L.A. Confidential Reveals the Dark

L.A. Confidential reveals the dark world behind the alluring city of L.A. The action takes place in 1950, when the L.A. police are faced with a murder case, actually the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an old night diner.

The movie presents the different methods used by the police force to discover a conspiracy. Everything is full of mystery and the case seems to be well covered.

In 1953, in L.A., "where the sun shines and the *****es are wide and inviting," Bud White (actor Russel Crowe), is the "bad cop" whose partner got fired for starting a fight between the cops and some Mexicans that were said to have attached a couple of their friends, one year before he received his pension. The only cop who is willing to testify against Bud's partner, is a young and determined sergeant, sergeant Edmund Exley, who after having testified, became luteanent. Things get complicated after Bud's partner is killed one night at a massacre in a diner.

The main characters in the movie are cops with different characters, and hence different attitudes towards their job. Bud White is the type of cop who is ready to bend the rules in order to bring justice to the city. He is ruthless and unforgiving of anyone. He is able to fix everything with his fists, and he seems to have his own criminal case. There is always the feeling that he is somehow detached from the L.A. police department, leading his own investigations. Under his steel body, his hart seems very vulnerable. He became a cop after having witnessed his mother's tragic death. His mother was beaten to death by his father, who disappeared afterwards. His hart was filled with the will of revenge and the conviction that justice must be made.

Guy Pearce, is the character known as Edmund Exley, the golden boy, the "snitch," a straight, uptight detective trying to live up to the legend his father created before him. Exley is trying very hard to prove to the LAPD department that he is as good, or maybe even better, than his deceased father. He plays the politics in a corrupted police department very well, and he is able to use these skills in solving the mysterious and corrupt case of the Night Owl murders. He is willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out.

Lieutenant Jack Vincennes (actor Kevin Spacy), a cop who gives a popular L.A. police show, Badge of Honor, solves cases for money in return. He is always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join Exley, in search of the truth. The murder case of the Night Owl changes his life from a soap opera to real a one.

These three cops begin to investigate the Night Owl case that starts revealing deep tales of corruption within their own district. Captain Dudley Smith takes Edmund under his wing and tries to show him the way of being a cop. Meanwhile Bud gets into a relationship with a prostitute who might be a crucial turning point to the case Edmund is investigating.

All these three very different cops are in search of the truth, each in his own style. The film depicts a much unorganized police department, where communication between cops seems to be looked at as not being the right way to solve a case. Everything happens behind the scene, there seems to be too many secrets, and everybody is "dirty" in one way or the other.

In the background, the whole time, there is the somewhat mysterious captain Dudley Smith, played by Cromwell. He is a man who believes in bringing the guilty to justice by any means necessary, but in the end the viewer is never quite sure what to believe of it. Even Edmond comes out to be a careerist who wins acclaim and looses his soul as he pushes his way up the roads of the L.A. police force. The only way to succeed in L.A. is corruption and the choice to follow the devil's advice.

As the movie unfolds, each of the three cops is working on a particular case that is important to each of them personally to solve the case. Each of the three must help the others solve theirs in exchange for the support of the other two. Every one is doing his own justice.

The police force presented in "L.A. Confidential" is the one after the world war two. It was an era of an economic boom and everybody was looking to get rich in the fastest way possible.

There doesn't seem to be a sense that the police force is having a racist attitude against the black men. But maybe there is a feeling throughout the movie, that in every murder case there is a black person involved, and this might be a preconceived idea.

Members of the minority communities don't respect or trust the police due to the fact that some cops are not always objective when solving a case. They are blinded by their own principles and convictions about a race or a culture. The police should be an objective force who is searching for the law brakers, no matter who they are or to what society they belong to, and help making justice into their community. In the film, the young Mexican woman lied in order to get the cops' attention; she truly believed that if her case wouldn't have been related to the shotgun slayings, the cops wouldn't have paied her any. So she felt she had to do her own justice.