Another vote for this as best of the '90s

Rating: 10/10 (23 September 2000)

So much has been said already about this movie that I fear I'll only echo previous sentiments, but I'll try to put in some more or less original comments.
But I have to start with a not so original vote for this as the best movie of the 1990s. That this movie lost to Titanic has forever reduced the Oscars to the level of the Grammys in my mind. I'm torn between this and Fargo as the best movie of the decade, but I tend to come down on the side of L.A. Confidential because its brilliance seems just so unlikely. That the Coen brothers could make a quirky comedy-drama out of a crime gone wrong isn't surprising. But L.A. Confidential?: the unknown -- and mostly Down Under -- starring cast, Kim Basinger giving the performance of a career, casting James Cromwell of all people as the villain, a journeyman director pulling it all together, and, above all, the best-plotted mystery in decades being adapted from a ludicrously overplotted novel.
I get a kick out of reviews that bemoan this film's "bleak" worldview. Obviously, bleak is a relative word, and relative to Ellroy's novel, the movie is as bleak as freakin' Fantasia. Of course, when you center your novel's plot around a Walt Disney-like character who sires a psychopath and makes pornography, you should expect changes in the transition to film (although it would have been fun if the family amusement park from the novel had been retained in place of the Santa Monica Freeway -- "Mike Eisner's attorney on line three, Mr. Hanson!"). Anyway, this movie is a model of writing adaptations, in that it retains the cynicism of the novel while not belaboring it (e.g., making Dudley by turns charming and ruthless, but never sadistic) and keeps us guessing without throwing in every plot device known to Robert Towne (or by sacrificing storytelling at the expense of cleverness -- cf. The Usual Suspects, The Big Sleep).
Finally, many comments on this site have (rightly) praised the film's look: the cinematography, set decoration, costuming, lighting, etc. Let me also make a plug for the soundtrack. Perhaps expectations for the dramatic soundtrack have been in the Diane Warren Age, but Curtis Hanson obviously knows that music can reinforce the story, not just move product (see also the soundtrack for his latest movie, with its Bob Dylan single).