L.A. Confidential

LA Confidential is an amazing modern Film Noir. It captures the best elements of the original genre. It covers three policeman and a prostitute who represents different aspect of the problems with Los Angeles in the 1950s when the city symbolized the California Dream. That’s the theme of the film, the corruption and violence of the City of the Angels.The four main characters are Officer Bud White (Russell Crowe), Officer Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), Lieutenant Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), and Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger). White was a violent cop who believed there was nothing wrong with abusing suspects as shown by his first scene where he beats up a man who was beating his wife. Vincennes was wrapped up in the fame of Hollywood to the detriment of his job. He was a consultant on a TV show Badge of Honor and thought that would lead him into the industry. He was also corrupt and took bribes from Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) to arrest celebrities so that Hudgens could write about them in his tabloid. Exley was self-centered and ambitious and would do anything to rise up the ranks. When some Mexicans were arrested and beaten by the cops he ratted on them so that he could get a promotion to be a lieutenant and detective. Finally, Lynn Bracken moved from Arizona to Los Angeles in the hopes of getting into the movies. When that failed she became a prostitute. She symbolized the lost dreams of thousands who came to the city and the limited opportunities for women after World War II when they were expected to just be housewives and not strive for more. All of these characters would come together and seek redemption for their personal sins to solve a crime involving the powerful in LA.The movie touched on many of the tropes of classic Film Noir. The dangerous woman aka the Femme Fatale was Bracken. The main character up against an impenetrable system is portrayed by three policeman investigating their case. Noir also liked to focus upon the underbelly of America and the three cops find out there is a racket involving prostitution, organized crime, drugs, and land development in Los Angeles. The ending is also very interesting because it showed that those who ran LA were more interested in protecting their image than actually exposing the crimes and misdemeanors of the city, another common theme of Noir.Overall, the movie had great characters. A very engaging story that had twists and turns, plus some action to boot. There have been many attempts at Noirs since its heyday in the 1940s and 50s with very uneven results. LA Confidential stands head and shoulders above all of those as a standout release.

Exceptional

Film-making running on all cylinders. Cool story. Great cast. Just a solid flick in all aspects. Get it for your collection.

A mystery with a happy ending and the bad guy (watch and find out who) loses all in the end.

A movie I could watch several times and do do every couple years

This is a nice movie, maybe a minor classic.

This movie is already a few years old and yet it has become recently reacquainted with it, due to doctor's orders - bed rest. Now one has time to revisit some movies that may be interesting and watch them more than once. To refer to movies as one would refer to books would be heresy and yet I find myself reading a good book several times and watching a good movie several times too. With movies it is certain scenes or parts of a script that I watch over and over because they are brilliant. Perhaps writing reviews may become another new thing I do whilst recovering from surgery and being on what I now fondly call 'bed arrest'. It is all going well, so please do not worry about this humble reviewer. Your humble reviewer though finds it hard to stay still and do as she is told (doctor's orders remember). This movie has a number of particular qualities in addition to being a very interesting story. The main kick is that some of the greatest artists are in this movie performing in a good plot together when they were young. Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey Guy Pearce, Danny De Vito, and many more. I definitely urge to consider watching this one again on a day when you are told you have to stay in bed for your health, you have had a stressful week or you want to see a movie with a plot that is quite interesting. This is perhaps the movie where I became a fan of Guy Pearce (he is not just a pretty face but a very smart one too). I am, as you know, a reviewer than likes to comment on the performance and the appeal of the movie itself as opposed to telling you what it is all about (which spoils the fun to have something to look forward to). For those reviewers who do find it important to reveal the plot of each movie in detail and do so kindly excuse me, I respect your style. Sometimes a movie that is worth much more than what the critics say is overlooked. This one, is now, in my opinion: a classic. I hope you find it as entertaining as I did or perhaps blame it on the bed rest. Your call. Do value each moment of life and please have some fun (books and movies), don't wait until you are told you are sick before you do. I hope some of you do agree with yours truly. One more thing: streaming is perfect. One more thing I love about technology now compared to where we were ten years ago. Thank you and enjoy.

