>Hmmmm....just saw L.A. Confidential. Read the book
years ago, and after
>going through Nocturnes, I was really looking forward
to the film version.
>Gee, these guys were almost likable. While I liked the
film, it was hardly
>the blast I'd been expecting.
[snip]
My 80-year-old mother thought it was great. I thought it was
pretty much
a yawner -- epic snoresville, as Ellroy might put it -- both
times I saw
it. Yeah, I thought I'd missed something the first time, but
I didn't.
I'll admit it's slickly done -- some of the scenes with
Spacey are
top-notch -- but it certainly didn't cover what the book
covered. The
raped Mexican girl (Maria Soto?) was practically overlooked,
and the
Walt Dizzy character (Raymond Dieterling) was excised
completely. The
"bigness" of the novel was thus chopped off. Pierce Patchett
had to
carry the ball, and I'm afraid he had a torn anterior
cruciate.
>Mind you, really enjoying a book is almost a guarantee
that you'll hate the
>film.
The nice thing about a book is that it has an unlimited
budget. A
faithful rendition of "LA Confidential" might have cost more
than
"Titanic" . . . well, maybe not.
-- Ned Fleming # # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.