While on a trip to Kentucky last month, I read LA Confidential and found the difference between film and book very dramatic. That inspired me to cover crime films as part of my September 2 and 9 Salon Saturday shows. The third part is still in the works.
Film: Crime Movies
Crime movies have been popular for quite some time, in part because we’ve had a lot of crime in America. So much crime that some tourists from other countries worry about their safety here. A lot of us feel the same way going into big cities like Chicago and New York, or certain areas of Albuquerque.
A list of the best crime movies would include sub-categories of action crime films, crime thrillers, crime drama or even crime comedy movies. True crime and based on-movies are included. Many film noir movies fit in here as well.
Although there have been many foreign crime films and classics before 1970. I have not included any. The two Godfather movies are always rated at the top so I won’t rehash them in favor of movies you might not have seen. The first 10 chronologically are here, plus a summary of LA Confidential; from book to film.
The French Connection (1971): Dir William Friedkin, with Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider
A pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseilles, but stopping them and capturing their leaders proves an elusive goal. It featured a great early Gene Hackman performance that won an Academy Award, and it also won Oscars for best picture, direction, screenplay and editing.
“Did you pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?” This is how Popeye Doyle (Hackman) unnerves a suspect while his partner stifles laughter. It also has one of the best car chases, but with a train.
Mean Streets (1973): Dir Martin Scorsese, with Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro
A small-time hood tries to keep the peace between his friend Johnny and Johnny’s creditors. This was a pairing of two Scorsese regulars, later in Taxi Driver. The element of Catholic guilt and redemption mirror the director’s own upbringing. While still perfecting his style, the power of this early Scorsese film is clearly evident.
Chinatown (1974): Dir Roman Polanski, with Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder. This is the third of Ebert’s “great Films” I’ve covered so I think I’m on safe ground. A great Nicholson role in a neo-noir film that Ebert said fits right alongside the 40s Noir movies and stated it was a compliment.
Taxi Driver (1976): Dir Martin Scorsese, with Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybil Shepherd
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
A jazzy score, steam rising from streets, water-blurred images reflecting off wet sidewalks; this has to be a Scorsese film. The music score and voice-over narrations add to the atmosphere that entices you to enter this seamy world.
Blow Out (1981): Dir Brian De Palma, with John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow
A movie sound man accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger. Ebert called this De Palma’s best film, with his best drawn characters and pointed out the correlation with historical events like the JFK assassination and Chappaquiddick weaving through the plot.
Scarface (1983): Dir Brian De Palma, with Al Pacino, Michele Pfeiffer
In 1980 Miami, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed. Some reviewers consider Pacino’s performance over the top, but as Ebert wrote about another of his great films, “If Pacino goes over the top in “Scarface,” and he does, that’s because the character leads him there; over the top is where Tony Montana lives.”
A very different character than Michael Corleone, and another great role. Michael would never say as Tony does, “All I got in my life is my balls and my word, and I don’t break them for nobody.”
The Untouchables (1987): Dir Brian De Palma, with Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Sean Connery
During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him. While Ebert did not give this film a good review, James Berardinelli did give it 4 stars. In any case, Connery received an Oscar for his performance of streetwise cop, Jimmy Malone.
Goodfellas (1990): Dir Martin Scorsese, with Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito. Ebert has hailed Scorsese as our greatest director and seeing this film I cannot agree more. Ebert even elevated it over The Goodfather.
Liotta and Lorraine Bracco as his wife are the centerpiece here, inhabiting a world than is mafia-enveloped. It’s based on a true story of a Mafioso that betrayed his family and joined the witness protection program. Liotta is compelling here as a man enjoying the fruits of being a made man until his life spins out of control.
Reservoir Dogs (1992): Dir Quentin Tarantino, with Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen
When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant. Interestingly, Ebert gave this 2-1/2 stars like The Untouchables and Berardinelli gave it four. Ebert thought the script needed a lot of work, but praised Tarantino for his first attempt. The time sense goes back and forth and takes a while to get straight, but foresees the better Pulp Fiction.
Carlito’s Way (1993): Dir Brian De Palma, with Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller
A Puerto Rican former convict, just released from prison, pledges to stay away from drugs and violence despite the pressure around him and lead on to a better life outside of N.Y.C.
Pacino here plays a man older and wiser than his Tony Montana in Scarface, who is trying to go straight. His sleazy lawyer (Penn) is not a good influence, nor is Benny Blanco from the Bronx as John Leguizamo always calls himself.
L.A. Confidential (1997): Dir Curtis Hanson, with Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kim Basinger
As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen – one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy – investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice. Based on the book by Ellroy, but with many changes as described below.
One of its best scenes is not in the book, but delightfully done. Exley is confronting Johnny Stompanato, one of Mickey Cohen’s henchmen. His date gives him some lip and Exley says, “A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker.” Whereupon she throws her drink in his face and behind him Spacey, smiling, says, “She is Lana Turner.”
Books: LA Confidential, by James Ellroy
The novel is almost 600 pages of very dense prose. Ellroy must have lived in police stations to capture the succinct, sparse prose of officers and detectives. This is interspersed with police reports, newspaper articles and exposé stories like Hush-Hush. The action sequences are fast-paced and brutal at times.
Going from a long novel to film meant making a number of changes.
- Time was compressed from 8 years to what seemed like months.
- The main character’s personalities were not changed, but none of their back-story apart from what was shown during the running time was included.
