L.A. Confidential

Plot synopsis:
An opening montage, narrated by Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito), publisher of "Hush-Hush," a Hollywood sleaze magazine, explains that Mickey Cohen has taken over the organized crime rackets in Los Angeles (left behind by Bugsy Siegel) and that his actions have tarnished the reputation of the LA police department. Cohen, however, is arrested on income tax evasion and sent to prison on MacNeil Island in Washington state, leaving open the rackets he'd expanded for years.The story documents the intertwining paths of three separate Los Angeles police officers: Detective Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) and Sergeant Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce).Officer Bud White:During Christmas, 1952, police officer Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe), while out on a liquor run with his partner, Dick Stensland, checks in on a man he'd sent to San Quentin State Penitentiary and finds him physically abusing his wife. Bud has no tolerance for those who impose violence against women, seeing how his own mother was killed by his drunk and abusive father. To lure the wifebeater outside, Bud yanks the man's lighted Santa sleigh and reindeer decorations from the roof of the house. When the man comes outside to confront White, White beats him senseless and handcuffs him to the porch railing. Bud tells the man he'll be sent back to prison for about 18 months and that he'll be watching him after he's released.Bud and Stensland next go to a liquor store where they buy alcohol for a party at their precinct. Bud meets a beautiful woman in the store named Lynn, who easily recognizes that he is a cop. Leaving the store, Bud notices a young woman, whose face is bruised and bandaged, sitting in the backseat of a car with another unidentified man. When Bud inquires about what happened, he is met by the car's driver, Leland 'Buzz' Meeks, who tries to shine him on. Bud disarms him and inquires further about the injured woman, who tells him herself that she's OK. He returns Meeks' pistol and wallet. When he gets back to his own car, Stensland confirms that Meeks is a former cop.Sgt. Jack Vincennes:At a lavish Hollywood Christmas party, Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), a narcotics detective, is dancing with his date when he is met by Sid Hudgens. Sid has come with a hot tip for Jack: two starlets, Matt Reynolds and Tammy Jordan, have purchased a small quantity of marijuana and have rented a hotel bungalow. Sid promises Vincennes a $50 payment (Jack demands $100 and gets it) for doing the bust, provided that Sid can cover the incident and feature it in Hush-Hush.Sgt. Ed Exley:At a local police precinct, Sgt. Edmund 'Ed' Exley (Guy Pearce) has been assigned as watch commander for the evening. He is interviewed by a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, who cite his late father's own famous reputation as a police officer, suggesting that Exley has a lot to live up to. Exley also talks to his captain, Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), who tells the young officer that unless he's willing to adopt the brutal tactics (planting evidence, interrogative beatings) employed by officers like his father, he'll never be a successful detective in the department. Exley tells him he intends to build his career as an honest cop. Smith also asks Exley if he's willing to be "hated within the department." Exley says he is.Meanwhile, Vincennes busts Matt and Tammy and arrests them in a gaudy show that Sid headlines as the "Movie Premiere Pot Bust" (due to Vincennes directing Sid to take the article picture from such an angle so as to capture a movie theatre premiere going on in the background). While Vincennes is investigating the bungalow, he is intrigued to find a business card for an agency called "Fleur de Lis".Later, at Smith's precinct, Jack brings in Matt and Tammy and has them booked for possession of marijuana. The extra $50 he asked for over and above his usual $50 was a $20 payoff each for the two officers that assisted him and a final $10 for Exley. Exley turns Jack down, telling him to keep the money himself, a reply that perplexes Vincennes.At that moment, three Mexican suspects are brought in; it is believed they assaulted two police officers. The details of the incident quickly become hyperbolic, starting as reports of mild injuries, to both officers being near death in the hospital. Stensland and some of the other other party goers, already heavily intoxicated, rush downstairs to the holding area. Refusing to recognize Exley's authority as watch commander, the scene quickly becomes ugly as the Mexican prisoners are viciously beaten. Exley is locked in the isolation room when he tries to intervene. White tries to pull