Taglines: Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush…
L.A. Confidential movie storyline. 1950’s Los Angeles is the seedy backdrop for this intricate noir-ish tale of police corruption and Hollywood sleaze. Three very different cops are all after the truth, each in their own style: Ed Exley, the golden boy of the police force, willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out; Bud White, ready to break the rules to seek justice, but barely able to keep his raging violence under control; and Jack Vincennes, always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join Exley and White down the one-way path to find the truth behind the dark world of L.A. crime.
L.A. Confidential is a 1997 American neo-noir crime film directed, produced and co-written by Curtis Hanson. The screenplay by Hanson and Brian Helgeland is loosely based on James Ellroy’s 1990 novel of the same name, the third book in his L.A. Quartet series. Like the book, the film tells the story of a group of LAPD officers in 1953, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity. The title refers to the 1950s scandal magazine Confidential, portrayed in the film as Hush-Hush.
At the time, Australian actor Guy Pearce and New Zealand actor Russell Crowe were relatively unknown in North America, and one of the film’s backers, Peter Dennett, was worried about the lack of established stars in the lead roles. However, he supported Hanson’s casting decisions, and this gave the director the confidence to approach Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito.
The film grossed $126 million worldwide and was critically acclaimed, holding a 99% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and an aggregated score of 90 out of 100 on Metacritic. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning two: Basinger for Best Supporting Actress and Hanson and Helgeland for Best Adapted Screenplay; it lost every other category to Titanic. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
Hanson did not want the film to be an exercise in nostalgia, and so had Spinotti shoot it like a contemporary film, and use more naturalistic lighting than in a classic film noir. He told Spinotti and the film’s production designer Jeannine Oppewall to pay great attention to period detail, but to then “put it all in the background”. L.A. Confidential was shot on location.
Jerry Goldsmith’s score for the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score, but lost to James Horner’s score for Titanic.
L.A. Confidential was released on September 19, 1997, in 769 theaters, grossing $5.2 million on its opening weekend. On October 3, it was given an expanded release in 1,625 theaters. It went on to make $64.6 million in North America and $61.6 million in the rest of the world, for a worldwide total of $126.2 million.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, David Strathairn, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, Elisabeth Granli, Sandra Taylor, Graham Beckel
Screenplay by: Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson
Production Design by: Jeannine Oppewall
Cinematography by: Dante Spinotti
Film Editing by: Peter Honess
Costume Design by: Ruth Myers
Set Decoration by: Jay Hart
Art Direction by: William Arnold
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and language, and for sexuality.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: September 19, 1997
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