the bar, looks at himself in the mirror, clearly unhappy with his situation, he then goes to the hotel where the actor and the DA are supposed to be only to find the actor is lying dead in a pool of blood.
Spacey has another great scene where Vincennes talks to Exley at the court where they both are going to testify against some of the police officers involved in the prison riot at the start of the film. And in the scene Vincennes says to Exley "Come on you're playing an angle here, college boy, so you don't have to hobnob with rank and file cops who are gonna hate your guts for snitching!" and he continues "Well if they are going to make you detective, watch out!" and then "Oh and Bud White will fuck you for this if it takes him the rest of his life!".
And then there is the scene where Exley and Vincennes go to the hotel room where the young black men are staying and they arrest them alongside two of Dudley's men who beat up some of the youths, and Vincennes turns to Exley and says "So, how does it feel getting out of the office?!". In the scene Exley also forgets to bring his glasses just before they go and arrest the youths and Vincennes says to him "You're kidding! Well just don't shoot me!".
And Spacey's last scene in the film is one of his best where Vincennes meets with Dudley at his home and Vincennes tells Dudley of the investigations into an old case involving Stensland and Buzz Meeks, but Dudley surprises him and shoots Vincennes in the chest. And Vincennes with his dying breath is asked if he has a valediction by Dudley and Vincennes quietly says "Rollo Tomasi!" before he gives a short laugh and then dies and there is no one better at doing dead acting than Spacey here, as his stillness is incredible.
James Cromwell, also a brilliant actor, before this was in some light hearted fluffy stuff such as Babe, arrived as a great dramatic performer, as he superbly plays the corrupt police captain, Dudley Smith.
Cromwell also has his share of great moments such as his first scene with Exley where Dudley asks after Exley's impressive test results in a police exam what line of work would Exley like to work in and Exley replies "I was thinking detective bureau". And Dudley says to Exley "Ed, you're a political animal, you have the eye for human weakness but not the stomach" and as Exley says he is wrong, Dudley says "Would you be willing to plan corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew to be guilty, in order to ensure an indictment? Would you be willing to beat a confession out of a suspect you knew to be guilty? Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, in order to offset the chance that some lawyer...". And Exley says no to all these questions and Dudley says "Then for the love of God, don't be a detective. Stick to assignments where you don't have to make those kind of choices!".
Then there is the scene where Dudley meets with Vincennes and then shoots him in a surprise twist, he leans close in on the dying Vincennes and asks him "Do you have a valediction, Boyo?". And the next day Dudley meets with Bud and asks him to come with him to the Victory motel, where they interrogate suspects and he says to Bud "You seem to be a bit of a puzzlement to me these days, Wendell and I had such great plans for your future. You have your own extracurricular activities and so do I".
And then there is the scene where Dudley interrogates Sid Hudgens with Bud present, Dudley looks over to Bud to have him stay alert and ready to beat up Sid when needed. And Dudley says to him "Wendell I want full and docile co-operation on every topic!" and as Dudley questions Sid some more, Bud slugs a powerful punch to Sid's gut and Dudley says one of his best lines to Sid "Reciprocity, Mr Hudgens, is the key to every relationship!".
And when Sid drops the hint that Exely slept with Lynn by mentioning blackmail photos he had taken, this prompts Bud to go ballistic (again!) and uproot the interrogation seat from the floor and nearly stomp on Sid before racing off to the car and finding the photos of Lynn and Exley together. And as Bud leaves in his car to confront Lynn, Dudley looks on from the door and says "I wouldn't trade places with Edmund Exley right now for all the whisky in Ireland!".
Next is Kim Basinger as the call girl, Lynn Bracken, and Kim gives a pretty decent performance in the film but its far from worthy of the academy award she received for it, particularly when the film has so many good performers.
Still Kim does have some good moments in the film such as the scene where she first meets with Bud and she flirts with him and says "There's blood on your shirt, is that an intrical part of your job?" and Bud says yes and Lynn asks "Do you enjoy it?" and Bud says "When they deserve it" and Lynn asks "Did they deserve it today" and Bud suddenly says "I don't know". And as Bud leaves he turns at the door and says to her "I would like to see you again" and Lynn says "Are you asking me for an appointment or a date?" and Bud all of a sudden becomes embarrassed and says "Forget I asked. It was a mistake".
And later there is Kim's scene with Guy Pearce, where Exley confronts Lynn, who ends up seducing him and she taunts Exley by saying how good Bud is (as she is dating Bud by this time). And Lynn says to Exley "I see Bud because I want to. I see Bud because he can't hide the good inside him. I see Bud because he treats me like Lynn Bracken and not some Veronica Lake look-a-like who fucks for money". And then Exley suddenly kisses her and Lynn heatedly says to him "Fucking me and fucking Bud are not the same thing, you know!" before they get it on (with Sid outside taking snaps of them at it).
Also there is the scene near the end where Lynn having being beaten by an angry Bud for cheating on him, sits quietly at the police station when Exley arrives, who by this time has also been beaten by Bud. And Exley asks her "Are you ok?" and she says yes and looks at him and says "Are you OK?".
And getting to the last two, first of all there is Danny DeVito, who actually to be honest plays the film's most irritating character, Sid Hudgens, the sleazy reporter for Hush Hush magazine.
