Sightlines · reception
How L.A. Confidential was received
1997 · Curtis Hanson · L.A. Confidential on Sightlines
The arc
A critics' darling on release — it swept nearly every critics' group Best Picture prize in 1997 — only to be steamrolled by Titanic at the Oscars, winning just 2 of its 9 nominations. Time has been kind: it's now routinely called the best film of 1997 and the modern noir standard.
What’s debated
The evergreen fight it fuels: 'Titanic robbed it' — the go-to Exhibit A whenever film fans argue the Oscars get Best Picture wrong.
Its footprint
'Rollo Tomasi' became cinephile shorthand for the one that got away, and Danny DeVito's 'off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush' is endlessly quoted. It's also the film that launched Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce in Hollywood.
Where it stands
A consensus modern classic — the neo-noir every 'best of the 90s' list has to include, and the benchmark all James Ellroy adaptations get measured against.
Did you know? Warner Bros. balked at Curtis Hanson building his big LA epic around two then-unknown Australians — Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce — and Hanson fought to keep them, reportedly accepting budget constraints in exchange for his cast.
Named by the director
- The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) — Hanson screened it for cast and crew as a touchstone for Hollywood's glamorous surface hiding rot underneath.
- In a Lonely Place (1950) — Cited and screened by Hanson for its vision of the dark, disillusioned side of 1950s Hollywood.
- Kiss Me Deadly (1955) — One of the five films Hanson screened in pre-production for its brutal energy and real Los Angeles locations.
- Don't Bother to Knock (1952) — Hanson showed it to the company as an example of a star (Marilyn Monroe) before the image hardened — actors as unknowns.
- The Lineup (1958) — Don Siegel's lean cop procedural, screened by Hanson as a model for no-nonsense police-story momentum.