L.A. Confidential (1997)
This deftly-adapted neo-noir is nothing short of a masterpiece
Originally published on my Substack February 8, 2021
In a 2018 interview, the leftist Greek parliamentarian Yanis Varoufakis said it's impossible to be optimistic today given the utter lack of evidence that things will change for the better but that we have to have hope, hope is a choice. This is a perspective that should resonate with most of us as we look ahead to the politics of the 2020's.
It is one of my great hopes that 2020 was the last year of the twenty-teens in film. Certainly the worst decade in Hollywood (potentially ever) since the cheap seediness of the eighties, the legacy of the last ten years will be its juvenile, overproduced “superhero” epics, boring period dramas, and low-budget, predictable (if at least culturally relevant) novellas of suffering.
L.A. Confidential is a stark reminder of a better era in film. And I shall prove this statement by listing a few other movies from its Oscar class: The Titanic, As Good as it Gets, Good Will Hunting, Boogie Nights, The Full Monty, and Wag the Dog.
(Above: Yes, all three of them star in this movie)
If today I was given $80 million (the film’s inflation-adjusted budget) to make a modern classic, I would follow the recipe as exemplified by L.A. Confidential:
- An exquisite ensemble cast of up-and-comers and former A-listers (the movie stars then relative unknowns Kevin Spacy, Russell Crowe, and Guy Pearce with a tour de force performance by eighties starlet Kim Basinger who’s probably the most captivating actor on the screen; the film also benefits from remarkable supporting work from James Cromwell, David Strathairn, and the inimitable Danny Devito)
- A contemporary, lightly ironic approach to a familiar cinematic archetype such as film noir (in this case), a western, or historical epic
- A bang up screenwriter
- Plenty of sudden, gratifying episodes of violence which develop and inform the audience’s understanding of the leading characters
- A happy(ish) ending
(Above: And Kim Basinger is… Electric)
The great Carl Jung’s insight was the collective unconscious; that we inherit much of our own self-perception from the recurring archetypes that appear in our oldest stories. The characters we cherish in L.A. Confidential are intensely archetypal, made almost grotesquely so by their lurid juxtaposition.
Pierce, Crowe, and Spacey embody the spectrum of the heroic “lawman” the fastidious, callow golden boy, the near vigilante who violates the law to uphold justice, and the cynical operator who can’t quite hide the decency inside. Basinger’s femme fatale is incandescent amid a cityscape of sleaze and corruption. Of course, it isn’t long before we find out… (just kidding)!
It would be wretched reveal anything about the plot so I’ll end by encouraging you to watch this movie as soon as you can; It’s a captivating escape.
And whom among us couldn’t use a sentimental vacation to golden LA? Where “the sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see. You can have all this, and who knows… you could even be discovered, become a movie star… or at least see one. Life is good in Los Angeles… it’s paradise on Earth!”
That’s what they tell you, anyway.