Stensland off one of the prisoners and calm him down only to get provoked into the attack when insulted by one of them. Vincennes joins in as well when a prisoner falls on him, bloodying his fancy suit. The reporters who'd been interviewing Exley are also present, snapping a photo of the fight.The photo of the jailhouse melee makes the front page of The Los Angeles Times, describing the incident as "Bloody Christmas". The LAPD Chief, District Attorney Ellis Loew and Dudley Smith meet with White, Vincennes and Exley separately. White staunchly refuses to rat on Stensland as the ringleader of the incident and is ordered suspended without pay. Exley, knowing that his own testimony will secure him a promotion to lieutenant and detective level, agrees to appear in court as a surprise witness. Knowing that they'll need the testimony of a third witness, Exley suggests Vincennes. Exley also suggests that if Vincennes is unwilling to testify, that his privilege as "technical advisor" on the popular television show "Badge of Honor" will be revoked. Vincennes agrees and accepts a transfer to the vice department following a temporary suspension. Exley is given his promotions.Within days, the fallout from the scandal blows over: Stensland is officially terminated from the police force as a scapegoat, while several other officers are forced into early retirement. Exley moves up to homicide investigation and is immediately despised by his fellow colleagues, while Vincennes joins the Vice squad. White is taken off suspension when he agrees to aid Smith in a new project, in which they intercept mobsters who intend to move into LA and take over Mickey Cohen's businesses. The suspects are taken to a remote and abandoned motel complex called the Victory Motel and are beaten by White and forced to leave the city. Hudgens reports in Hush-Hush that a string of murders of former Cohen lieutenants by two-man teams armed with Thompson submachine guns may be a power struggle to gain control of the void left by Cohen's imprisonment. In one incident, Cohen's top heroin dealer is murdered in his house and 20 kilograms of product is stolen by the unidentified killers.On his first night in Homicide, shortly after 2:00 AM, Exley gets a call about a murder at the Nite Owl coffee shop, a regular hangout for cops. Exley arrives on the scene and finds the cook shot dead behind the counter, and the cash register emptied, suggesting a robbery. He notices an overturned chair and realizes there were several customers inside. He then notices a blood trail that leads to the men's bathroom. Following this trail, he finds five more bodies piled up in the bathroom, all riddled with shotgun holes.Dudley Smith arrives and assumes command of the investigation, making Exley his second in command. The forensics team quickly reports that there were six, all killed with shotguns. The shooters apparently fired fifteen rounds, which suggests three Remington shotguns with five-shot capacity and three gunmen. One of the dead has already been identified: Stensland.Upon hearing that Stensland has been killed, Bud White rushes to the hospital to look at the body. Crestfallen to see his friend is among the dead, and demands the story from Exley who fills him in. Another of the victims, Susan Lefferts, is seen by White when her mother identifies her. When he sees her body, Bud immediately recognizes Susan as the woman in the car who appeared to be injured the night he and Stensland were purchasing the liquor.Putting aside all other investigations, the senior detectives are assigned to the search and apprehension of the Nite Owl killers. Exley himself will lead the interrogations of the suspects when they are caught. Leads are few but a report of three "negro" males firing shotguns, driving a late 1940s Mercury Coupe, will be followed by all the two-man teams involved.Bud White doesn't think it could be a coincidence that two of the Nite Owl victims - Stensland and Lefferts - encountered each other well before the killings. Acting on his hunches, he strikes out on his own, refusing to be partnered. He returns to the liquor store where he met Lynn, and upon asking the owner, is given the address of a man named Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn), the man sitting next to Lefferts the night he met her and Meeks. Bud talks to Patchett and finds out that the woman he met in the liquor store, Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger), and Lefferts are part of a prostitution ring run by Patchett himself that uses plastic surgery to give his women the appearance of famous movie stars. The prostitution ring is dubbed "Fleur de Lis" and is part of a file Vincennes had seen when he joined Vice, and whose business card he found when he busted Matt Reynolds. Lynn is Patchett's Veronica Lake while