Still DeVito has some good moments in the film, such as the scene where he sets up the young actor Matt Reynolds to seduce the D.A. and Sid turns to Vincennes and says "As if the Badge of Honor, would touch that guy with a ten foot pole after he's been Hush-Hush cover boy twice in one year!".
Then there is the scene where Sid is interrogated by Dudley and he receives a few hefty punches from Dudley's man and Bud, and he tells Dudley "I have blackmail shit in my car! Patchett got me to take pictures of this cop screwing some gorgeous slut named Lynn, who looks just like Veronica Lake!". And after Bud attacks Sid and leaves, Sid says to Dudley "I thought you were gonna let the dumb bastard kill me! You can uncuff me now fellas" just before Dudley puts on some leather gloves and leans over Sid, who panics and says "But you and me and Patchet, we're a team! Dudley!" and Dudley puts his hand over Sid's mouth and says "Hush! Hush!".
And of course DeVito opens the film with Hudgens narrating the backstory regarding Mickey Cohen and his drug rackets and Hudgens finishes the intro scene as we see him sit in his office typing "When I know more readers, so will you, until then its off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush!".
And last of all there is David Strathairn who is great in his role as Pierce Patchett, the corrupt and wealthy businessman, who runs high class sex parties as well as makes adult films using call girls dressed up as movie stars.
Strathairn also has some good moments in the film such as his scene where he meets with Bud and he says to him what he knew of Susan Lefferts, the girl who was killed in the Nite Owl massacre. And after he answers Bud's question he says "Now I sense you are on your best behaviour but that's all I'm going to say for now. If you persist I will meet you with my attorney". And Patchett then says to Bud "Catch Susan's killer, Mr White and I will give you a handsome reward. Whatever you desire!".
And later when Patchett meets with Exley and Vincennes he remains cools and quite evasive and Exley says to him "We want some answers, Patchett" and Patchett replies "Oh, we all want something!".
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Finally getting onto the director, Curtis Hanson, who does a superb job here with the film and the jump in quality between his previous efforts such as River Wild and this one is quite remarkable.
Hanson confidently handles the film's action and also ties the story nicely together along with all the plot strands involving the three lead characters as he even co-wrote the screenplay alongside Brian Helgeland. Hanson also keeps the film moving at a brisk pace and never at any time does it flag or feel like any scenes are padded out.
And last there is the film's music score which was written by the late great Jerry Goldsmith, one of the all time great composers in American cinema. Goldsmith's score provides the perfect mixture of sleaze, menace and moodiness to capture the time of the film and the events. Strangely enough the score also resembles Goldsmith's score for Chinatown, in fact you could almost swear at times that's what you were listening to if you kept your eyes closed. Overall its a great one.
FLAWS
As for the L.A. Confidential's flaws..... well its actually a film that is close to perfect so there isn't any much to complain about here except maybe the odd niggle.
And to start off one of things I might say about it is that the only really irritating character in the film is Sid Hugens who's journo code-talk (if you want to call it that!) and his relentless cheery eyed, devilish optimisim becomes quite tiresome as well as the way he yaks on using terms such as "acey ducey" and "ingenuine dykes" and "I want an all hopheads cover issue, Schwartzman, Jazz musicians and all!" and how Jack Vincennes "is on the night train to the big adios!".
In fact when Hudgens gets his comeuppance you don't really have that much sympathy for him anyway, given all the dirt he has dug up on so many people throughout the film. This does however pre-empt one of the film's best lines from one of the cops that arrives on the scene of Sid's murder, where he says "someone beat him to death, and stole a bunch of files. Guess he dug up dirt on the wrong guy, we've got it nailed down to a thousand suspects!".
Another slight issue I have with the film is the almost telepathic link that Exley and Bud have with each other that they just happen to know something was written with the Nite Owl killings and how it was solved. And yeah OK I buy it more for Exley as he got his doubts from when he questioned the rape victim after he wheeled her out in a wheelchair from the hospital as she lied in her statement to the police, but with Bud its more just an intuition than anything else.
So in a way there is not much basis for Bud sussing it out other than just a hunch but the two men seem to have their doubts just at the same time. But I guess the same can be said for Jack Vincennes but the murder of the young aspiring actor was what got him thinking something was up but he didn't make the connection between the actor's death and the Nite Owl killings. Again its a bit trivial but just an afterthought.
And lastly another one of things that bothered me was when the young black guys escaped the police station as basically in this scene ALL the police officers seemed to vacate the station leaving them free to escape! Now this is quite a bizzare case of police negligence to say the least that they would not at least leave a few police officers behind to guard them! But nope, they all clear off to arrive at the crime scene to save the Mexican girl. So for me this is one of the very few scenes here that don't quite add up.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
Soooo L.A. Confidential without a doubt is one of my favourite films and for me its one of the best films in recent years, its cast are all on top form, the direction is tight, the music is great and the script and dialogue are first class. There is precious little to quibble about (except the aforementioned minor flaws of course!) with this film and for me its definitely one to watch time and time again.
And with that I shall bid ye goodnight and will be back another post fairly soon.
Till then bye for now!
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