Movie Review: L.A. Confidential (1997)

The Premise: Taking place in 1950's Los Angeles, this movie looks at the underbelly of this sunny, beautiful city focusing on the notorious police department.

The Review: This film comes in under the radar for me. I don't remember anything about it, I may have even watched it or bits and pieces of it when it came out but honestly, I was in the seventh or eigth grade and was only just beginning my love for film at that point.

Watching it now, I realize what a fantastic film. One of my favorite film genres is the police drama, add to the fact that I love period films, and this film just combines the two. Taking all the contrivances of film noir and updating it for a modern audience with a sleek and sexy look and a pacing the audience is used to.

Ultimately, the film is about three different types of cops, the straight laced, slimy, "by the book" cop (Pearce), the superstar, "sold-out" cop (Spacey), and the tough, thuggish, "end justifies the means" cop (Crowe), and their trek through all faucets of Los Angele's criminal underwold. All three characters have characteristics that could easily be mistaken as "bad guy" chracteristics, but the world they inhabit is so full of gray that the main characters have to be gray in order to fit into that world. The characters are basically shallow caricatures of three different types that develop into full-fleshed characters by the end of the film. They're taken as far as they can go and back again, without changing the core characteristic of their character. The actors also play the characters so masterfully and are able to portray the entire depth of their characters that they may be the best people in a cruel world.

The only thing I can think of being wrong with this movie is that the plot moves at such a breakneck pace, that it's sometimes overwhelming. There are many characters to keep straight in name and look, the plot points come at you, you attempt to digest and suddenly we're on to another piece of the puzzle, it's overwhelming and sometimes confusing. This isn't a film you should shut your brain off for, don't blink or you might miss something.

The crime and corruption goes so deep that the movie jumps from police racism, to murder, to high-class hookers, to low-class rape, etc...and all without the blink of an eye or a hiccup along the way. This movie has two major themes going for it, the moral grayness of the world shown in the in-depth police corruption and the duality of the world - the fantastical image versus the reality. This being a period piece helps exude the fantastical image of Hollywood in the 1950s, with the lights, the glitz, the soundtrack, the cars, the set design, everything is so masterfully done that you can't help but be drawn into this world. Then you get drawn depper and deeper, as the movie peels layers and layers off, and you wouldn't want to live int this world, but you also can't help but be in it and continue watching the layers get peeled.

Favorite scene: The interrogation scene, the tension-building is at its finest.

****

out of 5 stars.