Reservoir Dogs

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

A major theme in Reservoir Dogs (1992) revolves around trust (and its betrayal), loyalty, selfishness, and whether humane behavior can exist, even among criminals. (The title of the film, suggested by IMDb, may come from someone misunderstanding the title of Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants. Or, it could be a term for unsolicited scripts).

 Before the credits, there is an extended opening scene where there are several men around a dinner table at a restaurant talking about Madonna’s song, “Like a Virgin.” Many of them wear jackets and ties, as if they are at a business meal. We don’t realize until afterwards that this social gathering conceals the fact that they are part of a planned robbery. Director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino’s first film sets a style that he repeats in his later works by having people in extreme situations carrying on extraneous conversations. He said in an interview that he takes stereotypical genre characters and rounds them out by having them talk like real people about subjects other than the plot. What he adds is a comic flair to the dialogue, and he said, “Outrageous stuff rings the most true,” and dark stuff can be funny.  His writing ranges from the crude to the philosophical. We start out with the former here as Mr. Brown (Tarantino) sees the song as purely sexual while another man, Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) says it’s about a woman who has been misused by men in the past. (The use of colors to keep identities anonymous in a criminal act was employed earlier in The Taking of Pelham, 1,2,3.) Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney), the person organizing the heist, says he prefers Madonna’s earlier work. Through this process, Tarantino creates distinct characters by what they say and do.

 

The camera rotates around the table to show all the participants and keeps the angle at chair level, making the audience feel as if they are part of the gang. Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is annoyed by Joe’s droning on about an old address book and grabs it away from him. Joe is quickly portrayed as the elderly, stubborn guy who wants things to go his way. As he later says, it’s “my way or the highway.” Joe shows he’s ticked off by telling Mr. Blonde to shoot White. Blonde jokingly makes his hand look like a gun and pretends to shoot White. White shows his tough comic sense when he says, “You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.” Blonde’s sensitive take on the Madonna song and his humor here hides the evil that we see in the man later in the story. His blonde name denotes something attractive, but here its use is ironic. “Nice Guy” Eddie (Chris Penn), who is Joe's son and is not nice at all, talks about hearing golden oldies on a radio program, K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the ’70’s. (Tarantino is already thinking about making his Kill Bill movies which he hints at with the program name. In fact, Blonde’s real name is Vic Vega, and Tarantino was going to make a prequel to this film and Pulp Fiction, about the Vega brothers with Madsen and John Travolta. Tarantino thinks like a novelist who writes sprawling sagas). 

 Joe says he’ll pick up the tab but the rest should leave the tip, which is only a dollar each. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) says he doesn’t believe in tips because he shouldn’t be forced by society to automatically leave extra money unless extra effort is shown. Joe makes him throw in the tip because he paid for the meal, showing his need for control over the actions of others. Pink’s stinginess points to his selfish actions later and his aversion to cooperate with rules in general. Eddie criticizes Pink’s attitude by using a Jewish racial stereotype. (Tarantino has been attacked for using the “n” word often as well as other racial slurs, and his inclusion of prolific profanity. Indeed, if one is sensitive to this usage, Tarantino is not the filmmaker for you. Those who defend his content argue that it is a realistic depiction of the characters in the stories). White doesn’t go along with the good-natured teasing of Pink, and he is seriously critical of Pink’s lack of empathy for the poorly paid waitresses. Could he be named White because out of this bunch of criminals he has a code of ethics he wants to cling to? It is interesting that Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) has his arm resting on White’s chair, and attentively listens to what the man says. This fact points to the closeness of the relationship the two later share, and the hidden truth that threatens their bond. 

 Tarantino’s narratives are not linear. His jumbled timelines are infuriating for some, but he relies on the audience’s mental ability to figure out what is happening. Also, the out-of-sequence form of storytelling generates interest as one must actively participate in fitting the pieces of the tale together. So, right after the credits we have Orange in the back of a car writhing in agony after being shot. There is blood smeared on the seat while a supportive White tries to offer hope. He holds Orange’s hand, which literally and figuratively shows the connection between the two. Even though the scene is emotionally fraught, White is still able to be funny as he tells the pessimistic Orange that he didn’t know the wounded man had a medical degree, so how does he know he is going to die? 

