L.A. Confidential
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darryl-tahirali — 11 years ago(July 16, 2014 03:57 PM)
Which is the best film ever made in which LA is the star?
L.A. Confidential or Chinatown? - fnj2002
First, your question is incompatible with your forced-choice response. "Best film ever made" suggests
all
films that meet the other criteria, and you're asking us to choose between only two.
Of those two, though, it's a tough choice, but I would go with
Chinatown
because I think it is more artfully made and has a bigger emotional impact.
Chinatown
was also made before
LA Confidential
, and I do have an historical bias.
And speaking of which, it's too bad that no one has listed any films of older vintage. For instance, I consider the "LA
Noir
Trilogy" to comprise not only
Chinatown
and
LA Confidential
but also
The Big Sleep
, which in one way or another informs both later movies. (Sometime I confuse scenes that are in
Big Sleep
with those that are in
Chinatown
, and vice versa.)
"We hear very little, and we understand even less." - Refugee in Casablanca -
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john-daly-532-644927 — 11 years ago(September 22, 2014 02:06 PM)
Agree with a lot of the candidates mentioned, but how about: Jacky Brown, The Big Sleep (1946), Shampoo, Singing in the Rain, Rebel Without a Cause, Devil in a Blue Dress, Clueless, L.A. Story, True Confessions or The Day of the Locust?
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ridge-m-1 — 11 years ago(December 14, 2014 06:51 AM)
Finally, one reads these posts and nobody mentions Double Indemnity until now. This aficionado will add another, Sunset Boulevard. Add Chinatown and the viewer has a triple feature of masterpieces.
Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I AM big. It's the pictures that got small.
LAC falls a little short of the aforementioned competition although Hanson uses wonderful locations and Helgeland's adaptation of Ellroy's novel was a Herculean task to come up with a filmable screenplay. A thoroughly enjoyable picture but let's keep the competition in perspective. -
rp69 — 11 years ago(November 10, 2014 08:07 AM)
I'm posting to you mgtbltp because you're the only person to mention a true LA classic.
Have you seen the Lineup 195x? Eli Wallach and I think Farley Granger. It's a really good movie, but the commentary track has James Elroy and another film historian giving a tour of old LA. The entire movie was shot on location all over Los Angeles. Not only is the commentary interesting, but it's absolutely hysterical. James Elroy is insane! -
armanmarok — 11 years ago(November 30, 2014 08:27 PM)
That would be
Kiss Me Deadly
.My Top 100 Favorite Films:
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls071561044/