Lefferts is Rita Hayworth. However, Patchett refuses to divulge any details about Lefferts' murder and cuts the meeting short.Exley joins Vincennes on a hunch and they turn up the address of a black man who drives the car mentioned in the lead. They track the man and his two friends to their home and find the car and shotguns in a garage. They also find two officers, Michael Breuning and William Carlisle, ahead of them. Vincennes argues briefly with the two other officers about who will arrest the three men; Breuning and Carlisle had gotten there first and Vincennes knows the arrest will get him back in with the narcotics squad. Exley pulls rank and orders them to all proceed together and the three black men, Sugar Ray Collins, Ty Jones, and Lewis Fontaine, are arrested without much incident, although Exley has to deflect Carlisle's shotgun to keep him from shooting one of the suspects.During the questioning of the suspects and using the interrogation room's PA speakers and microphones, Exley demonstrates brilliant tactical skill, tricking the three men into believing they have informed on each other. The three already have criminal records and have spent time in juvenile facilities, which Exley also uses to his advantage. One of them, crying and nearly hysterical, tells Exley that they'd visited the house of another man, Sylvester Fitch, so he could lose his virginity to a woman held captive there. Enraged, Bud White rushes into the room of the next man and, drawing his pistol and emptying every chamber in the cylinder but one, he puts the muzzle in the man's mouth and plays Russian Roulette, demanding Fitch's address, which the man gives up.A team is sent out to Fitch's house and White sneaks in first, finding a young Mexican woman bound naked to a bed and obviously beaten, and possibly raped. Bud finds Fitch watching TV, and shoots him dead, before planting a fired pistol on him. When the victim is driven away in an ambulance, Exley tries to ask her when the three black men left her but White stops him, waving the ambulance away. Bud seems angered that Exley is only concerned about furthering his career, which Exley counters by saying that Stensland "got what he deserved" and White's fate will be the same. White tries to attack Exley but is held back. At that moment a report is issued that the three black men have escaped from the precinct.Exley, talking to a stenographer, gets an address that was given by one of the black men where they had bought drugs. Unable to get Vincennes, Exley takes Carlisle with him to the address and they burst in to find the three suspects there with their narcotics supplier, Roland Navarette. Lewis accidentally knocks a bottle off the table, the trigger-happy Carlisle shoots him. All hell breaks loose as Navarette lethally shoots Carlisle multiple times, until Exley shoots him. Ty Jones attempts to grab a revolver, but Exley shoots him. Ray Collins tries to flee to the elevator, but Exley jams his shotgun in just as the door is about to close and fires, hitting him in the chest.Exley is greeted as a hero back at the station and Smith dubs him "Shotgun Ed." The murder case is seemingly solved, Exley is given the department's highest decoration, the Medal of Valor, for bravery in the line of duty, and earns the respect of the other detectives in the department who previously despised him. Vincennes returns to the narcotics squad and the "Badge of Honor." In the meantime, Patchett breaks ground on an ambitious project, a freeway running from the eastern sections of LA to the beaches of Santa Monica, one he is heavily invested in. To do so, he has blackmailed a councilman into approving the project with some compromising photos showing him cavorting with Lynn.Back on the set of "Badge of Honor", Vincennes meets with Sid Hudgens, who offers him another job: Hudgens is deliberately setting up LA District Attorney Loew in a blackmail scheme by arranging a sexual encounter with Matt Reynolds (arrested by Jack himself at Christmas) both of whom will be busted by Vincennes. Vincennes feels extreme guilt about the job and goes to the hotel early to let the young actor off the hook. Instead, he finds Reynolds dead, someone having slit his throat.Bud White begins a romantic relationship with Lynn and continues his work with Smith, beating mobsters at the Victory. The work has turned White into a burnout and his affair with Lynn has softened his otherwise vicious demeanor. However, White becomes suspicious of many of the details surrounding the Nite Owl murders and talks to the coroner. The files from the case are still in the doctor's lab. Studying a picture of the seating area, White notices a spot of blood on the wall next to one of the tables, like one of the victims died there instead of in the men's bathroom. The doctor notes