 They go back to the “rendezvous point,” which is an abandoned warehouse. White holds Orange like a nurturing parent and assures him that Joe will get the man a doctor. Orange wants to be held and despite the macho posturing the men displayed earlier, White is compassionate enough to show some tenderness and complies with the request. White even whispers something that makes the bleeding Orange laugh. White takes a comb and runs it through Orange’s hair, which is both sweet and ridiculous given the bloody circumstances. Despite caring about Orange he says he can’t drop the man at the hospital. Orange pleads to be left outside of the medical facility and swears that he will not divulge any information. Loyalty and trust are at issue here, but the irony is that Orange is really an undercover cop. So, he is lying and will probably betray the man who is showing concern for him. White wants to avoid the authorities getting involved and assures Orange that being shot in the gut is very painful but it takes a long time to die from that type of wound. 

Pink shows up and believes they were set up since the police secretly appeared in force to upset their plans. (The robbery isn’t shown since the emphasis is on the characters, not the plot to steal from a jeweler). White says the police killed Brown. White and Pink go into the adjoining bathroom and try to recreate what happened. But just like Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, there are differing accounts of the same crime based on subjective impressions and motivations. When Pink asks if he killed anybody, White says just cops, whom Pink classifies as “no real people.” Pink’s callousness comes through here as he sees the police as allowable targets since they are paid to stop men like him, and he dehumanizes them to justify them as targets. White says the police showed up when the alarm was tripped. Pink says the cops didn’t let their presence be known until Blonde started shooting. We have here evidence of Blonde’s lethal capacity. White asks, perhaps suspiciously, how Pink was able to escape. The idea of mistrust was planted and starts to grow. Pink says he blasted his way out, and there is a short recreation of Pink running at full speed near people on a sidewalk with the bag of diamonds in his hand and cops chasing him. He shoots some of the officers as he drags a woman out of her car and uses the vehicle to escape. This successful carjacking contrasts with the disastrous one that is dramatized later. Tarantino does not have long action sequences here. He instead expends time on interactions between characters. 

 

Both men agree that Blonde acted like a maniac, shooting everywhere, not just for protection. (IMDb notes that there is a small yellow sink next to White, which suggests Blonde is still alive, but it may just indicate that he is the subject of their discussion). White is upset, showing his emotional side, when he notes that Blonde killed a young black girl, supposedly an innocent bystander. He goes on to call Blonde a psychopath, which is unexpected considering how easygoing Blonde was at the restaurant. The two men make the distinction between the indiscriminate way Blonde acted and the need for necessary professional violence. They feel that criminal actions must be proportional, which seems a rationalization since once entering a potentially dangerous situation there is the strong possibility for lethal outcomes. White now washes up and combs his own hair, implying that he is trying to pull himself together as he did with Orange. They wonder what happened to Blonde and Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), and White is thinking about what happened to the diamonds, which again displays suspicion about his comrades. But Pink is honest here and reveals that he has the diamonds. However, he suggests that he and White take the diamonds since the deal about sharing is “null and void” once there is a “rat” involved as they can’t trust anyone now. Even though he was once betrayed by an undercover cop in a robbery, White sticks to the idea that there should be honor among thieves and rejects Pink’s cynical feelings about everybody. When Pink considers that Orange is the informant, it is ironic that the uninformed White comes to the bleeding man’s defense. Pink says about being a snitch, “I can say I definitely didn’t do it because I know what I did or didn’t do. But I cannot definitely say that about anybody else ‘cause I don’t definitely know.” Loyalty and the trust on which it is based, along with a sense of certainty, melt away once the threat to the individual is present, and then one retreats to the fortress of the self.

 There is a brief flashback entitled “Mr. White,” where Joe informs White of the details of the robbery which is high risk because it is during the day when there are many people around. White knew someone who could fence the stolen gems, but he is now serving twenty years because of “bad luck.” The assumption is that no matter how well planned a heist is, something can go wrong. When it comes to illegal actions individuals are fighting against the rules of society, which is a formidable obstacle. 

