On the 20th anniversary of the films release, we honor its status as a contemporary classic by asking one simple question how did it earn such. The film tells the story of a group of lapd officers in 1953, and the intersection of police corruption and hollywood celebrity. Confidential is one of my favourite books of all time, and my favourite james ellroy book. Confidential feels like the book that james ellroy has been preparing for and working up to during.
I found it on my dads night table and read it breathlessly, the stories of reefer parties, multiple divorces, wifeswapping and leading men who liked to wear frilly undergarments. At the beginning of the book, before getting into the nite owl case. Energetic, sprawling and often stylistically irritating police procedural that follows three lapd members over a tenyear period, beginning in 1950. Ellroy was asked by a member of a book talk audience if he wasnt guilty of overdoing his staccato style just a touch and ellroy, apparently an absolute pussycat, agreed that, yeh, she was probably right. Rather than use criminal activity as a plotdriving framework, it wrestles with the utter essence of the genre. Confidential has been hailed by critics as one of seminal works of neonoir. Confidential by brian helgeland based on the novel by. Bud white is one of the main characters in the movie. Sagalike narrative hardboils down to three gutsy, basically honest but flawed lapd officers. He takes all of the themes he explored in previous novels and packs them into a book thats an even larger, more epic tale of crime, perversion, and hollywood corruption than any of his previous books.
Mickey cohen has just been sentenced to ten years in federal prison for failure to pay income tax. The magazine sank in a sea of lawsuits, but it created a genre. Confidential, the new curtis hanson film based on ellroys 1990 novel of the same name, is something slightly different its the story of good white actors stranded, in the name of noir. Confidential quotes showing of 3 some men get the world, some men get exhookers and a trip to arizona. Confidential is a 1997 american neonoir crime film directed, produced and cowritten by curtis hanson. In the incontinent mayhem that masquerades as a james ellroy novel, the line between the quick and the dead is fine. Confidential, to discuss the main theme of honor that runs throughout the film.
Confidential 1997 successfully reestablishes the gritty, dark, suspenseful atmosphere of film noir that tells a hardboiled crime story with all the conventions of classic melodrama. Those who arent somebody in hollywood are nobody, and with a cast of actors who in 1997 were all unknown faces, l. Open library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published. James elroys novel, from which the movie was taken, is chock full of 1940s cop. If you want to start a analysis laconfidential page, just click the edit button above. The screenplay by hanson and brian helgeland is based on james ellroys 1990 novel of the same name, the third book in his l. Narcotics sergeant jack vincennes, recovering from. While only visible for a second or two, these monkeys seeing no evil, hearing.
He plays the nite owl suspects against each other, making each one think the other is a traitor. Bud white russell crowe is an agressive detective with a disgust for men who beat women. I picked up the hardcover version of this book in 1992 and since then have read it a dozen times, making it one of the most dogeared books in my collection. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Detective lieutenant exley guy pearce, the son of a murdered detective, is out to avenge his fathers killing. Towards the beginning of the film, during one quick murder scene, a statue of the three wise monkeys is visible in the foreground. Officer bud white, on the other hand, is brutal, violent, vengeful and jack trashcan vincennes, formerly of the. Connections to our narrative bud white jack vincennes jack venceness, a vain and materialistic character who is always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join exley and white down the oneway path to find the truth behind the dark world of. Confidential essay in 1990, james ellroy released a massive novel l. As the movie begins, sid, the editor for hushhush magazine narrates off screen, we are given. The director confessed to disliking the characters for too long into the story, and. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Published in 1990, it was ellroys coming out party as a force to be reckoned with in the genre and.
Youve reached the hub for any and all dramatica analysis of l. Kitchen confidential 2000, a memoir by chef anthony bourdain, is based on the. Published in 1990, it was ellroys coming out party as a force to be reckoned with in the genre and the dawn of a new generation in crime fiction. But the story mostly takes place in its seedy underbelly, and the plot is full of twists and turns and characters with hidden agendas. Three very different cops are all after the truth, each in their own style. Confidential feels like the book that james ellroy has been preparing for and working up to during his entire career up to this point. Ellroy is a master of crime, seamlessly weaving three narratives in his deliciously dark. Be careful, though, the only things that go in the main namespace are tropes and should be created through the ykttw system.
One particular cop, bud white, is known for beating confessions out of suspects. Confidential was a key magazine of the 1950s, a monthly that sold millions of copies with its seamy exposes of celebrity drugs and sex. And an instructive one for screenwriters, a model, i submit, for how to adapt a complicated story line, how to build a plot from a book so rich in character and incident. Ellroy is a master of crime, seamlessly weaving three narratives in his deliciously dark version of the city of angels. With kevin spacey, russell crowe, guy pearce, kim basinger. Ed exley, the golden boy of the police force, willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out. There is a rapid nudity, various police beatings, the prolonged rape aftermath, pornographic photos, gunplay and just a frequent wallow within the tinseltown seamy side. Depending on the study guide provider sparknotes, shmoop, etc. Ed exley, a patrician who venerates his herocop father, presumably holds high ideals and unassailable standards.
This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of kitchen confidential by anthony bourdain. It has many of the elements of a classic noir style, as well as some clear gangster elements, as it presents cops in the early 1950 s in las angeles. Based on a book by leading crime author james ellroy, l. The epigraph is a glory that costs everything and means nothing steve erickson.
Confidentialhas been hailed by critics as one of seminal works of neonoir. Confidential by james ellroy 55 the third book in the l. Confidential edmund exley gut pearce is an ambitous young detective fighting his way up the the ranks. Confidential follows three police officers, ed exley.
1290 1601 1168 231 473 764 404 1396 1182 661 483 890 1036 643 147 600 987 767 79 643 507 274 921 310 1099 551 523 589 41 219 869 854 1306 1061 580 407 904 1431 174 1024 1463 3