that that blood stain was Stensland's blood. The food on the table, and a lipstick mark on the coffee cup opposite Stensland's place, indicate to Bud that Stensland had been there with a woman (White remembers Stensland said he was going on a date that night, and concludes that he may have had a girlfriend). He is led to believe that said girlfriend was Susan Lefferts after he learns that only two women were killed: Lefferts and a night shift waitress.White visits the home of Susan Lefferts' distraught mother. As White expects, she identifies Stensland from a photograph as Susan's boyfriend she disapproved of. She also tells White that Stensland had been seen with another man carrying a large bundle into her backyard. When White notices that Mrs. Lefferts has a towel placed at the bottom of a door leading to her back sun room to block a strong unpleasant stench, he checks out the crawlspace under the house and finds a rotted corpse. He finds a wallet in the coat placed on the body. Much to his shock, the body is that of Buzz Meeks, Patchett's former chauffeur. Bud deliberately leaves the body behind for someone else to find and tells Lefferts' mother that the stench is a big rat.Back at the station, Exley talks to the coroner that White had spoken to earlier. Exley follows White's lead to Mrs. Lefferts' home & finds Meeks' remains. He takes it to the morgue, demanding an identity on the body, then goes to Vincennes and asks for his help in investigating further details about the Nite Owl case. Exley convinces Vincennes by sharing the story of how his father was killed by a random mugger, whom was never identified, but whom Exley has always named "Rollo Tomasi" to give him a personality. Vincennes agrees to help Exley if Exley will help him solve Reynold's murder. Vincennes tails White to the Formosa Bar where White catches up with mob enforcer, Johnny Stompanato, Mickey Cohen's former bodyguard, and finds out (after roughly squeezing the man's crotch) that Meeks had come into a large supply of heroin. White concludes that Meeks was murdered for it.Vincennes and Exley next see White at Lynn Bracken's house. Vincennes remembers "Fleur de Lis" & realizes that Lynn is one of Patchett's prostitutes. A call comes in telling them that Meeks' body has been ID'd. Vincennes goes to get the news while Exley pays a call to Bracken. Refusing to answer the lieutenant's questions, she seduces him while Sid Hudgens photographs them both from behind a one-way mirror.Vincennes, going through old records, finds a connection between Dick Stensland, Buzz Meeks and Dudley Smith. He goes to Smith's house to inquire about how Smith signed off on a lot of work that both Stensland and Meeks performed over the past few years. Smith listens long enough to find out if Vincennes had told Exley anything; when Jack says he hadn't informed Ed of the connection between Smith, Meeks and Stensland, Dudley suddenly produces a revolver and shoots Jack in the chest. Before Vincennes dies, he chortles, and says "Rollo Tomasi."Smith announces the next day that the department will suspend all other cases until Jack's killer is found. He talks directly to Exley about the only lead: Jack's last words. Exley manages to keep a straight face as he realizes that Dudley could only know that name if he was the one who shot Vincennes. He lies and says he knows nothing of the name.Dudley meets with Bud White and criticizes him for what he deems a lack of enthusiasm concerning his job. He also tells White that they'll be going to the Victory Motel to interrogate the man he believes last saw Vincennes alive. It turns out to be Sid Hudgens. Dudley asks him a few questions which don't provide much information. However, during the beating administered by White himself, Hudgens talks about how Pierce Patchett uses his women for blackmail. He mentions that he's photographed a cop having sex with Lynn. White becomes enraged, thinking that Hudgens spied on him. He turns Hudgens' chair over and rushes out to the reporter's car. In the trunk, he finds pictures, not of himself with Lynn, but of Lynn with Exley. White becomes further enraged and drives off. Meanwhile, Smith and Breuning suffocate Hudgens over his protests that he was part of a "team" with them.Exley checks with records keeping for arrest warrant books on Buzz Meeks and finds nothing. When he checks the daily log books he finds that Smith had signed off on nearly all of Meeks' and Stensland's work for many years and realizes the connection between them is prominent. White visits Lynn's house, furiously and jealously demanding to know about her tryst with Exley. When she tries to calm him down, he hits her, bruising her face.White finds Exley in the records room at the precinct and attacks him after showing him the photo of he and Lynn together. Exley