 

Back at the warehouse, White confirms that the unconscious Orange is still alive. White says that Joe could get Orange to a doctor, but the dubious Pink isn’t sure they can trust Joe since he hasn’t shown up yet. That feeling of betrayal is now a constant presence. White admits that Orange was shot because of him, and he is feeling guilty. He tells Pink that the wounded man begged to go to a hospital. Pink is ready to go along with dropping Orange off for medical attention until he learns that White revealed his first name (Larry) and where he is from to Orange. That human connection interferes with antisocial unlawful activity. Because White has a criminal record, Pink says that the cops could narrow down what suspects to show Orange, who could identify him. Pink’s attitude is survival is the number one priority which leaves little room for helping another. He echoes White’s statement earlier which is that some people are “lucky” and some aren’t, which relinquishes the individual from responsibility as to outcomes. White is not willing to accept that attitude now because he feels responsible for the wounded man, and reacts by attacking Pink for the same callousness he himself showed earlier. In effect, he has projected the anger he feels for himself onto Pink. The two pull guns on each other and Pink is logical in his self-preservation argument, as opposed to White’s emotional response, as he tells White once Orange compromises White, then that is one step closer to Pink being caught.

Blonde appears during this confrontation, and he is as cold as the ice in his drink that he had the composure to buy during this episode that would rattle the average human. He echoes Joe’s assessment of the juvenile way that the other two men are acting when he says, “You kids shouldn’t play so rough. Somebody’s gonna start cryin.’” Pink and White have the smell of a rat lodged in their nostrils and demand to know what happened to Blonde and Blue. Blonde’s response to their suggestion about getting out of the possibly compromised warehouse is to order that nobody is leaving. He talked to Eddie who said to stay put and he was coming to the rendezvous point. Blonde is dedicated to Joe and Eddie, so even a psychopath can show allegiance. Blonde’s scary calm contrasts with White’s ranting about Blonde’s bloodbath at the jewelry store. Blonde is quietly menacing when he says to White, “Are you going to bark all day, little doggie, or are you going to bite.” Pink stops them from fighting and says he absolutely knows that Blonde is not an undercover guy for the police because he’s too “homicidal to be workin’ with the cops.” When on the other side of the law, extreme violence strangely reassures loyalty. Blonde laughs and says that his heart was beating fast as if he enjoyed getting excited about a confrontation with White, and attributes their behavior to being fans of actor Lee Marvin. Is Tarantino revealing the influence of another actor’s roles on his movie, or maybe he is also stressing that these are actors pretending to be violent as did other performers before them. 

 

Blonde has a surprise for Pink and White in the trunk of his car which turns out to be a police officer named Nash (Kirk Baltz) who he grabbed to shield his escape. We get a shot outward from inside the storage area of the vehicle which puts us in the position of being a captive in the director's movie, just like the cop Blonde has captured. The men laugh at the “not real” person that has been caught like a hunted animal. They seem to relish in defeating the representative of law and order. Blonde says that they can interrogate the policeman to get information about the “rat.”

 The next flashback is labeled “Mr. Blonde.” Joe is in his office and there are elephant tusks on either side of his desk. The image suggests primal masculinity that promotes dominance through force over other living creatures. On the phone he makes a reference to J. P. Morgan about overcoming adversity, which associates survival of the fittest in the animal world with what happens in big business. He is told that Vic Vega has arrived, who we do not see at first, and when Joe tells his associate to have Vic come in, the employee looks over his shoulder and says to the camera, “Come on in.” It is Tarantino inviting the audience into this world he has created, and identifies us as possible criminals, a Hitchcockian technique. Vic has just been released from prison and is very grateful for the packages Joe sent him while inside. Joe is grateful that Vic took the conviction connected to a previous job and never implicated Joe. This fact shows Vic’s loyalty to the criminal boss. Vic’s parole officer is tough on him and Joe makes a racist comment about how African American ex-convicts are treated better, an argument impossible to make outside of his office. Eddie shows up and Vic teases him about how his father said the son was ruining the business. The two wrestle like little boys and Joe, the stern father, makes them stop, after which Eddie makes homophobic remarks. We have overcompensating testosterone on display. Eddie tells Vic that they can get him a job as a dock worker where he will just be on the payroll, make money, and not have to work, and that way get his parole officer off his back. Again, Vic is grateful to the Cabots and can’t wait to do some jobs that aren’t on the up and up. Eddie convinces his dad to add Vic to the list of men to rob the jewelry store. Illegitimate business can seem attractive because of how it removes problems most have to deal with every day and score large amounts of money, but there can be a price to pay, as we are seeing, when those “jobs” go sideways. 

