Slightly flawed, but still a film for the ages.

Rating: 10/10 (15 April 1999)

People have compared this film to Chinatown. That's not quite right. After viewing Chinatown, one couldn't sleep for nights. Evil triumphed, and it did so in an absolutely terrifying way. Here the "good guys" won a very ambiguous victory, though at a terrible price. ( It should be noted that In Ellroy's masterpiece, the 'victory' is even more ambiguous, and the price Ed Exley pays is much, much greater.)Still, this film is magnificent..there are lines in this movie that will be remembered as long as people watch movies. The wonderful montage sequence ( accompanied by Kay Starr's "Wheel of Fortune'), and the opening narrated by Devito are superb.Finally, this will be remembered for its acting. What other recent film has unveiled not one , but TWO future superstars, Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe? Have James Cromwell and Kevin Spacey EVER been better? Everybody else-including Basinger and the usually irritating DeVito-was simply smashing. It wasn't Ellroy's novel, to be sure, but to capture all of Ellroy's book would take a film the length of the Russian version of war and Peace, or Gances Napoleon.