Curtis Hanson (1945–2016)

James Ellroy believed that L. A. Confidential, third in his quartet of novels chronicling his beloved hometown during its post-1945 boom years, was unfilmable. It was too complex – too many characters, too many subplots, too intricately braided together – and far, far too dark. Filled with corruption and blackmail, drugs and violence, soured ideals and broken dreams, it was a tale without a single sympathetic character, never mind a hero. It would, Ellroy believed, remain tied to the printed page, too difficult for any screenwriter to adapt, and too toxic for any Hollywood producer to go near.

Ellroy, as he graciously admits in his introduction to this published screenplay of the novel, was wrong. Brian Helgeland, a fellow son of LA, distilled the novel into a script, assisted by director-to-be Curtis Hanson, who went on to make L. A. Confidential into one of the definitive modern examples of film noir and one of the definitive movies of the 1990s. The movie is awash in superbly realized period details (the cars, the clothes, the guns, the streetscapes, and even the furniture) and ablaze with star power (Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kevin Spacey as the leads; Danny de Vito, Kim Basinger, James Cromwell, and David Strathairn in support). It’s so visually engrossing that it’s easy to overlook, when you’re watching it, just how good the writing is.

Reading the screenplay on the page lets you focus on just that. The dialogue snaps, crackles, and pops, revealing (without ever resorting to speechifying) the multiple shades of corruption, and the multiple shades of slightly tarnished nobility, that define the main characters. The scenes (mostly short) move crisply, and – even without the action on screen – the intertwined threads of the narrative come alive. Superb film . . . brilliant screenplay . . . fascinating book.… (more)