 The anger and frustration of a robbery that became deadly erupts as Pink and White beat up the captured cop back at the warehouse. Blonde secures him to a chair with duct tape. The scene is intercut with Eddie channeling the exasperation with the chaos that the robbers have precipitated as he says on the car phone that he doesn’t know who is dead, who is arrested, and where the diamonds are. Eddie is echoing Pink’s lack of certainty about anything, which reminds us of what happens to those best laid plans. When Eddie arrives at the warehouse everyone shouts out grievances and accusations. Again, the only calm one is Blonde, who says he shot the jewelry store staff for tripping the alarm. While Eddie wants the diamonds, White wants to make sure Orange is taken care of, which shows the different priorities of the two men. 

 Eddie decides that he, Pink and White must get rid of the stolen cars in the lot and travel to where Pink stashed the stolen goods. Eddie leaves Blonde to babysit the cop. Bad idea. Blonde’s sadism surfaces in what follows, which is not for the squeamish. He admits that he isn’t interested in information, but instead thinks it’s “amusing” for him “to torture a cop,” and will not give him the mercy of a quick death. He plays the song “Stuck in the Middle,” and dances to it, contrasting light entertainment with torture, thus accentuating the atrocities in which he is engaged. He cuts off Nash’s right ear with a straight razor as the camera pans to the message over an archway which reads, “Watch your head,” which is funny but definitely sick. The song’s lyrics talk basically about being caught between a rock and a hard place, which is where these characters exist given their actions. Actor Madsen, who was reluctant to do this grisly scene, improvised talking into the severed ear, a bit of very dark humor. (Blonde’s mixture of song and dance with violence may remind one of Malcolm McDowell’s scene in A Clockwork Orange where he commits an act of “ultraviolence” while performing “Singin’ in the Rain”). 

 

Blonde’s depraved sense of humor is also seen as he first pretends to act like he will use the razor to shave himself instead of using the instrument on the man, and also when he tells the bound and gagged cop to not go anywhere as he goes to his car for some gasoline. The camera follows him. There is no music and children are heard as Tarantino shows us how just outside the chamber of horrors, peaceful, everyday life goes on, unaware of the hidden atrocities that are taking place right under society’s collective noses. Blonde throws gasoline onto the groaning, suffering policeman. He pours a stream of gasoline that he is ready to light that will travel to the cop and ignite the man. But Orange wakes up and empties a clip of bullets into Blonde, killing him. Nash knows that Orange, whose real name is Freddy, is a cop (which is when the audience first discovers that Orange is undercover) because they met several months prior. Yet, the brutalized policeman courageously did not divulge Orange’s identity, which reminds us of Blonde not informing on Joe. Loyalty is thus shown on both sides of the law. Orange says that the cops are close by waiting for Joe to show up so they can arrest the big shot crook. Nash is incensed that he is sitting there beaten and mutilated while waiting for the arrival of the police. Nash must be wondering at this point whether his trust was misplaced. Orange yells back at him, saying the two have to sit it out. Perhaps the police are also being portrayed as cruel here for not coming sooner to help their comrades.

The next flashback segment is entitled “Mr. Orange.” The scene is a diner where Orange meets with his police handler, Holdaway (Randy Brooks), and tells him that he had a meeting with Joe and a Mr. White, who likes the Milwaukee Brewers. So, they assume White is from Wisconsin and Holdaway can narrow in on armed robbers who come from Wisconsin so that Orange might be able to identify who White is. Orange says something complimentary about a source named Long Beach Mike, but Holdaway tells Orange to not admire a “scumbag” who sells out his comrades. It is revealing here that Orange has positive feelings for a criminal, which shows he can exist in areas of gray where the lines between the legal and the illegal blur. Also, Holdaway is using Long Beach Mike for information but at the same time has contempt for his cooperation. Yet, he wants Orange to establish trust and then betray it. Many contradictions are revealed here in just a few words of dialogue. 

