LA Confidential Revisted

Have you read the novel, OP? It sounds like you would enjoy it, if you haven't already. The film is really like a bare-bones version of the labyrinthine novel (for example, one of the central elements of the book is a perverted Walt Disney-figure, who doesn't feature in the film at all).

[quote]In some scenes the costumes/production design/hair & makeup are so exquisite, it's like a Richard Avedon photo spread from Vogue come to life.

In the scene where Bud White is sneaking in the back door to shoot the guy and rescue the girl, as he's running across the backyard he passes a ratty old pigeon coop. It's only visible for a second or two, and it just something in the background, but it's there, and that's what makes that movie so amazing.

Someone thought that a ghetto apartment building in the 1950's would have had pigeons, so they went out and built one. That level of detail is what makes that movie so amazing.

I have actually read the other three novels of LA Quartet (Black Dahlia, Big Nowhere and White Jazz) and a few chapters of LA Confidential... I forgot why I put it down, I might pick it up again.

I rewatched it few weeks back on Netflix. I have seen it few times before, around the time it came out on VHS and I remember liking it a lot. Must say I wasn't that impressed anymore. It's a solid film but I agree with OP. It seems rather light now. There have been so many other films and tv shows that have taken things further in almost every way. But it is a good film, maybe not quite in the classics league, though.

I had to go check where Curtis Hanson disappeared after I finished the film. The only film I've seen from him after this was Wonder Boys which I used to like a lot. Not sure I want to revisit it, though. Practically all his other films are mediocre or even shitty: The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The River Wild, 8 Mile, In Her Shoes, Lucky You. Out of those I've only seen the Cradle and I hated it. It's a bit surprising he even directed LA Confidential.

I loved it when I saw it the first time -- except for Danny DeVito. I'm sure his one-note performance hasn't improved.

Apparently Curtis Hanson has retired from filmmaking due to early onset Alzheimer's.

Love that movie

I still enjoy watching it for a lot of the reasons already cited. I repeat watch movies for different reasons. Once you've seen a movie two or three times there is no element of surprise. I saw Jaws recently on a big screen. It still holds up even though Spielberg is as corny as ever and really overdoes it in some scenes.

It's one of my favorite movies. I'll re-watch it for my favorite scenes, it's a good story with memorable characters.

Sad to hear about Hanson's Alzheimers.

R8, that's what sets classics apart from the average movies. Or maybe it's not about them being classics but just movies with a special atmosphere you just enjoy returning to. I love Jaws and have watched it I guess 10 times over the years. Films like Blade Runner and La Dolce Vita I've wached way over 20 times. LA Confidential I did watch few times when it came out but like I said in my R4 post I watched it recently and noticed it wasn't as charming as it was before. But that's how it is with movies. I haven't watched La Dolce Vita in over 10 years since I overindulged earlier.

It's a B-movie at best, and Kim Basinger's Oscar is a joke.

"...There's a kind of shallowness to it, like it's a self-contained world with little resonance once the movie ends. .."

This is what I was thinking on the River Phoenix board; lots of 90's movies were visually beautiful but purposefully stylistic and emotionally removed but "My Own Private Idaho" was actually the oddity that was actually criticized for those very reasons, in the '90's, while it's aged remarkably well and is far, more tender than many films of the '90's.

I think the same about "Billy's First Hollywood Screen Kiss", while something like "Pulp Fiction" and I've just re-watched the excellent but emotionally removed "House of Yes" is visually stunning, witty but doesn't touch any emotional strings.

Admittedly LA Confidential is very frontloaded for the first viewing, which makes it so compelling when you initially see it. However, I still enjoy going back to it for its remarkable design and cinematography, and the excellent atmosphere it evokes. It's the same reason movies like Alien or The Shining are so overwhelming in the first viewing, but I'll watch them anyway for the artistry that went into making them, even if I'm no longer at the edge of my seat. And I also love LA Confidential because, like Chinatown, it is a complex story, written for adults, which was already becoming rare in the 90s, and is almost unheard of in a mainstream production today. Today's movies seem determined to infantilize the viewer -- they can't even cleanly tell a simplistic story.

Like many other people I dislike Danny Devito's performance in the movie. He seems to pop up everywhere, because he's such a player in Hollywood. He's just so oddlooking and blurts out his performances, taking me right out of the movie. That said his production company has made some very interesting films, such as Pulp Fiction, and he seems like a good guy.

Sad to hear about Curtis Hanson. I have enjoyed his films, but for some reason, I just couldn't get into this film.

I did enjoy The Bedroom Window, surprisingly.

I still enjoy it when I've seen it again. It's not brilliant, like Chinatown, but it's got brilliant things in it. Gorgeous production design.

For some reason I don't find Danny DeVito offensive in LA Confidential at all, like I don't in most of the stuff he's done. I see him as a professional, actually a real film star who turns up to do his job. Yes it's always the same Danny but I guess I just like him enough to not be bothered by him. One thing I didn't like him at first was It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia because he brought in the Hollywood star touch but I warmed up to him at some point.