- The Night Owl shooting was covered accurately, but its final resolution was years later and different and more simply presented in the film.
- The character arcs of the three main roles were very complex and changed over the 8-year span.
The shootout at the Victory motel, a staging for Lt. Dudley Smith’s interrogations, was not in the novel. Instead a shootout on a prison train transporting inmates resulted in Jack Vincennes death and Bud White’s near-death.
Inez Soto, the Mexican woman raped by the three blacks captured for the Night Owl massacre and rescued by Bud White is involved in the plot throughout the movie, befriended by both White and Exley.
The back-story on Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) shows him to be a false, opportunistic war hero, whose father Preston Exley was a former detective who later made tons of money in construction including a Disney-like fantasy land, a major freeway and bid for the governorship of California. These provided a rounded fully-realized character in the novel who redresses many of the wrongs of other characters, and gains his own redemption.
The last scene, Ed Exley, as Deputy Chief and Chief of Detectives receives his gold bars and goes over to Lynn Bracken’s Packard and says farewell to Bud White, bandaged in the back. Bud, his hand to the window, is joined by Ed’s smaller hand on the other side of the window before Lynn and Bud drive away.
At least the ending was the same.
Crime Films: Part Two
This is part two of our crime film review, covering movies from the mid-90s to 2,000. In the early days the crime wave during the Roaring Twenties and into the depression and Prohibition served up many real life criminals to put into film. Capone, Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and the growing mafia threat provided plenty of material. Into the Forties, war films provided all the violence and thriller elements one could want, while Film Noir took a more subtle approach to crime.
True Romance (1993): Dir Tony Scott, with Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper
In Detroit, a pop culture nerd steals cocaine from his new wife’s pimp and tries to sell it in Hollywood, prompting the mobsters who own the drugs to pursue the couple. Ebert suggested leaving your brains at the door for this one, but cited screenwriter Tarantino for a good follow-up to Reservoir Dogs, which we featured on last week’s show.
Also features Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Samuel L Jackson and Brad Pitt. With a cast like that you have it watch it.
Pulp Fiction (1994): Dir Quentin Tarantino, with John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L Jackson
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption. Do not become distracted while watching this; it does all neatly tie-up by the end, but this is one of my favorite movies and rewards with multiple watches. It also makes more sense.
The Usual Suspects (1995): Dir Bryan Singer, with Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri
The sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup. Deception upon deception with an excellent cast. The title comes from a line in Casablanca (1942), spoken my Captain Renault (Claude Rains). “Round up the usual suspects.”
Casino (1995): Dir Martin Scorsese, with Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci
In Las Vegas, two best friends – a casino executive and a mafia enforcer – compete for a gambling empire and a fast-living, fast-loving socialite. Sharon – Basic Instincts – Stone is very naughty here as well. Pesci is not the lovable My Cousin Vinny (1992) here. But you will see lots of Vegas.
Heat (1995): Dir Michael Mann, with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
A group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist. Ebert praised Mann’s direction and screenwriting and the way he made the women in their lives add to the drama.
He also made an interesting point about Pacino and De Niro; criminals now imitate them. And really how can you resist seeing these two actors playing cops and robbers?
Fargo (1996): Dir Cohen Bros., with Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi
Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard’s inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen’s bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.
There are so many elements of a typical caper movie turned on its head here that possibly only the Cohen brothers and McDormand could pull it off, but they did for one of 1996’s best films. As Ebert said in his 4 star review, “Films like “Fargo” are why I love the movies.” I couldn’t agree more.
L.A. Confidential (1997): Dir Curtis Hanson, with Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kim Basinger
We covered this movie last week, but it was the best crime movie of 1997 in my opinion.
Donnie Brasco (1997): Dir Mike Newell, with Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen
An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and finds himself identifying more with the mafia life, at the expense of his regular one.
Unlikely friendships are at the heart of this film, with Lefty (Pacino) a made man forming a friendship with Donnie (Depp), a made-up name. Both Pacino and Depp are excellent in this movie, and although there is a fair amount of violence it is that friendship that drives it.
Ronin (1998): Dir John Frankenheimer, with Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone
A freelancing former U.S. Intelligence Agent tries to track down a mysterious package that is wanted by the Irish and the Russians. In feudal Japan a ronin is a wandering samurai who had no lord or master.
Actually the “package” is a McGuffin as defined by Hitchcock as something everyone cares about, although it doesn’t matter what it is. It all wraps around a plot-less story with good dialogue by David Mamet and direction from the man that gave us the Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Seven Days in May (1994).
Entrapment (1999): Dir John Amiel, with Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames
An insurance agent is sent by her employer to track down and help capture an art thief.
This was similar to The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), but I decided I liked this one better with Connery’s original James Bond to Pierce Brosnan’ later version. And there is Zeta-Jones in this one, too. This is an over-the-top caper movie like Charade, To Catch a Thief and Topkapi that offers thrills over violence.
Traffic (2000): Dir Steve Soderberg, with Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones
A conservative judge is appointed by the President to spearhead America’s escalating war against drugs, only to discover that his teenage daughter is a crack addict. Two DEA agents protect an informant. A jailed drug baron’s wife attempts to carry on the family business.
This is a powerful film about drugs in North America, something everyone is aware of due to Fentanyl, a drug 50 times more potent than heroin and more effective at killing its user. There are many stories covered in the movie’s 2-1/2 hour running time. Not all link up, but each covers the reality of the drug trade in unremitting detail.
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