 On the roof of the building, where they can have privacy, Holdaway wants Orange to memorize “the commode story,” which is a fake “amusing anecdote about a drug dealer” that Orange will pretend actually happened to him. It is a quirky and exact tale that will ingratiate Orange into the company of the other criminals who will buy into Orange’s phony criminal past. Tarantino, through Holdaway, tells us about acting and writing here. Holdaway says an undercover cop has to be “Marlon Brando” to be convincing. He says the covert policeman must be “naturalistic,” which means conveying reality to the extreme. That also means that the writing must be detailed, so a screenplay written for such a story must provide that type of exactness. So, as Holdaway says, the person telling the story must know what the bathroom smells like, what type of soap is there, if a stall has a missing door, if there is a blower or paper towels, etc. He says, “it’s the details that sell the story,” which must be personalized. So, Tarantino gives us the actor, Tim Roth, learning his lines for his role as a cop who is preparing to act as another character he is playing, Mr. Orange. 

 

We then shift to Orange telling the story to White, Eddie, and Joe at a club. We then have the dramatization of Orange’s tale, a scene within a scene, both imaginary, since, after all, we are watching a piece of fiction. The drug-carrying Orange goes into a public bathroom where there are four cops with a German Shepherd, who barks at Orange, implying he is a felon. One of the cops is telling a story. That part mirrors what Orange, the crook, is doing, linking a type of behavior between the law enforcer and the law breaker, showing that underneath they have similar traits. The cop’s story could be a fake, too, which of course it is, because it is part of the staged scene. Orange says that despite the precariousness of the situation, he has the courage to make the air dryer drown out the policeman’s story, thus metaphorically, giving the finger to the cops. That bit of defiant coolness under pressure wins over his audience. We have here a specific rendition of how art must imitate life to be believed, and thus, be meaningful for the audience. 

 Before riding with White, Eddie and Pink, Orange looks at himself in his apartment mirror attempting to convince himself that he is that cool crook which will prevent him from getting hurt. We know that no matter how much preparation there is, one can’t control all the possibilities of how things can go wrong. The men talk about 1970’s Pam Grier movies (she later stars in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. This type of dialogue about pop culture becomes a signature of what crooks discuss in the director’s films, reflecting Tarantino’s interests, and also developing the characters). We again have racist, crude comical stories and comments from Pink, Eddie and White, which are offensive but believable given the white criminals depicted. 

 The laughter of the men contrasts with the next scene which is another flashback of the stern, Joe reprimanding his crew for their adolescent behavior. He has a blackboard drawing of the crime plan and the scene reminds one of an older teacher trying to control and instruct his students. He assigns them their colorful names, and Pink complains like a disagreeable child about his designated shade. Joe insists that the only topic his gang can discuss, so that nobody can inform on another, is each person’s part of the job. Afterwards, White and Orange do just that, as Orange recites all of the steps of the burglary. He listens to White giving him pointers on how to deal with any resistance from customers or workers, and there is a smile on Orange’s face as he appreciates White’s experience. Orange must be deceitful by lying about who he is, but his dishonesty is in the service of the law. However, he is made to participate in a robbery, so he becomes part of a criminal act. Because he is “caught in the middle,” as the song says, he later finds it difficult to betray the trust he has established with Mr. White. 

 

There is a jump forward where Brown, who was shot, crashes the car he is driving with Orange and White onboard, and dies soon after. Orange helplessly, and in shock, watches as White, the man who has become his mentor, brutally shoots two policemen in a cop car as they approach the crooks. Orange can’t stop him because his job is to get Joe. When Orange and White try to carjack a vehicle, the female driver pulls a gun out of her glove compartment and shoots Orange, who then shoots the innocent woman in self-defense. His make-believe role as a felon now becomes horrifyingly real as he has turned into a killer, which again shows the crossover between the worlds of those that abide by the law and those who break it. 