manages to fight White off and claims that the photo was planted to make White try to kill Exley. The two stop their battle and begin to share details they've uncovered; Meeks, Stensland, Vincennes, Reynolds' murder, the missing heroin are all linked. Exley now realizes that the black men that were charged with the Nite Owl attack were set up: when he and Vincennes showed up, Breuning and Carlisle were already there and had planted the shotguns, and were going to kill the three men so that no questions would be asked if they were caught resisting arrest. In order to piece it all together, the two agree to work as partners, even at the expense of Exley's reputation for solving the Nite Owl murder case, which built his career.They go to Loew's office and demand wiretaps for Smith. Loew refuses and further refuses to divulge any information about Reynolds' murder and dismisses them, stepping into his office bathroom. White shoves the DA's head into the toilet and dangles him out the window. Loew caves and tells him that Reynolds was killed because he was present when he and Smith argued over the assumption of the Cohen drug-dealing rackets. Loew was allowed to live because of his influence and because he promised not to prosecute them. Bud and Ed agree that their next stop is Patchett's house.When they arrive there, they find that they're too late, as Dudley or someone working for him has slit Patchett's wrists and made it look like a suicide. Believing that Lynn had some knowledge of Patchett's plan, they arrange to have her taken to a nearby police station for safety. Exley goes there and talks to her, saying Bud feels great remorse for beating her. White goes to Sid Hudgens' office and finds that Smith has dumped his body there. While there, he receives a call telling him to meet Exley at the Victory Motel.At the Victory, the two find that the calls were planted to get them together in a vulnerable location. They hold up in the same cabin where Sid Hudgens was murdered. Smith's men approach the cabin and White and Exley open fire; a fierce gunfight ensues. They eventually kill all of Smith's men, however they are confronted by Smith himself, who shoots White, forcing him to fall. Smith turns his gun on a cornered Exley, who says "Rollo Tomasi". Smith asks who the man is, Exley tells him it's Smith himself, merely because he's a man who can evade the law. Smith hears approaching police cars and tells Exley to walk out with him, promising to further the younger man's career. He also tells Ed to show his badge. Exley shoots Smith in the back and walks out, holding his badge as Smith instructed.Sitting in one of the same interview rooms he used to interrogate the three black men, Exley explains the intricate connections in the case. The DA and LAPD Chief are incredulous but realize the department's reputation for upholding the law will be threatened. While floating the solution of glorifying Smith with Exley's help, they spot Exley beaming. When the Chief asks him why, he says they'll need more than one hero.In the final scene, Exley is once again presented with the LAPD Medal of Valor. He spots Lynn and walks out with her. In her car is Bud White, bandaged and recovering from his wounds. Lynn says they're going to her hometown of Bisbee, Arizona. Ed and Bud shakes hands and Lynn drives off.

Tags: dark, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, boring, mystery, dramatic, violence, flashback, tragedy, revenge

Review:
1997 completely screwed this phenomenal film, in which three brilliant actors gave the performances of their careers.Russell Crowe plays Detective Bud White, a tough L.A. cop who bends the rules in order to bring justice to the city.
From this role, Crowe went on to garner three best actor nominations, winning for his role in Gladiator.Guy Pearce, the little known Australian body builder, became the character known as Ed Exley, a straight, uptight detective trying to live up to the legend his father created before him.
Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kevin Spacey are absolutely phenomenal; it is their characters that drive this fascinating story about police corruption in 1950s Los Angeles.
The boldface names jump off the page...Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell and, in his first big-time role, Guy Pearce.
When you look back at it and see that Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey and Guy Pearce actually appeared in the same film back in 97 then you wouldn't have believed it since they have all gone on to better things but before that we had L.A. Confidential which was Crowe's and Pearce's ticket into Hollywood.
In L.A. Confidential's case it had both and a lot more to say the least.I still think that this is Spacey's, Crowe's and Pearce's best film of there career.