Let me put it to you straight. If I hadn't read the novel first, I couldn't have followed the plot. There are just too many prostitutes, pimps, pushers, corpses and crooked cops for me to get them all straight, and the pacing is like a string of fire works that keep going off at irregular yet much anticipated intervals.I must have been an Ancient Roman in another life, because I found myself enjoying the violence much too much. "Just keep the lions down in the arena and away from my seat." With so many bad guys getting the "truth" beaten out of them, gunshot galore, I really shouldn't have been laughing. But I was. Repeatedly. And since everyone who got "whacked" somehow deserved it, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction.Moreover, the "noir" was way overdone. I felt myself splashed with bucketfuls of rain.Don't get me wrong. I loved every minute of this movie. But if you want to experience this tale creepily and quietly, with time to think the evil over, read the book.

I bought the DVD after reading it was Russell Crowe’s major Hollywood starring breakthrough; he certainly played a powerful role. L.A. Confidential is a complex and fast moving story about the brutality and corruption of L.A. cops and senior police officials. In many respects the film’s story is true to reality, but naturally, officials would angrily refute the claim. They always do. Nevertheless, to validate the brilliance of the film after 18 years from its release, the United States Library of Congress selected L.A. Confidential for preservation in the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." No doubt many officials, including members of Congress, considered that the film was in part factual and therefore worth preserving for historical reasons.

When a film is referred to as being 'timeless', it has nothing to do with the quality of the special effects, or the length, or the company that made it (Disney seems to refer to every one of its movies as a 'classic' - really? Have you seen Cars 2?!). No, what it has to do with, is story, script, direction and performance. If you've got those things right, the movie will live forever. Look at the 1950's War of the Worlds or the Time Machine - sure the effects are a bit creaky, but boy, how much better are they than their modern remakes? Look at The Maltese Falcon, or The Third Man, yeah, they are black and white, but so what? Both of those films have story and style to burn. And so we come to LA Confidential. A movie that is set in the fifties, has the wonderful feel of a 1970's detective thriller, a great modern sheen, fantastic actors, a scorching script and assured direction. What more could you possibly want? This movie is already about 17 or 18 years old. The greatness of it is that it feels like it could have been made yesterday, or have been magically transported through a black-hole from the 1950's, it lives and breathes it so well. I could have written this review a long time ago, but I 've only obtained the Blu-Ray recently, and seeing it as crisp and clear and watching the superb special features (commentary, documentaries, etc), I just HAD to write this. Timeless, indeed.

Have had this film on ye olde VHS tape. Decided to get it on DVD, special edition version. If you haven't seen this fim you have not seen, Crowe, Pearce, Spcacy, Devito at their best and not to metnion Oscar Award Winning peformance from Bassinger. Coruption, politics, sex and sin make LA Confidential one of the best films of all time.

L.A. Confidential gets a welcome blu-ray visual upgrade that's light years ahead of the fuzzy 1998 DVD. Great colours and a superb Dolby TrueHD audio track compliment this extras packed blu-ray. I adore here how director/co-writer/producer Curtis Hanson paints this entire tapestry very subtly, showing the terrible realisation in Guy Pearce's ( Ed Exley) expression, or when jaded and haunted Jack Vincennes ( Kevin Spacey) can't remember why he became a cop. Kim Basinger ( Lynn Bracken) is the intelligent yet vulnerable heart of L.A. Confidential and in the extras, she's as much in love with the film, the characters, including Bud White ( Russell Crowe) as we are.

I have always loved this movie, since the moment I went to see to the cinema to watch it, but I have never bought a DVD copy, although I have no idea why....finally I bought this special edition and I have to say that I am really happy, as I have remembered why this movie is on my favourite list.It has everything a good movie should have: a beautiful woman, with elegance and classic beauty, mystery, good cops, bad cops and some of them in the gray areas of life, you have movie stars, gossipmongers, corruption, drugs, sex, and scandal. Basically this movie is all that the Black Dalhia wanted to be but couldn't.Kim Basinger is excellent here, perfect in every scene she is in, but she is not the only one that shines here, the whole cast is fantastic, Russell Crowe was not as famous here as in Gladiator but his performance was brilliant, and Guy Pearce and the reas were just as good.Highly recommended and this DVD has lots of surprises, like the pilot of the series.Now, the language information: Languages (English, German, Spanish) and subtitles (English, Spanish, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Swedish)