 

We now return to the aftermath of the crime taking place at the warehouse. Eddie, White and Pink return to find Blonde dead. Orange says Blonde was going to burn the cop. Eddie then executes Nash, who could have identified them, wiping out Orange’s attempt to save the officer, and any drop of humanity in the situation. Orange says that Blonde was going to kill him, too, and then steal the diamonds. Eddie Doesn't buy it since Blonde took the blame for a robbery and spent four years in jail without implicating Joe, which shows Eddie valuing the loyalty of a sadist, a sad state of affairs. White doesn't trust Eddie and Joe for hiring Blonde, the “psychopath.” Joe shows up, tells them Blue is dead, and says he wasn’t “100%” sure of Orange, saying the bleeding man is the one who set them up. He is right, of course, but White defends Orange. There is a great deal of misplaced trust here. Joe threatens to shoot Orange, and White, Eddie and Joe pull out their guns. Joe shoots Orange, White shoots and kills Joe and Eddie, after Eddie shoots White while Pink hides. He then grabs the diamonds and runs off. (Tarantino says that in the background Pink is shot by the police, but lives and is apprehended). As White cradles Orange, presenting us with a mobster version of the Pieta, Orange decides to make a last confession and admits that he is a cop. White is in anguish at being so deceived and points his gun at Orange. The police show up, and White finishes Orange off before being riddled with bullets as the screen goes black.

 The film implies that wrongful actions beget more of the same, as the violent dominoes fall and crush everyone in their path, and loyalty may not be possible where people’s lives are ruled by deception and self-interest. 

 The next film is The Slender Thread.

LA Confidential

SPOILER ALERT! The plot of the movie will be discussed.

This Curtis Hanson directed film came out in 1997, and, if Titanic had not been its competition, would probably have received the Best Picture Oscar. Based on the James Ellroy novel, the movie never lets you forget that Hollywood, and how it is mirrored in others, with its selling of surface beauty at the expense of underlying ugliness, is the focus here.

The title of the motion picture tells you upfront what the story is about – the glamorous draw of the promise of the City of Angels, and the dirty secrets it tries to hide as people there vie for success. Hanson said that the movie industry settled here because filmmakers liked shooting in the soft, soothing sunlight that saturated this part of California. But, as someone said about LA, “you come for a vacation, and go home on probation.” So, there is that underbelly of its people that Hanson wants to expose, and ironically contrast with the celebrity of stardom.

The movie begins in 1952 with a voice-over from tabloid sleaze master Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) of Hush Hush magazine. To “hush” is to stifle speech, which is what the successful want done concerning their nasty actions. But, while on one hand, the public doesn’t want its ideal version of the town of dreams shattered, at the same time, it craves to hear the dirt. Why? Maybe for the same reason that people want to look away from a car crash, but can’t because of a perverse morbid curiosity. Or, perhaps they envy the success of movie stars, and want to cut them down, lower them to the level of the drudgery of the lives of everyday working people. Sid says that “Life is good in Los Angeles. It’s paradise on earth. Ha, ha, ha, ha. That’s what they tell you anyway.” We eventually see a collage of murderous hits, as the audience hears Sid relate how crime boss Mickey Cohen, (the criminal version of a star), is now in jail, and a vacuum of illegitimacy exists. However, someone is killing all of his pretender mob lieutenants. At one of the killings, an unidentified person steals a suitcase full of heroin. And, the LA Police Department has a public relations problem because of its inability to solve these crimes.

Detective Bud White, (Russell Crowe), is out on a liquor run with his partner, Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) for a Christmas party. They come across a house where a man is beating his wife. Bud sent the man to prison before, and is checking up on him. There are holiday decorations on the outside of the building, contrasting the surface appearance of the season of good cheer with the cruel actions inside the home. White rips down the Santa sleigh and lights to get the man to come outside. But, symbolically, the tearing away of a façade shows him to be a man who does not tolerate deception or phony appearances. LA is a strange place for him to be, since Hollywood specializes in presenting illusions. He beats up the man and handcuffs him to the porch so the police will arrest him. White offers comfort to the woman, asking her if she has a place to stay. His name is “White,” suggesting that he is one of the “good guys,” despite his brutal behavior. When they get to the party at the precinct, Stensland says they were late because his partner’s helping the battered woman shows how White has his “priorities all fouled up.” We have an upside-down world here, where decent acts are denigrated.

