#25 - L.A. Confidential

Those of you who are loyal readers may have noticed that on Wednesdays, I normally post my top five films from a specific year. I began doing this a little under a year ago and a few weeks back I gave my list for top movies of 1978, the year I was born. Today I begin a new weekly series that will count down my Top 25 Films of All-Time. I hope you enjoy...

L.A. Confidential was a film based James Ellroy's crime novel of the same name, which opened in 1997. The film starred Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger (who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role), and two relatively unknown Austrailian actors who would later become major movie stars. Guy Pearce played educated detective Edmund Exley, while fellow newcomer Russell Crowe played hard nosed officer Wendell 'Bud' White, the most feared man on the force. This film was a breakout film for these two actors who have since gone on to star in several major motion pictures.

The film itself is set in the 1950's against the backdrop of glitzy Los Angeles in a time where organized crime, police corruption and hollywood celebrities were all mixed in one bag of sex, lies and murder. The film focuses on Spacey, Crowe and Pearce's characters seperately for the majority of the film until all their individual stories meet up in a classic showdown at the end of the film. L.A. Confidential was nominated for Best Picture at the 1997 Academy Awards and director Curtis Hanson won the Oscar for best adapted Screen Play.



I'm Christopher Smith & I approved this film...