No one is going to make a better movie than LA Confidential, the cast is perfect, the direction is superb, the screenplay is amazing, the choice of music, the graphic brutality, the not so fine line between good and evil.When I saw this in the theatres, I came out of the theatre and couldn't say anything because I was awed.
Add to that Dante Spinotti's stunning lighting that rides the fine line between artistic and believable comfortably (as all period camerawork should), Ruth Myers' costume designing and a script by Hanson and The Postman scribe Brian Helgeland (I know, I don't get it either) that pares down Ellroy's mammoth plot about a multiple murder in a local diner involving a policeman with suspicious ties without sacrificing the density of the story or the spiderweb of events involved with it, and you have the best movie of 1997, not to mention the most fascinating detective film ever made since Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.
A truly gripping crime saga exposing the seedy underbelly of the City of Angels, where cops never let the truth get in the way of justice, and everyone knows everyone else's dirty secrets.Criminally overlooked at both the box office and the Academy thanks to the all-conquering and over-achieving Titanic, LA Confidential will far more likely stand the test of time to be thought of as one of the best films of the 90s, and possibly the best cop film ever.After cops give a number of inmates a beating in retaliation for two of their own being put in hospital, the career-minded Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) agrees to testify to what he saw, turning in his fellow officers.
When one of the cops forced out turns up dead as a result of a shooting, Exley, hothead detective Bud White (Russell Crowe) and fame-obsessed Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) all work to find the answers.
The two-hour running time is never felt.A superb thriller and the perfect antidote to the rash of mindless action-comedies that frequently come out of Hollywood today, LA Confidential harks back to how film-making used to be  all about telling a story.
L.A. Confidential, one of the best pictures of the '90s (in fact, it could have won the 1997 Best Picture Oscar: it's so much better than Titanic), is the definitive proof that there is no such thing as an "unfilmable" book: Curtis Hanson (with the help of co-writer Brian Helgeland) has turned James Ellroy's noir masterpiece (which is 800 pages long) into a 135-minute long modern classic.
And it's in this kind of environment that we first meet the three key players: Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) is an ambitious young man who wants to be as good as his dad and do his job properly, even if that includes turning in his colleagues; Bud White (Russell Crowe) is a disillusioned cop who not only accepts violence as part of the job, but even uses it as often and much as possible in his personal crusade against wife-beating men (as his partner puts it:"You're like Santa Claus with that list, Bud, Except everyone on it's been naughty"); and Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is the classic "Hollywood Cop", who gets paid by tabloids to bust coke-snorting celebrities.
A. Confidential" even goes as far as poking fun at the sensationalized way films were made in that time period with a hilarious sequence where a cop on a show called, "Badge of Honor," interrupts a women giving him details about some crime, and he says, "Just the facts, ma'am.
The acting is terrific from a slew of great actors including Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Walter Cromwell plays one of the great villains I've ever seen.
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.
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.
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.
L.A. Confidential is a rewatchable movie that should have won Best Picture and Director thanks to its incredible direction, amazing cast, well written screenplay and a shootout scene that will get your heart pumping.
No filler, just straight unadulterated goodness.Extremely strong acting, the movie is phenomenally cast with a young powerhouse triage of Russel Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kevin Spacey.
It's a genre piece for sure - Curtis Hanson is not after originality, he uses every trick in the book and fills his film with genre clichés, but he does it so cleverly that those clichés seem fresh and effective like they haven't been in many years, subverting every expectation the seasoned viewer has, while never actually leaving or deconstructing the genre.As for the cast - not one of the three leads are among my favorites, but all of them are at least partly pre-fame here - Kevin Spacey after his first Oscar but before his second, Russell Crowe before Gladiator, Guy Pearce before Memento - and they all do a terrific job, especially Spacey.
Very few police dramas manage to work a large cast of unique and well-developed characters as well as this one, and it makes for one of the most entertaining, powerful, thrilling movies I've seen in a long time..
