L.A. Confidential (R)
IMDb; Regency; Rotten Tomatoes; StudioCanal; TV Tropes; Warner Bros.; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; Hulu; iTunes; Movies Anywhere; Vudu; YouTube
This came out in 1997, but I didn't see it until 2014. It's based on a 1990 novel that I haven't read, and it's set around 1953. Or maybe over the course of several years in the 1950s, it really wasn't clear to me. But it's based, to some extent, on historical events and people, though I'd never heard about any of this before seeing the movie. And I'm not sure how much is fictional or how close the historical stuff comes to reality. In any event... it has a really good cast. I definitely found it interesting, though for quite awhile I had trouble following everything that was going on with all the different characters. There were a few different cops who were investigating different things that all turned out to be connected, but I couldn't keep track of which people had done what and which people knew what. Maybe I'll follow it better if I ever watch it again, but I'm not sure if or when I will. (If I do, by that time I'll probably have forgotten the plot, anyway.) But it was definitely a good movie.
Anyway, I'm not sure how much of the plot I can really explain. I guess the LAPD was in a transitional period, trying to remake its image. And there was one sergeant, Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce), who seemed to be pretty much the only cop who had any interest in following the rules. Also he was following in the footsteps of his father, a police detective who had been killed some time ago. Exley has recently passed the lieutenant exam, and wants to become a detective, himself. But his captain, Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), wants his detectives to be willing to do things Exley isn't willing to do. Meanwhile, there's a narcotics detective, Sgt. Jack Vincennes, who is also a technical advisor on a fictional cop show called "Badge of Honor," as well as having a mutually beneficial arrangement with the publisher of a tabloid magazine called Hush-Hush, Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito). Vincennes mostly seems interested in being famous, but he's not a bad cop. And there's a sergeant named Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe), who also wants to become a detective, but Capt. Smith just wants to use him as muscle. White obviously has a particular grudge against men who abuse women, for a reason we learn later on.
So... there's a famous historical scandal with some cops beating some suspects in some case, I guess. Exley tries and fails to stop that, and later he testifies against the cops involved (though we don't see his testimony). This leads to him becoming a detective, though of course all the other cops hate him for snitching on their own. It's not clear to me exactly how many people were punished for what they'd done, but the main one is a cop named Stensland, who was fired. Later, several people are killed in a diner called the Nite Owl, including Stensland. Exley investigates that case, and becomes a hero in the media for killing the suspects when they resisted arrest. (Well, this was after they'd escaped from the police station, after the first time they were arrested. I am leaving out a ton of details, btw.) Um... but eventually Exley comes to suspect the guys he killed weren't guilty of the crime in question, after all (though they were definitely bad guys). Meanwhile, there were lots of other things going on in L.A. A crime boss named Mickey Cohen had gone to prison at the start of the film, so now others are trying to take his position. And... there's stuff about a rich guy named Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn) doing lots of criminal stuff, including a business that involves prostitutes who have been made to look like famous movie stars. One of these prostitutes is Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger), who's supposed to look like Veronica Lake. She gets involved with White.
And... well, lots of other stuff happens. I can't really explain it. I don't know what else to say.