Eisenhower Era LA

Rating: 10/10 (28 May 2008)

I think that all LA Confidential needed was possibly the writing touch of someone like Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. But since those two worthy gentleman are beyond reach, this is as good as it will get for the modern cinema.
Anticipating the film Crash by several years, LA Confidential is a period piece set in the Eisenhower era Los Angeles and its police department which has a history of corruption more than most. A whole lot of separate incident are tied together quite intricately as the cast's three police heroes, together and separately piece it all together.
Three very different kinds of cops are portrayed here. First is the laid back Kevin Spacey who has a casual attitude towards the corruption he sees. He's also the police adviser to a Dragnet style show and enjoys a whole lot of perks that come with it.
Secondly is Guy Peace who's a real boy scout, but is the son of a hero cop and also knows how to work department politics. He doesn't look the other way on corruption, he rises in rank because he turned in fellow officers and he's hated up and down the line.
Finally there's Russell Crowe whose character reminds me of the big dumb son in House of Strangers played by Paul Valentine who Edward G. Robinson made a guard in his bank. Even in the days before the Miranda decision, Crowe made a specialty of getting confessions the old fashioned way. Certain higher ups, particularly Captain James Cromwell recognize his unique talents and call him in when needed. Like Valentine though he proves in the end to be quite a bit smarter than everyone gives him credit for.
The beating of some Mexican prisoners, the massacre of six people at a Hollywood Diner, a call girl service where the girls are made up to look like movie stars, a bisexual actor killed at a sleazy motel, and a whole lot more are all part of an complex story that won one of two Oscars LA Confidential received, for best screenplay adapted from another source.
The second Oscar went to Kim Basinger as one of the call girls who is made up like Veronica Lake. She gets all the men in this cast into maxim hormonal overdrive, especially Pearce and Crowe. Basinger won for Best Supporting Actress that year.
Woven into the story are such real characters as mob boss Mickey Cohen whose arrest for tax evasion sets up a lot of the situations here, his number one enforcer Johnny Stompanato and Lana Turner who would shortly be some of the biggest tabloid fodder ever.
Look also for some nice performances from Ron Rifkin as the blackmailed District Attorney and Danny DeVito as a sleazy columnist.
Had LA Confidential not come along in the same year as Titanic it might have won a few more Oscars including Best Picture which it lost to Titanic. Still the success of Crash, a film with similar structure and themes may redeem LA Confidential.
Not that it needs much redemption because you won't be bored for an LA minute.