Kevin Spacey is the narcotics officer, Russell Crowe the investigating officer, Guy Pierce the new lieutenant, Danny DeVito well-cast as the gossip columnist, and Kim Basinger the hooker whose bosses figure in the crime spree and drug-trafficking.
Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, and Danny DeVito, a terrific cast all in a single movie.
It is a Detective Movie basically with the three main characters, Officer Bud White (Crowe), Sgt. Jack Vincennes (Spacey), and Det. Lt.
Every single aspect of this noir film fits together perfectly, from the wonderful performances, the beautiful cinematography, the magnificent, amazingly complimentary soundtrack, the intriguing web-like storyline, and the expert timing and directing.
Kevin Spacey had an Oscar under his belt but hadn`t appeared in many starring roles , Guy Pearce was known only to NEIGHBOURS  fans while Russell Crowe was remembered only for his powerhouse performance in ROMPER STOMPER .
In fact it sounds ridiculous in 2003 but the two best known members of the cast when this was released were Danny DeVito and Kim Basinger The real star of LA CONFIDENTIAL is the script .
Officers Bud White (Russell Crowe), Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) and Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) are the main characters.
White is the type who loves to help damsels in distress, but even he has his weak points; squeaky-clean Exley is the son of a cop, carrying on his father's work; and Vincennes mainly likes his job because of all the places that he gets to visit.Following a murder one day, it's up to the three officers to investigate.
I've seen very little film noir but what I have are predominately modern day attempts (Man Who Wasn't There) and I've yet to really enjoy one, as the cinematography & mood often seem more important than a plot, and that happened here to a degree.The story was really hard work to follow.
There's also a few thought provoking social issues thrown up, one or two excellently done, violent scenes, a great intro and some good all round action but sadly interspersed with a handful of meaningless & dull scenes that make the plot a bit stop-start.I just couldn't ever fully connect with any of the characters to love this film, which I never seem to be able to do with the darkness of Film Noir.A low 7/10.
Meanwhile, the cast does an outstanding job with such modern-day stalwarts as Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Bassinger, Danny DeVito, Guy Pearce, David Strathairn and James Cromwell.
Veronica should have looked this good!The BAD - A sordid feel to this film almost all the way through, from the tabloid mentality-narrative by Danny DeVito through all the various creeps and corrupt cops.
First off, although Kim Basinger adds some depth to her character as the film proceeds, it boggles my mind how she was nominated for a best supporting Oscar, let alone win it.
The body count becomes ridiculously high and this theme has been done much better (see Chinatown) but the end result is a satisfying film.Kevin Spacey, Danny Devito and James Cromwell all add to the enjoyment with their roles.
Don't miss interpret what am i saying, this not a sign of a poor movie, in fact quite the opposite; it is merely a warning that films such as these require our undivided attention, and without it they may seem to be less than they are.L.A. Confidential is a terrific thriller set in the 50's, with very realistic characters and an accurate depiction of the corruption and issues of the period.The cast includes Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Bassinger and Danny Devito, and every one of them delivers a top notch performance, and i have to say Guy Pearce was surprisingly the one that shone the most.Not to be missed 9/10.
This film could have been a disaster, but their terrific screen writing was a testament to a great book.With such a star studded cast which includes Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey and Kim Basinger, we see some fine performers practicing their craft at the highest level.
In the gambit of releases, it requires one viewing to see where both Russell Crowe and Guy Pierce first found their Hollywood USA footing, but outside of that  it only demonstrates one thing  Kim Basinger didn't need to put her best foot forward to win an award.Wow. Isn't that opening paragraph grouchy?
"LA Confidential" is a film that boasts truths (i.e. there was a club that had women cut like movie-stars for men), or the dirty cops, but ultimately lacks that punch to make it feel  well, real.
L.A. Confidential is one long dull confusing movie with small sparks that quickly fade and burn out, even a stellar cast including Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe cant get past the convoluted script that makes so many twists and turns you will get a headache, the acting is good except for one person and that one person is Kim Basinger who for some unknown reason was given an oscar, I say given because her performance in this movie was not only terrible but it was one of the worst I have ever seen.
