LA Confidential (1997)

[Donachiel]

Sticking with the modern classic here, and a request from Snapper for the next film for a group watch...

L.A. Confidential is on Film Four on Thursday at 9:00pm for all those who want to join in.

I'm quite happy about this choice, as I've never seen this film, and I keep promising to watch it. Having always seeming to miss it, I'll be watching it on Thursday for the first time.

Based on the 'unfilmable' novel by James Ellroy, LA Confidential tells the complex story of murder and coruption in 50's tinseltown.

The film won two oscars, and nominations for seven more. Most notable is the oscar winning performance from Kim Basinger.

[badger47]

Good choice, plenty for discussion on this one!

[adi]

A superb movie. Russel Crowe is at his best when he's biffing up the place and not saying much and I think Kevin Spacey is superb. Compared with other films on that era such as the Black Dhalia it easily comes out on top. Thoroughly recommended.

[Snapper]

Dialogue that crackles, characters that arent as they seem, real life people mixed with fictional ones, an excellent story, great acting. This film is definitely in my top 3 if not nudging the top spot. I will go on about it more after Thursday but if there was one film to watch it is this one. The greatest cinema tragedy is that it was robbed come Oscar time due to an ok remake of The Terminator in the shape of Titanic!

Watch the film never has two and a half hours of celuloid been used so well. Everytime I watch this I see something new.

[Donachiel]

Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush.

I watched this one the other day, and I was very impressed. I can't believe it has taken me this long to finally see this film.

I must say, the concept of a detective story set in 50's Hollywood, didn't really appeal to me. But there is so much to this film, the concept is just peripheral. I still have the book on my bookshelf waiting to be returned to its owner. I'm gonna' have to find time to read it before giving it back .

Guy Pearce is great as the weaselly Ed Exley. There seems to be just enough to hate about everyone in this film, to the point where there is no good guy. Russell Crowe in the role that type casts him as a mindless thug. "Wendell, I'd like full and docile co-operation on every topic." Great lines...

And James Cromwell seems to get them all: "Go back to Jersey, Sonny. This is the City of the Angels and you haven't got any wings."

Only Kim Basinger could have been cast as Lynn Bracken - the hooker that looks like a film star. How fitting is that? But she is possibly the only actress that uses 'the voice' these days. You know the one, that kind of breathlessness of 50's actresses that they just don't do anymore. A proper Femme Fatale. Not sure if she deserved the Oscar, but then again do many of the winners?

There's so much going on in this film, but it doesn't seem to get confused about where it's up to or who knows what. You're dealing with interwoven cases, across three investigations and they all seem to tie together nicely. Ending with a spectacular shoot out that is no holds barred, all out gripping.

Loved it, thanks for pointing it out Snapper. I will be watching it again...

[Mr Morningstarr*]

It was Russell Crowe's performance in this film that convinced me he'd make a great James Bond.

[Snapper]

Seen as I put this film forward for perusal well I suppose I had better make some comments on it.

For this film highlights everything great about cinema. It makes a bygone era come to life. The atmosphere of LA as a booming town post war is conveyed with great wit and charm. The sights and the sounds of hollywood are there, when Danny Devito takes shots of Kevin Spacey on a drugs bust with a movie premiere in the back ground, casually meeting hollywood stars in a restaurant, it makes you just want to experience a time when Hollywood was becoming what it is today.

The script is excellent, the direction top notch if Curtis Hanson makes films till he's 500 he'll never be able to top this. The credit must go to excellent source material, a lot of people when watching a film based on a much loved novel say its not as good as the book ... Its a totally different form of media!! The novel is so complex the story had to be trimmed many charcters had to be cut (over 200 characters with talking parts!) It is amazing that it was condensed into such away that it could be released originally it was going to be done as a mini series. James Ellroy writes with such panache any fans of the book get the beat of the film quite easily and this is how Ellroy should be done quality actors given a great script and they fill the screen with great presence and chew the scenery as though it is the acting job of their careers for Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe it propelled them to the Hollywood A List!!

I think this film is probably the greatest film of the 1990's it came out in 1997 which is regarded as one of the worst years for films ever. LA Confidential grabs you by the scruff of the neck early on using great techniques and probably one of the best uses of montage hollywood has done in years. I could carry on all night about this film it is definitely a classic and should fill the space on anyone's DVD shelf. The travesty being I havent got it on DVD yet I'm hoping for some superb special edition instead of the dodgey vanilla disc that came out when DVD was in its infancy!

Morningstarr Classic? In my opinion a big YES