What is the movie L.A. Confidential about?
Released in 1997 and based on the book of the same name by James Elroy, “L.A. Confidential” is a neo-noir crime movie. Directed by Curtis Hanson, it helped introduce Australian actor Guy Pearce and New Zealand actor Russell Crowe to the American audience.
Set in the year 1957, “L.A. Confidential” revolves around the police corruption of the time and the point in which Hollywood glamour and violent crime meet. Its two main characters are Sergeant Ed Exley (Guy Pearce), son of a legendary LAPD detective and an ambitious, by the book police officer whose ethics and strict dedication to following police procedure have him isolated from his peers, and Officer Wendell “Bud” White (Russell Crowe), LAPD’s popular enforcer, a sort of a stereotypical muscle head with a soft heart. A famous actor, a number of women and a whole bunch of mobsters are all killed in seemingly separate cases, but investigations begin to show clues that it all might be somehow connected. When their cases cross paths, Exley and White are forced to work together to catch the bad guys, but their mutual dislike threatens to jeopardize the investigation. Their inquiries will lead them down the path of corruption going all the way to the very top of the LAPD pyramid.
“L.A. confidential” was nearly unanimously showered with praises and it was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but it had the misfortune of going up against “Titanic”, and ended up winning only two – best supporting actress (Kim Basinger) and best adapted screenplay.