"L.A. Confidential" is a poor-man's "Chinatown," complete with all the "homages" and such to the genre...The cast is top-notch and make the film worth seeing once: Guy Pearce, Danny DeVito, Kim Basinger and Kevin Spacey (delivering the best performance in the film).
Acting is sensational from practically every corner, especially from the leads Spacey, Crowe and Pearce.The cinematography is just gorgeous, reflecting the beauty and the beast of L.A. The editing and the pace are quite polished and the dialogue feels very natural, which only compliments an already excellent cast and a direction worthy of nothing but praise.L.A. Confidential offers something for almost everyone, yet it offers everything for fans of the genre, and it does not disappoint in anything it attempts..
The focus of the movie is an exposé of the LAPD, warts and all.The tale – and it is a serpentine one – is about the intertwining paths of three separate police officers who maintain the peace by their own separate actions: Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce), Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), and Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe).
The performances of the leads are all at a high level (Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and others) although Jack Nicholson did win the Oscar for Best Actor.
Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger (who received an Oscar for her role), Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, and Danny DeVito comprise the absolutely top class cast of the film.
Still, the movie has great performances, good direction, but lacks a decent plot, character development and suspense.
I found the plot hard to follow at times and the acting was a bit on the cold side.However, it does have some memorable lines and a few good scenes, and overall it isn't a bad movie.
This is "L.A. Confidential" in a nutshell, one of the best movies of the 90's.Adapted from a novel by James Ellroy, the plot is the kind of masterpiece of stylish complexity that is just too labyrinthine for the big screen, yet Curtis Hanson compresses everything into a neat episodic structure so that by the end of each act, we've progressed in the comprehension of what is going on and the changes it has on the main protagonists.
"L.A. Confidential" focuses on three cops who couldn't have been more different: Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) and Bud White (Russell Crowe).Vincennes is a consultant for a "Dragnet"-like show called "Badge of Honor", which makes him a movie star by proxy.
Performances are second to none and Guy Pierce, Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey bring lots of depth and complexity to these roles as these characters are brought to life.
I must say Kevin Spacey is one of the best actors in Hollywood today I love watching any movie he plays in.
A top-notch dark drama of crime and corruption, "LA Confidential" is one of the most memorable films of the 1990s, thanks to an intelligent and cliche-free script, good direction, and superb acting.
Russell Crowe is excellent as Bud White, the brutish but good-hearted cop, and Guy Pearce gives an utterly convincing and often mesmerizing performance as Edmund Exley, the police officer who starts out as a self-righteous, priggish, ice-cold careerist and then becomes a man of true moral conviction who also has humanity and compassion.
L.A. ConfidentialDIRECTION % Film noir style.ACTING % All the characters are great except for perhaps the female support.EDITING/SPECIAL EFFECTS % Generally good.PLOT % The strongest part of the movie.
The only exciting thing in this movie is when Kim Basinger and Russel Crow are in the movie theater watching Roman Holiday and we get a glimpse of Audrey Hepburn...this movie drags on for WAY too long...I was more interested in seeing how close the actors resembled the Old Hollywood actors...Kim Basinger looked a lot like Veronica Lake...this movie should NOT be in the top 50 list of the best movies of all time.
I have to give it 1 out of 4 stars...Although Kim Basinger was good in this film, she was not in half of the movie which kind of shocks me that the Academy would give her an Oscar because they are usually picky...she deserved it though...
The three main police officers in question are Jack Vincennes(Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects), Bud White(Russell Crowe, Gladiator) and    Ed Exley(Guy Pearce, Ravenous).
It stars Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito and David Strathairn.
Tremendous cast with Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe in the lead roles with Kim Basinger, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito and David Strathairn in supporting roles.
Especially if you like movies about Organized Crime, Police Corruption & the Good Cop Bad Cop routine.LA Confidential is about three detectives of the corrupt LAPD (Big Surprise).
What follows is a story with several twists and turns to expose who is behind this mysterious crime.The Cast also has a cool as hell, with Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe & Kevin Spacey playing the main detectives.