L.A. Confidential
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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/ -
hafabee — 9 years ago(April 14, 2016 10:18 AM)
I was going to say
Chinatown
before I even opened your thread.
But
L.A. Confidential
is terrific, I just saw it again recently and it seems to get better with every viewing. I think it has even more watch-ability than
Chinatown
, which, while excellent, is depressing. -
tlee222 — 9 years ago(April 15, 2016 08:52 PM)
The OP is all over it. There are some good movies mentioned in the interim, but it does come down to Chinatown and L.A. Confidential.
I personally prefer L.A. Conf. (watch it at least twice every year), but historical standards tells me Chinatown is the better movie.
But it's damn close. -
zappalover — 9 years ago(September 22, 2016 12:25 PM)
Practically impossible for any film to top Chinatown; when the topic is LA, it is the best, period. LA Confidential is the second best for many of us born after 1945. It's great to see Curtis Hanson receiving so much praise post-mortem. A stellar detective film, though one can quibble with its upbeat ending.
Life is a state of mind.