It's true that the movie lost the Raymond Dieterling character, loosely based on Walt Disney, who featured prominently in the novel, as well as other big characters and plot points. But an echo of the Disney references remain in David Strathain's portrayal of Pierce Patchett, who is deliberately groomed and styled to resemble Walt Disney.

I love the movie for its portrayal of Los Angeles in the Fifties: the locations and costumes are unbelievable.

[bold]Guy Pearce stuns Andrew Denton with Kevin Spacey revelation[/bold]

[quote]Asked about his own experiences working with the embattled actor over two decades ago, Pearce chooses his words carefully.

[quote]“Yeah … yeah. Tough one to talk about at the moment. Amazing actor; incredible actor. Mmm. Slightly difficult time with Kevin, yeah,” Pearce says, before uttering four words that make the studio audience gasp: “He’s a handsy guy.”

[quote]“Thankfully I was 29, and not 14,” he says, prompting more audience gasps.

Guy Pearshe shtuns wish Shpashey revelashun

uber fab movie, yay guy pierce

but hard to watch anything with old drunk sod fug russel crow in it.

I still love this film. Yet another example of an Oscar travesty that it was beaten by Titanic.

[bold]James Ellroy says film adaptation of LA Confidential was 'as deep as a tortilla'[/bold]

[quote]It won Oscars and accolades as the best film of 1997, but the crime writer James Ellroy has a different recollection of the adaptation of his novel LA Confidential. “It is about as deep as a tortilla.”

[quote]“And if you watch the action of the movie, it does not make dramatic sense,” he told Hay festival. “I don’t care how many awards it’s won … I don’t like the bulk of the performances.”

[quote]He did, though, like the money he got. “They paid me some good dough to sign over the rights … money is the gift you never have to return.”

I think R15 best sums up my feelings about the film. It's not brilliant overall, but it's got some brilliant things in it. I loved it when it first came out, but upon repeat viewings I don't think it holds up as well. Still, it's an enjoyable movie. Better than the CGI shit-fests that are so ubiquitous today.

After hearing so many message board film snobs and fanboys rhapsodize about it, I finally watched L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and I was frankly underwhelmed by it. I found it shockingly mediocre and superficial. Whichever poster above compared it to CHINATOWN and THE GODFATHER and found it significantly inferior is absolutely correct. Those two movies have an emotional depth and cinematic richness that LAC does not come close to having. It's a case of people liking something for what it attempts to be rather than what it is.

The director might have been a bit of a homophobe because he disapproved of Guy Pierce being in Queen of the Desert and said he refused to watch it. The existence and popularity of Rupaul's Drag Race must might him absolutely apoplectic.

R25 He's long dead so I doubt much makes him apoplectic anymore.

Since Ellroy hates it, any chance of a remake more faithful to his vision?

Ellroy is such a hypocrite. I remember him doing interviews when the film came out about what a successful adaptation of his complex book he thought the film was. I guess they gave him back-end points so he was shilling for people to see it.

They tried to do another tv pilot with Walton Goggins in the Vincennes role two years ago for CBS but it was not picked up. There was also a pilot twenty years ago with Keifer Sutherland in the Vincennes role.

R27 There have been at least a couple of attempts at turning it into a TV series but they never got past the pilot stage either time. The movie had big names. Any actors they could get (like Melissa George in the Kim Basinger role for the first pilot) will naturally pale by comparison.

Spacey. Crowe. Pearce. Basinger. DeVito.

Corey Stoll would be a fantastic Bud White in a miniseries version.

Crowe and Pearce were not major stars in 1997.

They were up and comers, R32. The movie still had Spacey, Basinger and DeVito for marquee value and all three were well established.

It’s an extremely flawed novel but I would like to see them try and make The Big Nowhere into a movie or series. The Hollywood Red Scare is a great unexplored canvas for a film noir.

Chinatown is much better than LA Confidential. I liked it MORE the second time. I think the cynicism of the movie hit me harder the second time around.

I like "L.A. Confidential" a lot. I would have to say "Chinatown" is better. L.A. Confidential is 2 hours, 18 minutes, but feels longer, which is not a good sign. (I thought it was 3 hours until I checked.)

IMO, Kevin Spacey was simply not believable in his role.

I loved all the character actors, especially James Cromwell as the dirty Captain Dudley Smith.

Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce were each super handsome, two sides to a coin.

R26 I was going to mention that. I used to see him on my way to hike in Runyon Canyon. He lived near the Vista gate. Seemed like a nice guy. I waved and said hi a couple of times and he responded.

I will have to reread the book. I don't recall the part about the creepy Walt Disney type guy.

I love the idea of a brothel where all the girls look like movie stars.

Sad though that the only gay character died with cum and hot dogs in his stomach.

Basinger always looks dead behind the eyes. Why couldn't Glenn have made a movie THAT year?

r29 Yup, I recall posting those casting news on DL. The whore extraordinaire and DL fave Brian J. Smith was cast in it as well. Must have sucked bad if it wasn't picked up.

I agree the production design and cinematography are great. But I'm not a Curtis Hanson fan, and thought the film really fell apart in the last 30 minutes. I haven't read the novel, but love L.A. stories from, or set in, that period. John Fante's novel "Ask the Dust" is wonderful, but that movie was underwhelming for me too.