L.A. Confidential (1997) on Netflix
Los Angeles, 1953. Three officers work the city their own way: Ed Exley by the book, Jack Vincennes for publicity, Bud White with his fists. The Nite Owl killings become their case.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb8.2/10663,910 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes99%
Trailer
Plot summary
The imprisoned mob boss Mickey Cohen's gang is being picked off, and Captain Dudley's police force sends visiting wiseguys from other cities home. Pierce Patchett, a wealthy developer, runs a ring of prostitutes surgically altered to resemble movie stars. Three plainclothes officers work the city: Bud White, who beats men who abuse women; Ed Exley, who goes by the book; and Jack Vincennes, who consults on a police television show. Shotgun killings at the Nite Owl coffee house become their case.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about L.A. Confidential (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Brian Helgeland wrote seven drafts of the script for free while Curtis Hanson turned down other jobs, the two of them working on the adaptation together for two years.
- Milchan objected to putting "two Australians" who were unknown in North America into an American period piece, but backed Hanson anyway, and the confidence from that let the director go after Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey.
- Hanson ran a private mini-film festival for cast and crew, one 1950s picture a week, using The Bad and the Beautiful for Hollywood glamor, In a Lonely Place for its ugly underside and Kiss Me Deadly for the atomic age.
- Real Los Angeles buildings carried much of the period detail, including Richard Neutra's Lovell House as Patchett's home, but Bracken's house on Wilcox Avenue needed a 75,000 dollar renovation to become the Spanish-style home described in the script.
- Warner Bros. did not want the film shown at Cannes, fearing an anti-studio bias would send them home losers, so Hanson and the other producers went around the studio and sent a print straight to the festival's selection committee, which loved it.
- It is one of only four films in history to sweep the "Big Four" critics' awards, alongside Schindler's List, The Social Network and One Battle After Another, with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review among those naming it the year's best film.
- A sequel set in 1974 was developed, with Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce returning and Chadwick Boseman cast as a young cop working for Mayor Tom Bradley, but it died after Boseman's death; James Ellroy and Brian Helgeland said Netflix executives fell asleep during their pitch.
