A brilliantly done detective crime thriller that is still a winner.

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2016)

L.A. Confidential is a brilliant detective crime thriller that is solidified by a terrific all star cast, an engaging story, and top notch direction. Director Curtis Hanson has certainly created a winning masterpiece.
Based on the neo-noir novel by James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential is set in 1950's Los Angeles and flips the city upside down and exposes the ugly side of Los Angeles with many issues rife such as organised crime, pornography, prostitution, drug trafficking, police corruption, political corruption, and the ugly side of Hollywood. L.A. Confidential centers on three uniquely different but capable police officers. Detective Lieutenant Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) is an intelligent and ambitious police officer however his honesty and rigid adherence to policies and regulations see him as a pariah amongst fellow officers. Officer Bud White (Russell Crowe) is a brutal short-tempered thug who dispenses his own brand of justice against women beaters. Detective Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is a narcotics detective who moonlights as a technical adviser on the popular TV police drama series Badge of Honor based on Dragnet. He is only interested in maintaining his image on the social scene in Hollywood and boosts his own image by providing Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito), publisher of the infamous Hush-Hush magazine, confidential tips about celebrity arrests that will attract more readers to Hush-Hush in exchange for kickbacks. The three police officers are brought together initially following the Bloody Christmas scandal which saw several Hispanic suspects beaten by a number of drunken police officers. Exley testifies against several officers which results in White suspended from duty and several police officers forced to take early retirement including White's partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel). While Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) and District Attorney Ellis Loew (Ron Rifkin) promote Exley following his testimony, White and many fellow officers have taken a disliking to Exley seeing him as a snitch and a coward. The three police officers are later connected to an investigation of The Nite-Owl massacre which saw a number of coffee shop patrons gunned down including Dick Stensland in what appears to have been a robbery gone wrong. Though the investigation seemed to have been cut and dried by linking the murders to a group of young African-Americans discharging shotguns, all is not what it seems when Exley, White and Vincennes conduct their own investigations which uncover corruption all around them as well as a prostitution ring run by Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn) which has prostitutes altered by plastic surgery to resemble film actresses including Veronica Lake lookalike Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger in an Academy Award winning performance for Best Supporting Actress).
Kevin Spacey is faultless as the charismatic Jack Vincennes. Although he received top billing, the spotlight remains focused on Australian actors Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe. Guy Pearce is perfectly cast as the ambitious Ed Exley and Russell Crowe channels his inner angry man as Bud White who although is seen as a brutal thug actually is exposed as someone with a good heart. Kim Basinger has always been a talented and attractive actress and she finally receives the deserved recognition for L.A. Confidential. Danny DeVito rounds out the cast perfectly as Sid Hudgens, the chief publisher of Hush-Hush magazine.
Keep an eye out for The Mentalist's Simon Baker (billed as Simon Baker Denny) in a small but pivotal role as actor Matt Reynolds who finds himself in trouble.
Director Curtis Hanson and screenwriter Brian Helgeland have done a brilliant job bringing James Ellroy's novel to the big screen. Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent score actually brings us back to 1950's Los Angeles. Art direction is also top notch.
Winner of 2 Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, L.A. Confidential would have netted more awards including Best Picture and Best Director had the blockbusting crowd favourite Titanic (1997) not been there. But that's the way it is.
One of the few movies that gets better with multiple viewings, L.A. Confidential is a brilliantly done detective crime thriller that is still a winner in the eye of many viewers.
10/10.