L.A. Confidential (1997)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Kim Basinger became the latest in a long string of actresses to win (or be nominated for) an Academy Award for playing a call girl prostitute or any number of names associated with the oldest profession. She plays a Veronica Lake-lookalike in this early 1950’s era crime thriller adapted from the James Ellroy novel of the same name by director Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland; they shared the Best Writing Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Oscar. Hanson was nominated for his direction as was the film (e.g. for Best Picture) and its Art Direction-Set Decoration Cinematography Editing Sound and Score. Other leading roles are played by Kevin Spacey Russell Crowe Guy Pearce James Cromwell David Strathairn and Danny DeVito.
After Hollywood had time to digest and pick their exploitive angles years after the Rodney King beating by L.A.’s finest this one makes the case that police corruption in The City of Angels is nothing new that it is in fact systemic. In the movie an officer such as Pearce’s ‘Ed’ Exley who wants to prove that he can stay straight in the department and still succeed is hated by his peers. In the end of course he has to adopt the illegal tactics of his fellow detectives (Spacey) subordinates (Crowe) and captain in order to survive. Spacey’s Jack Vincennes who’s a technical advisor for a Dragnet-like TV show called Badge of Honor also moonlights for a tabloid magazine written by Sid Hudgens (DeVito) “Off the record on the QT and very hush-hush.” ‘Bud’ White who falls for Basinger’s Lynn Bracken is the muscle employed by Captain Dudley Smith (Cromwell) for various violence. Strathairn plays a mysterious wealthy financier – Pierce Patchett – who (among other things) employs Bracken and other women like her that are ‘cut’ to look like Hollywood starlets to fulfill men’s fantasies. Paul Guilfoyle and Ron Rifkin also play key roles.
It’s fairly enthralling in that you have to pay attention if you want to know what’s going on and pretty good though generally overrated probably because it’s better than the dreck from the preceding years and since. True to form the formula was used almost exactly 10 years later to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (The Departed (2006)).
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