Scenes We Love: L.A. Confidential
Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Trailers and Clips, Scenes We Love
YouTube was being spectacularly unhelpful today -- I wanted the clip when James Cromwell drops the Rollo Tomasi bombshell on Guy Pearce, because I constantly rewind it trying to figure out how Pearce achieved a mix of knowing horror and blase innocence. What I found was this short bit, so I'm making do.
Admittedly, it is my favorite scene in the movie which probably makes me a terrible person -- but Russell Crowe breaking that chair is the definition of tough. Bud White is rarely a name that comes up on the list of greatest badasses (it's always John McClane, Darth Vader, Rambo) which is a terrible oversight that pop culture should rectify immediately ... before he decides to play one-in-six again.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-04-2009 @ 11:30AM
SAModernist said...
Funny you should post this, I just purchased and watched LA Confidential again on Saturday (last time was like 5 years ago). I almost forgot how good it was. The Rollo Tomasi name reveal is as great but not as ubiquitous as Kaiser Sozei and both are associated with Kevin Spacey...pretty cool. Next, I am going back to watch Chinatown again... I am returning to 20th century Noir films.
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2-04-2009 @ 11:35AM
Julie said...
ROLLO TOMASI! L.A.Confidential is so full of great scenes but that one is fantastic. How did Guy Pierce do that? And what happened to Guy Pierce? Why don't we see more of him? Great actor. Well, you already know how much I love Bud White and his chair breaking gun in the mouth rescuing of damsels in distress. He's a mans man and as your dad would say, that was the way they made cops in the old days....
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2-04-2009 @ 11:41AM
The Colonel said...
I have argued (many a time) that the scene introducing Bud White in L.A. Confidential is the most awesome introduction of a movie badass EVER. With lines like, "I'm the ghost of Christmas past... care to dance with a many for a change?" and "I'll have you violated back on a kiddie-raper beef...you know what they do to kiddie-rapers in Quentin." He delivers the kind of blunt-force justice that you can't help but be on board with. So, Bud White as ultimate badass? Agree/disagree?
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2-04-2009 @ 11:55AM
Cincinnati Mike said...
Badass? Not sure. He is absolutely the guy I want to see coming thru the door in time of peril. But badass suggests swagger, and Bud is not proud of being "the guy they bring in to scare the shit out of the other guy."
My favorite Bud moment is when slaps Kim, draws back his fist... and THEN catches himself. His shame stops him dead. Intense!
Easily my favorite film in the past 15 years.
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2-04-2009 @ 12:14PM
Layne said...
Great scene choice! No one does intense like Russell Crowe!
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2-04-2009 @ 1:55PM
Eric said...
I think you picked the wrong scene though, but in this film, it is hard to choose. My favorite scene can be summed up in four words.
"That IS Lana Turner."
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2-04-2009 @ 1:59PM
marilyn said...
"L.A.C." is the most perfectly cast ensemble cop/noir flick ever made. Even the redheaded Dep't secretary whom Vincennes asks to look up a number is spot-on, as you'll know if you've hung out at cop shops.
Ditto cudos for Guy Pierce's facial "tell" as Exley tries not to react ! And the chair-break is powerful . Apart from the love scene with Lynne, my fave Bud scene is at the cafe table with the Captain raising, then dashing his exprectations. More facial subtleties.
Bud leads the pack because of his complexity and vast sexiness.
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2-04-2009 @ 3:50PM
Stephen said...
Great film. Great scene. My favorite line is, "L.A.P.D., shitbird. Get the fuck out of here or I'll call your wife to come get you."
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2-04-2009 @ 7:55PM
Darcy said...
I have to agree with those who think this is the best flick made in the last 20 years. It's chock full of great scenes and what an ensemble cast...can't beat it. Favorite scene? Now that's a bit of a conundrum then, isn't it boyo? They are all top notch then, aren't they?
1. "LAPD shitbird..." 2. "You look better than Veronica Lake."
3. "Do you have a valediction then, boyo?" 4.Rollo Tomassi
5. Bud in the rain. 6. "I know that Stensland lied to me..."
Well, let's just say I love the entire movie and be done. It is an exceptional film.
Darcy
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2-04-2009 @ 8:41PM
Elisabeth said...
I *just* watched this film over Christmas but everyone's comments make me want to put it on again! I started to go on and on in the post about the film, and why I like the scene and the character, but it's one of those where a single clip can speak for itself.
My third favorite scene HAS to be "Hold up your badge -- that's how they know you're a policeman."
Everyone in this film should get an Honorary Oscar.
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2-04-2009 @ 11:55PM
John Maddox Roberts said...
One of my favorite scenes was all but a throwaway. On the night Ed Exley catches the call on the Night Owl killings he's alone in the station. He looks at his watch and at the clock on the wall and notices that they're about 2 minutes out of sync. He goes over to adjust the clock which is beside the wall phone and that's when it rings. the scene says volumes about Ed Exley: first, he can't stand it that his watch and the clock are slightly out of sync. Second, he knows that his watch must be right, not the clock. Ed Exley is a total anal retentive control freak.
2-06-2009 @ 2:49PM
Macca said...
I agree with others and will raise you one. This is one of the best made, most satisfying and enthralling films of all time. I watch it frequently and yet manage to catch new details with each viewing.
LA Confidential was like catching lightning in a bottle. The incredible cast, directing, screenplay, cinematography, score... everything worked. This is a film for the ages, as it never feels dated.
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2-17-2009 @ 9:16PM
Lisa said...
"A hooker dressed up like Lana Turner is still a hooker....she just THINKS she's Lana Turner"...my FAVORITE line in LA Confidential...speaks volumns about the phony fascade of Hollywood and being able to tell "whats real" from "whats fantasy" and how the lines often "blur"....I LOVE Crowe he's Brilliant...and that first shot of him in the car on camera is one of the most powerful I've ever seen of a character on camera...but to me, the conscience of "LAC" IS Ed Exley..it was in the original novel and it IS in the movie. Guy Pearce is so fantastic in that film that you are often trying to get inside his character's head and see just what makes him "tick"...To me, he's always been a highly UNDERRATED actor and is one of the best there is. I think, in many ways, his acting surpasses Russell Crowe and for me LAC was always about Ed Exley because he encompasses, in one character, all that is good, corrupt, immoral and moral in Los Angeles and the LAPD.
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