Uncovering the dark side of Hollywood glitz

Rating: 9/10 (7 June 2013)

Every so often the Americans can make a good movie, sometimes they can make a movie with such depth and meaning to character you wonder if Hollywood actually had anything to do with it. L.A. Confidential is a movie that begins with a very solid background, believable characters and leads you through a world that is meant to shock, though this movie does not work on shock value alone. It has been based on the book by the same name by James Ellroy, and from what I have read the book goes much deeper than the movie does, and this movie is very deep.
The time in 1950's and Los Angeles is booming. Everybody wants to come for it is a paradise where the movie stars dazzle and the sun always shines, but beneath this glamour there is the crime lord Mickey Cohen, but in true Los Angeles style he is arrested in the same manner as was Al Capone and his is locked away for a long time. Thus the movie begins by showing us, the viewers, all of the glitz and glamour that makes up Los Angeles of the 1950's. But this glitz isn't going to be around for long, for it is quickly scrapped off to reveal a very dirty and corrupt underside.
The 1950's was a time when everything was supposed to be wonderful. Hitler had finally be destroyed and the freedom of the United States was running strong. Drugs and homosexuality, prostitution and government corruption did not exist in the minds of the everyday person. The movie works to undermine this completely for throughout L.A. Confidential we are continually confronted with these elements. We have high-class prostitutes cut to look like movie stars, corrupted government officials and a police force that is beginning to show signs of what will happen in twenty to forty years time with two Los Angeles Riots.
Everybody in L.A. Confidential is white, except for the occasional Hispanic and Negro. This is a statement in itself for racial segregation seem to be strong back then. We notice that all of this Hollywood glamour is all focused on the Anglo-Saxon's world. The only Hispanic in the movie are three Mexicans who are beaten up in the gaol cells and the four Negroes are violent thugs which have kidnapped and raped a Mexican girl. The Mexican girl even says "I lied because I am a Mexican and nobody cares about a Mexican." The movie focuses around three cops, but the good guys and the bad guys are not at all clear cut. There is Bud White (Russel Crowe) who is a thug of a cop who hates women bashers. He begins as a strong arm for the Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell – who played the farmer in Babe but now plays a completely different role) and as the corruption begins to grow we notice how White begins to change. This begins to come more evident when he meets Lynn Bracken (Kym Bassinger) a prostitute cut to look like Veronica White, and falls in love with her. Then there is the rookie Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) who comes onto the police force with the idea of being a cop of honour and integrity and also a detective. He refuses to bow to the corrupting forces of the police force, and even alienates himself from the rest of the department to stand up to what he believes is right. His vision of the police force begins to stain through the movie as he begins to see the corruption inside and outside the force. He begins believing that he must be honourable and realises at the end that honour must be thrown away for justice to be done. Finally there is Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) who is a vice cop that is on the payroll of magazine editor Sid Hudgeons (Danny De Vito) who pays Jack $50 to arrest people for the purpose of a story for his tabloid Hush Hush. Jack is also an adviser on a TV show called Badge of Honour, which is little more than a propaganderous creation designed to make people believe that the police force is clean and beautiful and is there to serve and to protect.
It is interesting though because one of the key issues that faces the police force in this movie is public relations. The brawl in the cells comes down to how are the police going to deal with it without staining the reputation of the police force. Nobody wants to testify, except Ed Exely, and through his help, they come up with a plan of dismissing one officer and forcing a few others to retire.
L.A. Confidential is a masterpiece of a movie. It was in the cinemas in Australia for over 5 months which is a incredibly good stretch for a movie. In my opinion is supersedes Titanic as a movie for it is not Hollywood hype but rather a movie that removes the hype to show the reality. It received two Academy Awards, which I would say is an achievement, especially in a year in which Titanic dominated it. In my opinion, L.A. Confidential is superb and should have received more.