FilmSkool — a free film school
L.A. Confidential
Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.
1997 · Directed by Curtis Hanson · 138 min · Crime · Mystery · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 25 frames
Tagline
Everything is suspect... Everyone is for sale... And nothing is what it seems.
Plot
In 1953, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) aims to improve its public image following decades of corruption. Career-focused sergeant Edmund Exley lives in the shadow of his legendary detective father, whose murderer was never identified; Exley names the suspect "Rollo Tomasi", representing any criminal who escapes justice. Fame-seeking narcotics sergeant Jack Vincennes collaborates with tabloid journalist Sid Hudgens to perform high-profile celebrity arrests, and volatile officer Wendell White uses violence to interrogate and intimidate suspects, particularly women-abusers, because his father murdered his mother.
On Christmas Eve, White encounters high-class prostitutes Lynn Bracken and Susan Lefferts, and former officer Leland Meeks. They work for Pierce Patchett, a businessman operating a prostitution ring supplying women surgically altered to resemble film stars. White begins a relationship with Bracken. After the "Bloody Christmas" scandal—involving drunken officers beating inmates—Exley is promoted to detective lieutenant for advising his superiors to save the department's reputation by dismissing only securely pensioned officers. Exley coerces Vincennes to testify, while White refuses to comply and is suspended. White's partner, Dick Stensland, is fired for his involvement, making other officers hostile toward Exley. After powerful gangster Mickey Cohen is imprisoned, police captain Dudley Smith recruits White to frighten off criminals attempting to take Cohen's place. A spate of murders targeting Cohen's underlings leads to the disappearance of 25 lb (11 kg) of his heroin.
Exley investigates a massacre at the Nite Owl coffee house, with Stensland and Lefferts among the victims. Three felons are arrested for the crime, and interrogation reveals they have been raping a captive woman. White rushes to free the woman and executes her captor, planting evidence to suggest he acted in self-defense. The felons escape the station and are killed by Exley in the ensuing shootout, closing the case and earning him a medal for bravery. However, unable to ignore inconsistencies in the case, Exley and White continue the investigation independently. White interviews Lefferts's mother and discovers Meeks's body beneath her house. He interrogates Cohen's ex-bodyguard, Johnny Stompanato, who reveals Meeks was trying to sell the stolen heroin.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Curtis Hanson, Brian Helgeland
- Cinematography: Dante Spinotti
- Edited by: Peter Honess
- Music: Jerry Goldsmith
- Production design: Jeannine Oppewall
- Produced by: Michael G. Nathanson, Arnon Milchan, Curtis Hanson
Cast
- Kevin Spacey as Jack Vincennes
- Russell Crowe as Wendell 'Bud' White
- Guy Pearce as Edmund 'Ed' Exley
- James Cromwell as Dudley Smith
- Kim Basinger as Lynn Bracken
- Danny DeVito as Sid Hudgens
- David Strathairn as Pierce Patchett
- Ron Rifkin as D.A. Ellis Loew
- Graham Beckel as Dick Stensland
- Amber Smith as Susan Lefferts
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Regency Enterprises, Wolper Organization
- Budget: $35,000,000
- Box office: $126,216,940
- Themes: corruption, based on novel or book, call girl, shotgun, detective, femme fatale, domestic violence, whodunit, corpse, district attorney
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by Curtis Hanson
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.