1997′s L.A. Confidential was the little film that could. Released a few months before the behemoth that would become James Cameron’s Titanic, L.A. Confidential would become the film to punch well above it’s own weight. All of the odds were stacked against the film, it was a period piece which modern day viewers can’t relate to, nor did it have any big name stars of the day. Thankfully this was still the late nineties and while the stupid epidemic had arrived, it thankfully hadn’t reached plague proportions at the time as Gen Y were still young and hadn’t become the mass market to appeal to like in this modern day.
Set in Los Angeles of the fifties, the film follows three police officers during the events of a grisly murder investigation. Bud White (Russell Crowe) is an old fashioned cop who thinks actions speak louder than words, he’s tough and uncompromising. Edmund Exley (Guy Pierce) is a young ambitious cadet who is willing to do whatever it takes in order to progress up the ladder in the force. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is the “Hollywood” cop. Vincennes is a good cop who now works as an advisor to the local TV show “Badge Of Honor” a Dragnet style TV series. These three officers are brought together during the investigation of a massacre at a local cafe.
One of the victims turns out to be Bud”s partner, which turns the investigation personal. A quick investigation into the massacres is swiftly executed and is pinned on a group of young black men who deny committing the crime. Convinced that there is more the massacre than meets the eye, Exley, White and Vincennes delve deeper into the investigation only to find the murder investigation goes much deeper than many of them would like to go. L.A. Confidential is an excellent period piece that borrows from many of the great crime stories of the past, yet stands on it’s own as a great entry into the genre.
L.A. Confidential was one of the first big DVD releases back in 1998 during that format’s infancy and included quite a selection of worthwhile supplements. For its time the disc was an excellent presentation of a great film, but just like human aging, the compression technologies used in the day for that transfer hasn’t aged well all these years later. To make up for these shortcomings a new master was struck for both a new DVD and this Bluray release and the results are very pleasing, but not perfect.
L.A. Confidential is presented in it’s original 2:40:1 aspect ratio. Viewers who are expecting a completely clean and sharp image as with modern films maybe disappointed initially with this presentation, but certain considerations must be made due to the use of stock footage in the opening credits as there appears to be ZERO benefit in the upgrade. Post credit sequence the image quality increases significantly and the upgrade from SD to HD becomes justified. Detail in the image compared to the DVD release is very noticeable as one would expect.
Grain is present in the image as one would expect due to the cinematography process and it is far from distracting for you younger viewers and adds a sense of grittiness to the film. Shadow detail is adequate, but not exemplary I would have expected slightly better results in this area. Film artifacts are minimal to no existent and it’s great to see that Warner Brothers haven’t gone nuts with the DNR scrubber and kept the transfer accurate to the source. On the whole this is an very good presentation of the film, not perfect, but very good.
The Dolby TrueHD track on this disc is serviceable and very functional and is a good upgrade from the lossy Dolby Digital track featured on the DVD. Dialogue is crisp and clean and very easy to understand throughout. Bass is used surprisingly effectively throughout when required and while surround usage on the disc is minimally used during the majority of the film, the end shoot out scene in the hotel is where the surrounds really come alive. Surround directionality during this scene is well rendered and adds and great amount of depth to the conclusion to the film. On the whole it’s a subtle, yet pleasing track.
Supplements on the disc are sadly ports of previously released DVD items and none are presented in HD. Featuring most prominently is the audio commentary featuring various members of the cast and crew. It’s an adequate track, but not the best example of it’s kind and can seem a little confusing at times due to the number of people featured. Getting past the confusion and a lot of information is presented for people who are interested. Also present is Jerry Goldsmith’s music score for fans of the score, complete in 5.1 surround.
Video supplements are a mixture of new and old from both the 2 disc and original DVD releases. “Whatever You Desire: The Making Of L.A. Confidential” is an informative making of featuring Curtis Hanson and others explaining the difficulties in making the film. It is the most solid extra on the disc and is criminally short. “Sunlight And Shadow: The Visual Style Of L.A. Confidential” is a 20 minute piece with the film’s cinematographer explaining his filming choices. “A True Ensemble: The Case Of L.A. Confidential” is a short promo piece regarding the cast. “L.A. Confidential: From Book To Screen” is yet another 20 minute piece on adapting the book to the screen.
The most interesting supplement is a 50 minute TV pilot for a potential L.A. Confidential television series which never was picked up. It’s quite interesting to see as a lot of un-aired TV pilots don’t see the light of day, but you can see why this wasn’t picked up as a full time series. The balance of the video supplements are fluff pieces from the original 1998 DVD release. All video supplements total to approximately 130 minutes. Good value, but not in the same league as making of features on discs like Gladiator, Blade Runner or Alien.
All things considered, this is a solid release of the film, but I fell that a definitive release is still to come. If you’re a fan of the film, then this release is a no brainier considering the price.
