Love LA Confidential, but I prefer Chinatown.
RIP
Ronnie James Dio
July 10, 1942-May 16, 2010
I appreciate your sticking to the OP's original question. And I agree with your conclusion. I love LAC, and I'll watch it every chance I get, but Chinatown is on another level. LAC has one weakness I've never been able to get around: the casting, and portrayal, of Kevin Spacey as Jack Vincennes. It's been years since I've read the book, but I don't ever remember meeting this character. The original was much darker and an addict who commits a drug-induced murder. Spacey is snarky. Both movies are about appearances and reality, corruption in high places. But Chinatown has the advantage of a symbol of absolutely incomprehensible lawlessness: Chinatown itself. It stands as a prime example of the chicanery and nefarious behind-the-scenes dealing that is the movie's plot, and the action ends, appropriately, with the ultimate chaos occurring on the streets of Chinatown. Finally, the acting in Chinatown is uniformly superb.
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Yes, they are. They're both about corruption on a grand scale, so I'd say they are much alike in their subject matter. It's true that in L.A. Confidential the "good guys" win. In Chinatown, the only winner is Noah Cross, the most corrupt character in the story. But without the corruption, neither film would be possible. Anyway, I was responding to a question about the best film about L.A. I wasn't trying to compare their subjects.
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Ok, you win. They are about corruption but not the same kind. If you want to spit hairs like that, and ignore the fact that the OP didn't ask about subject matter, you're a great big hero. I'm out.
shareCollateral is definitely in the top five.
shareWhich is the best film ever made in which LA is the star?
L.A. Confidential or Chinatown? - fnj2002
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Pulp Fiction.
Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.
Crime Wave (1954)
shareI'm surprised nobody mentioned Double Indemnity, the original film noir.
Phyllis: I'm a native Californian. Born right here in Los Angeles.
Walter Neff: They say all native Californians come from Iowa.
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Agree with a lot of the candidates mentioned, but how about: Jacky Brown, The Big Sleep (1946), Shampoo, Singing in the Rain, Rebel Without a Cause, Devil in a Blue Dress, Clueless, L.A. Story, True Confessions or The Day of the Locust?
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Finally, one reads these posts and nobody mentions Double Indemnity until now. This aficionado will add another, Sunset Boulevard. Add Chinatown and the viewer has a triple feature of masterpieces.
Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I AM big. It's the pictures that got small.
LAC falls a little short of the aforementioned competition although Hanson uses wonderful locations and Helgeland's adaptation of Ellroy's novel was a Herculean task to come up with a filmable screenplay. A thoroughly enjoyable picture but let's keep the competition in perspective.
I'm posting to you mgtbltp because you're the only person to mention a true LA classic.
Have you seen the Lineup 195x? Eli Wallach and I think Farley Granger. It's a really good movie, but the commentary track has James Elroy and another film historian giving a tour of old LA. The entire movie was shot on location all over Los Angeles. Not only is the commentary interesting, but it's absolutely hysterical. James Elroy is insane!
Line-Up is San Francisco
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