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Russell Crowe is a bit of a comeback. The New Zealand actor first broke into Hollywood in the mid1990s after making a name for himself in Australian cinema most notably by starring as a violent and troubled neoNazi in 1992s Romper Stomper. He is currently slated to star in two adapted comic books Thor: Love and Thunder by Taika Waititi directed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony Pictures film Kraven the Hunter. Fittingly given that his first American starring role was in The Quick and the Dead a movie that essentially assumed Wild West gunslingers as superheroes and supervillains directed by the man who updated the comic book movies Sam Raimi.
But The Quick and the Dead was a massive box office failure and his next movie No Way Back likewise failed to find an audience. While Brilliance his third attempt at American stardom found a cult audience Crow plays an artificial intelligence built from the minds of all serial killers in history it didnt burn the box office at the time and a fourth hit Rough Magic barely released. There was a lot of riding in his next movie and luckily for Russell Crowe that movie was L.A. Confidential. Luckily for us its currently streaming for free on Hulu.
Upon its release in 1997 L.A. Confidential might not have shocked many as a surefire box office success. Russell Crowe was largely unknown in the United States and so was his star Australian actor Guy Pearce. It was based on the third novel by the novelist James Ellroys quarterback He had only one modification before the 1988 Cup which failed badly. A time piece set in the 1950s the film is always a risky show and its biggest asset director Curtis Hanson had only one hit five years earlier the frivolous psychological thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. In other words this isnt the movie youd expect to turn Russell Crowe into a star.
But she did. Regarded as a casual violent and hostile officer Wendell Bud White Russell Crowe has fully blossomed into one of the best actors of his generation. The L.A. Confidential plot follows Bud White and two other cops in Los Angeles in 1953: Jay Pearce as the ambitious idealistic and generally undesirable sergeant Edmund Exley and Kevin Spacey as Detective Sergeant Jack Vincennes a charismatic drug officer with a sidetaking bribes from Gossip magazines. The story is as twisted and complex as youd expect from a new noir.
The deadly events are initiated by the imprisonment of reallife gangster Mickey Cohen creating a power vacuum in which the corrupt and racist Los Angeles police do their best to keep it empty. Add a prostitution ring that performs plastic surgery on young women to make them look like famous movie stars as Russell Crowe and Jay Pierce become embroiled in a murderous story possibly played by Kim Basinger and the murder of a potential actor. Played by future Mentalist Simon Baker things quickly get dark.The key to LA Confidential is the lack of heroes. Russell Crowe may have the white knight mentality that drives him to rescue battered women but hes also ferociously jealous and an impressively violent beast.
Jay Pearce may consider himself above proving suspects as he has been ordered to but his ambition and unwillingness to consider the consequences of being charged first in police corruption is costing lives. And Kevin Spacey is cast entirely against writing as a fluff film cop Dean Martin begins by accepting dirty advice from gossipdeceived columnist Danny DeVito to make highprofile arrests which also serve as frontpage material for DeVito magazine. Ironically Spaceys character is closest to the pursuit of redemption for what he has allowed himself to be drawn into.Surprisingly L.A. Confidential was a huge box office success.
It grossed $126 million on a budget of $35 million making it one of the biggest films of the year that included Titanic Good Will Hunting and Men in Black. Less surprisingly it was enthusiastically received by critics and was nominated for nine Academy Awards winning Best Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Kim Basinger. He also started a prodigy for Russell Crowe that included The Insider Gladiator A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World making him one of the biggest stars of the early 2000s. Currently it has an amazing 99% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes so what are you waiting for? You can stream it now and you should.
