James Ellroy is an established author who has written a bunch of books about LA in the past, usually in the 50s or 60s. He loves this era. Which makes LA Confidential a must-read. That was an easy book to adapt to a film. The director of LA Confidential, Curtis Hanson, wasn’t as prolific as a director as Ellroy was as a writer, but he did make one masterpiece, and that’s LA Confidential, which came out in 1995. It was an instant classic.

Crime and corruption were running rampant in the City of Angels in the 1950s, especially in the LA Police Department. A young upstart police officer turned detective Edmund Exley (Guy Pierce) deems to change that. The problem is that nobody wants things to change. When a group Black people get murdered in a diner, the city is in an uproar; so he needs to get some help uncovering who was truly behind these murders. Two other corrupt cops, Officer Bud White  (Russell Crowe) and Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), who have their own angles going on, end up getting wrapped up in this complex investigation themselves.

LA Confidential takes the noir genre to the next level. There are so many subplots in this film, and each of the three main characters has their own motivations.Many backstabbing things happen as well. Their stories are all very fascinating within the context of the film. One of them involves a prostitute who looks like Veronica Lake/Lynn Brakken (Kim Basinger), who is the love interest for Russell’s character. She is so good as this character. In fact, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. This was the crowning performance of her career. She had her own interests in what was going on with this mystery though.

Police stories have been around for a while now, and this is one of the best ones put on the big screen. It has many levels of storytelling within it. The depths of the story know no bounds. As in other noir films like Chinatown and many others, the police who are the main focus here are evil, conniving, and very manipulative. They run the city in a sense as if they were gangsters. The gangsters had nothing on the police.  James Cromwell as police chief Dudley Smith wants it to stay that way. He’s not a very nice guy. You don’t want to get on his bad side, or you’ll end up in the La Brea tar pits. Cromwell was great as this nasty character.

Two young Australian actors who were just coming onto the scene at this time were Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe. They were playing two completely different kinds of characters. One an intellectual and the other a brute. They both played these characters in a way where you believed all of their actions. Both characters were significant in the overall story but these two actors, now established stars, were young and new to the business at this time. They showed how they were going to become stars in Hollywood. Pearce and Crowe were both incredible in these roles. It shows with every bit of dialogue, fight scene, and action they have in this film. They are the bonus this is such a great film.

Another side to the film is the Hollywood side of the movie. Hush Hush on the QT was a newspaper run by Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito). he had all kinds of informants all over town. That includes police officers, and Spacey’s Vincennes was a big part of that. He had his television show arresting culprits of wrongdoing. The Hollywood stuff was very good as a bonus to this film, which had so much in it already. Hollywood is such a big part of Los Angeles that these aspects were so intrinsic to the story. How they were added made complete sense. It was brilliant.

The technical aspects of the movie are very good. The production design and costumes helped bring the viewers straight into the story. The cars, buildings, and all the sets looked so authentic to the time. The clothes were even better. They looked so perfect on the actors. From the tweed suits to the gorgeous gowns, Bassinger and others wore. Each character had their own look. Spacey’s Vincennes came to mind, but all looked amazing in the film. I loved how good everybody looked in the movie.

With this being noirvember, it makes sense to do a retrospective review of LA Confidential.  Ellroy’s novel is perfect for the pickings regarding a movie. It had so many elements that made for a great film. Hanson is not as prolific as other directors but he had the right mindset going in with this film. He got a great cast of up-and-comers, like Pearce and Crowe, and established stars like Spacey, DeVito, and Bassinger to come together to make a great film. Add in some amazing production design and costumes, and you have a classic film noir for the ages. Hanson would never reach these heights again in his career.

5 stars

Dan Skip Allen