Dish of the Day
Just some film musings of a more succinct, spontaneous and sometimes seditious nature:
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Recently, in our Facebook chat room (all readers are welcome to join here), someone posted a piece on author James Ellroy’s dissatisfaction with the 1997 film L.A. Confidential made from his 1990 novel. The article can be read by clicking here or on the image below.
Writer James Ellroy / Actor Russell Crowe
The member who posted this notice asked for others to comment. This prompted a flurry of responses, all of which seemed supportive of the film’s excellence. Additionally, there were those who were debating whether the filmmaking process relies more on the script’s contribution or the director’s.
My thoughts:
Whether cinema is dominated by the writer's participation or the director's (legendary film critic Pauline Kael once said, the movies we see are primarily shaped by the director's temperament) writing novels and motion picture production are two different storytelling endeavours. Since a film must by necessity start over, it should be critically assessed on its own. Setting aside that one owes nothing to the other (would anyone complain that a literary adaptation of a film was let down by a lack of faithfulness to its source?) a motion picture can be criticised for a host of reasons as long as the critic is not acting like some element(s) must be imported from one to the other.
Ellroy is therefore taking on the role of the film critic and, from what I've read in this article, not doing a very good job.
There may be weaknesses in some of L.A. Confidential's character and situational transitions perhaps due to an overpopulation of both, shrouded in mystery inhibiting character identification but the actors' performances (singled out were those given by Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger) that the author cites as “impotent” are not in the least… just the opposite in fact… “virile” if anything.
The article includes an excerpt from Variety where Ellroy reportedly wrote:
“My plot lines were reduced and re-stitched, my time frame was compressed, my love stories were re-triangulated. I created a world on paper. Curtis Hanson re-created it for film.”
Going by these statements, I see no criticism as to what was produced. Ellroy is only referring to a process, not the movie’s results. If the author of the book had tied in how that compression and re-working from literary to film form failed to communicate what Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential’s director and co-adapted screenplay writer) and Brian Helgeland (his co-screenwriter) intended, he might have something but as it stands, a whole new storytelling means of expression should be respected as such.
Oh, and just a reminder, I have a few words on both the film and Jerry Goldsmith’s fabulous score which can be viewed here.
All responses are not only welcomed but encouraged in the comments section below.
Hope to see you tomorrow.
A.G.