Which is better: L.A. Confidential (1997) or Chinatown (1974)?

La Confidential is deeply flawed upon multiple viewings while Chinatown is often cited as a perfect film.

This should’ve been a poll.

It’s Chinatown!

Chinatown is a masterpiece. I could watch it once a week.

Both excellent films but Chinatown is more haunting and memorable

Both are great!

'Forget It, Jake, It's Chinatown'

I'm sorry but LA Confidential. Chinatown is slow moving and feels so dated.

I felt no emotion when watching L.A. Confidential. Sure, it’s well done, but not exactly memorable.

Chinatown, I guess. Wasn’t LA Confidential over 2 hours long? Some good character actors on LA, incl. the guy who played Dudley (Stretch Cunningham).

LA Confidential. It’s so well written, directed and acted - top 10 movie for me.

Seriously, OP?

LA Confidential starts out more stronly than it finishes. Chinatown never stops asking you questions, plus "my sister, my daughter".

I prefer LA Confidential.

I also prefer LA Confidential. Chinatown now seems weirdly dated and not as well written as it first seemed to be.

Another vote for L.A. Confidential. Great cast, great production, great score.

Peak Faye Dunaway tops basic Kim Bassinger every day.

No contest - Chinatown

Dunaway was absolutely iconic.

Love both and I don’t want to choose…

But, Chinatown

I loved L.A. CONFIDENTIAL when I saw it in the theater, and I've continued to like it on repeat viewings. But CHINATOWN is in another class in every way -- a far richer, more complex and more satisfying film.

Bad for glass.

Are you kidding, OP?

Both excellent films but Chinatown has the edge on this thread. I wish it was a poll.

Chinatown. Way more iconic moments, too. And the character actors are fantastic. Plus, John Huston is leering perfection.

OMG..This is hard. Love both.

Chinatown. Dunaway at her peak Show me someone better.. Nicholson not mugging once. A masterpiece. Also an early treatment of Incest. A theme Polanski aka Prick face smashes again & again out of the ball park with the reality of what it does to the victim & no excuse for the evilness of the perpetrator. See Repulsion. Often wondered about this theme w. him.

LA. The death scene with Spacey. Amazing. Never saw someone die like that on screen, scary good. You could see his spirit depart. All the cast superb, even burlyman Crowe. Kim a vision.

Still not sure..

LA Confidential feels more like a strong script that a director couldn't really fuck up. Feels a bit like a filmed play. OTOH, Chinatown was a very confusing story that was shaped into a perfect film.

Love ‘em both. They make a perfect double bill.

[quote] Chinatown. Dunaway at her peak Show me someone better.. Nicholson not mugging once.

I never thought about it that way, but yes. A relatively understated role for Nicholson.

Chinatown. LA Confidential is very good but Chinatown is great.

Chinatown

R2, I thought about that but DL always wants me to vote more than once and never saves my result. Therefore, I imagine others vote multiple times and it’s highly inaccurate.

So what, though, R32. This isn't the US Census. Would be interesting to see a vote. We can all decide how accurate it is.

LA Confidential is perfect. The script, the music, the acting, the cinematography, the way Hanson and Helgeland were able to distill that morass of a book into a cohesive and compelling story. There was a lot about it that was stunning.

It's one of my all time favorite films. It never gets enough credit and it should have won for best picture.

I like them both, but I give the edge to Chinatown.

[quote] LA. The death scene with Spacey. Amazing. Never saw someone die like that on screen, scary good. You could see his spirit depart. All the cast superb, even burlyman Crowe. Kim a vision.

Spacey was good in LAC. The look on his face when that young, blonde actor got murdered.

Spacey was pinging really hard, though, and I don't think his character was supposed to be a closeted gay man.

Fun fact: both Crowe and Guy Pearce (the clean cop) are Australian.

We’re lucky to have both.

Some other (relatively modern) LA noirs that aren’t as great but have merit: Mulholland Falls, The Two Jakes.

Chinatown -- it's a classic and easily one of the top 10 American films ever made, IMO.

R21 I couldn't have said it any better. You nailed it!

Chinatown directed by a pedo.

L.A. Confidential stars a sexual predator

Chinatown, by a mile.

R33 The RNC said the same thing!

R40, I know, I know,. A total conundrum. Great art from morally corrupt artists. Nothing new. Michelangelo was lambasted in his own time because he was dirty, nasty, openly gay, greedy. Cellini killed someone. Julian Freud a terrible abusive womanizer. Picasso, too, so bad as to be labeled a misogynist. Then we can jump to writers.

I find it so so confusing.

Chinatown is a classic, but LA Confidential is more fun to watch. They also did a masterful job of distilling Ellroy's sprawling novel into a cohesive narrative.

Chinatown is the better movie. LA Confidential is too unfocused, too much time spent on that beautiful but dull Kim Basinger.

Chinatown. By far the better score, which makes all the difference for me. I like the melancholic tone.

LA Confidential, not even a contest for me. I hate Jack Nicholson. I love Russell Crowe.

Yeah, Kim Basinger was kind of dull in LAC. She was supposed to be world-weary, but not that world-weary. Russell Crowe beats her up, then she runs away to Bumfuck with him. Not saying that women don't stay with abusive men, but she was making a pretty good living in LA. Seems like she would have been more financially savvy.

LA Confidential, I fell asleep during Chinatown.

Chinatown. They are both great but only one of them has Faye Dunaway at her peak.

R36, Russell Crowe is from New Zealand.

These are both great films but I will also have to give the slight edge to Chinatown (the Faye Dunaway effect).

Chinatown. Hands down, my mother, my sister.

The script of Chinatown is considered one of the greatest ever from Hollywood. Then there were the phenomenal performances from Nicholson, Dunaway, and Huston (the latter should've been nominated for Best Supporting Actor). L.A. Confidential wasn't nearly as dark, and that silly little Hollywood happy ending automatically makes it a weaker movie. The villainy of John Huston's Noah Cross makes James Cromwell's Captain Dudley Smith look like a silly cartoon character in comparison.

No contest, Chinatown was and is the superior film!

I agree the tacked on happy ending of LAC makes it inferior, along with Kim Basinger, whose performance could hardly be called great. Chinatown has a great, complex story based on L.A.'s water history, a classic score and so many great performances from lead to supporting to bit roles.

R40 you sound like a dumb gen z moralist. Sit down and let Lydia Tàr lecture your ass.

Hollywoodland.

[quote]Spacey was pinging really hard, though, and I don't think his character was supposed to be a closeted gay man.

Oh, I do. I watched it again recently and I definitely think we are supposed to think that. That's why he is so upset about the young gay man (Simon Baker, also Australian).

One is just about the best a classically made Hollywood movie can get, and satisfying on almost every level. The other is a authentically chilling and haunted vision of the world that is on a different plane artistically.