L.A. Confidential

Released: September 19, 1997

Studio: Warner Bros.

Genre: crime drama/mystery/film noir

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 126.2 Worldwide: ?

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: ? Worldwide: 245.46

Directing: Curtis Hanson

Screenwriting: Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito

Review:

Originally the plan was to make James Ellroy’s “heavy-plotted third novel in the Demon Dog’s L.A. Quartet” ^E18 into a television miniseries, but it never came about. When Curtis Hanson, who’d written and directed several successful films in the ‘90s, read the novel, he was immediately interested in making it into a movie. He said, “I’d always wanted to…deal with the difference between appearance and reality in Los Angeles, the city of manufactured dreams.” ^MD-53

It became “one of the most acclaimed movies of the 1990s.” ^MSN Set in Los Angeles in the 1950s, it is “a gritty, violent, thrilling film noirish tale of sex, conspiracy, scandal, double-cross and betrayal, racism and corruption.” ^FS The film pays homage to other classic noir films such as Chinatown (1974), The Maltese Falcon (1941), and The Big Sleep (1946).

The focus is on three LAPD officers who “use incompatible methods while tackling a multiple murder scene at the all-night diner the Night Owl.” ^FS Bud Smith (Crowe) is a “brutal, hot-tempered tough cop,” ^FS Ed Exley (Pearce) is “moralistic, clean-cut, college-educated rookie…[who] does everything ‘by the book,’” ^FS and “sleazy, sharp-suited” ^E18 Jack Vincennes (Spacey) is a narcotics officer moonlighting as a technical advisor on a TV cop show. Their superior, Captain Dudley Smith (Cromwell), “seems resigned to the corruption in the city and in his own police force.” ^FS

In an Oscar-winning performance, Kim Basinger plays a Veronica Lake lookalike who “works for a pornographer (Strathairn) who hires out celebrity look-alike prostitutes.” ^FS Danny DeVito stars as Sid Hudgens, the editor-in-chief of celebrity tabloid Hush-Hush magazine, to whom Jack provides scandal fodder. ^FS

Sources:

^MD Manohla Dargis (2003). BFI Modern Classics: L.A. Confidential. British Film Institute: London, England.
^E18 Empire (3/20/2018). “The 100 Greatest Movies”
^FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films”
^MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud

Awards/Honors/Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists:

Awards:

Oscars:

Wins: 2 – Best Supporting Actress (Basinger), Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominations: 9 – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Sound Mixing