Freud, Karpman, and the Modernist Aesthetic

Rating: 9/10 (8 December 2018)

I just watched 'L.A. Confidential' again, after a long hiatus. It still holds up as an expertly crafted and vastly entertaining (though ultra-violent) neo-noir. This time around I was struck by the thought that 'L.A. Confidential' is a kind of classic Freudian psychomachia, with its three principal characters - Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), and Bud White (Russell Crowe) - embodying the three parts of the human psyche, as outlined by Freud a century ago. Jack, a suave operator and publicity hound, is clearly the Ego. Ed, who is educated, cerebral, prudish, and ethical, is very much the Superego. Bud, who is full of pain, rage, and lust, is all Id. A conservative critique of the American celebrity culture of narcissism just beginning to emerge in the early 1950s, the movie depicts Jack Vincennes as cynical, venal, and corrupt-at least until he has a change of heart and casts his lot with Exley in a crusade against an evil Establishment. Jack's death (murdered by corrupt LAPD Capt. Dudley Smith) two-thirds of the way through the picture allegorically signals the falling away of selfish egotism just as the late-stage alliance of Ed (the Official Hero) and Bud (the Outlaw Hero) signals psychological resolution for both characters, who then converge into one powerful force for Good (Ed overcomes his emotional and psychological rigidities and Bud overcomes his rage and grief as both men commit to battle a common enemy). There's a social class allegory here, as well. Ed embodies bourgeois ambition while Bud embodies working-class angst and despair. Their coming together figures for a uniting of the professional managerial class (PMC) and the working-class against a corrupt ruling elite: an unlikely occurrence in real life but deeply satisfying as a cinematic imaginary. One could also invoke Karpman's Drama Triangle here, especially in regards to the Bud White character. Victimized by his brutal father, who murdered his mother, Bud has become a perennial persecutor of woman-abusers and rescuer of woman-victims: an obsession that keeps him immersed in self-consuming melodrama until he turns his attention to a different kind of evil, i.e., the corrupt alliance between Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) and the city's heroin peddling gangsters.