A shooting at an all night diner is investigated by three LA policemen in their own unique ways. Curtis Hanson's adaptation of the James Ellroy best-seller is that rarest of modern Hollywood creations, a crime drama with the brains, sex appeal, humor, danger and action to satisfy all tastes. The best film about Los Angeles since "Chinatown."
[White catches a parolee beating his wife]
Wife Beater: Who in the hell are you?
Bud White: The ghost of Christmas past. Why don't you dance with a man for a change?
Wife Beater: What are you, some kind of smart ass?
[tries to attack Bud]
Bud White: [after beating up and handcuffing the wife beater] You'll be out in a year and a half. I'll get cozy with your parole officer. You touch her again, I'll have you violated on a kiddie raper beef.
Bud White: [grabs wife beater by the head] You know what they do to kiddie rapers in Quentin, don't ya?
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Early though it may be to make such a prediction, I'm going to do so: no one will be more deserving of an Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 1997 than Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson. James Ellroy's 1990 novel "L.A. Confidential" was 496 pages of sprawling, tangled plotting and a staccato prose style in which entire chapters seemed to fly by without a single verb rearing its active little head. Even the author himself said he didn't always know what was going on at any given time. Hanson and Helgeland took that narrative and tamed it into an intricate but accessible crime drama. They remained true to both the style and gritty substance of the story while giving it the appeal of pop entertainment.