The Key Conventions Of Film Noir In L.A Confidential

L.A Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997) is a neo-noir film about a shooting at an all night diner and the three Las Angeles policeman who investigate in their own unique ways. It is based on the book by James Ellroy and after a very well adapted screenplay, won nine academy awards. It starred actors with big names like Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Danny Devito, which made it a very high earning film. The Narrative or storyline is much the same as any other film noir movie. It has a ‘hard boiled' cop (Russell Crowe) who we grow attached to. The narrative of any film must have certain ‘key conventions' which are apparent for the audience to tell the genre of the film. The …show more content…

The entire setting reflects film-noir; we can see this just by looking at the motel, it is decrepit and messy which is very stereotypical of film noir. Once the action starts happening the shootout is very conventional to film-noir. The main protagonists are on their own against an overwhelming amount of ‘bad guys' or the cops who work for the bad guys. This shows that the ‘good guys' are in fact very remote and deserted. The only thing different from most noir films is the fact that there are two main characters rather than just one. Both of them still have the characteristics of film noir though. Bud White is the strong one, the muscle and Ed Exeley is the smart one, the calculating one. The Scene ends with a twist that Dudley Smith, the police chief, is behind all the murders and organised crime. This comes back to the key convention of corruption in film noir. The mise en scene here is good because when Exeley gets shot there is a page of the newspaper L.A Confidential. This suggests that the paper has had a hand in everything that has happened in the film so far. At the end of the scene Exeley shoots Dudley Smith. This shows how much he has changed through the course of the film. He started off as a ‘goodie goodie' son of a lieutenant who was sanctimonious and smug. He has grown into a man who shoots fellow police officers in the back because he believes it is the