When the abusive man comes out of his house he asks Bud who is he, and the cop says, “I’m the Ghost of Christmas Past.” The line refers, as we later learn, to Bud’s childhood history. His father was an abuser. As a boy, he tried to stop his father from hurting his mother. His dad tied him to a radiator and then beat his mother to death with a tire iron. The father left, and was never found. Bud later talks about wanting justice, and his anger towards criminals, and especially those who hurt women, may be his attempt to exact the punishment his father never received. Actor Crowe said he wanted Bud’s clothes to be tight-fitting, as if confining the man. The character does look like he is ready to burst out of them at any moment as his rage for criminals builds. It may be that wanting to get free of constraints reflects a desire to make up for having been restrained to that radiator.

On the way to the Christmas party, White goes into a liquor store to buy the booze. He encounters Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger, in an Oscar-winning Best Supporting Actress role). There is a definite contrast between the way the two appear. He wishes her a merry Christmas. She returns the favor adding, “officer” to her greeting. He says was it that obvious, and she says, “It’s practically stamped on your forehead.” Again, we see that Bud is the man who has nothing to hide. Not so Lynn. Her head is symbolically covered by a hood, so that Bud at first only sees a bit of blonde hair and some of her profile. When he goes outside, Bud notices that the fancy car Lynn is heading towards has a woman with a bandage over her nose. Sensitive to abused women, Bud investigates. The woman, who turns out to be Susan Lefferts (Amber Smith), tells Bud, as does Lynn, that Bud has it all wrong. Honest Bud again comes up against deceptions. The owner inside of the car is Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn). Great name for a man, as we later learn, who sometimes uses plastic surgery to have hookers look like movie stars. Their skin is “pierced” for the surgery, and then they are “patched up” to look like the intended person. Putting a “patch” over something also is an attempt to cover up what is wrong underneath. In Pierce Patchett’s name, we get the theme of surface phoniness. The “pierce’ part also suggests sexual penetration (Psycho anyone?). Pierce has his driver/bodyguard, Buzz Meeks (Darrell Sandeen), deal with Bud. White overcomes the man, and from his wallet discovers the man’s name. Bud gets him to admit that he was an ex-cop, which Stensland confirms, but does not act like he knows the man personally, or the bruised woman in the car.

We encounter Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), a narcotics detective, at a glamorous Hollywood party. Jack is the technical adviser on a TV show entitled “Badge of Honor,” an ironic title, since, at this time, honorable policemen are in short supply, and many corrupt cops hide behind the superficial legitimacy of their badges. Jack tells his dancing partner that he teaches the star of the show how to walk and talk like a cop. She says that the actor on “Badge of Honor” doesn’t walk and talk like Jack. He counters with, “Well, that’s ‘cause he’s the television version. America isn’t ready for the real me.” Hollywood presents the sanitized version of reality, the dream in which the people want to believe, in contrast to the seedy reality. The show uses the line from the real TV series “Dragnet,” where the policeman says he wants “just the facts,” which is the opposite of what Hollywood, and corrupt cops want exposed. The “real” Jack works with Sid Hudgens, who gets Jack leads on movie stars having sexual encounters while using drugs. Sid pays Jack for “acting” in his set-up. Jack arrests them, while Sid has the caught actors and actresses filmed at the scene (as reality and staged filmmaking merge). We have invasion of privacy and destruction of careers so that Jack can enhance his career, and Sid’s manipulation of events can increase his readership at the expense of others.

The first time we see Sergeant Edmund Exley, he is being interviewed by a reporter, because in LA, how one appears, one’s public image, is what dominates. His father was a well-known policeman, who was killed in the line of duty. The precinct captain, Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), tells Exley he is a political animal and shouldn’t go into homicide, where he will be called upon to plant evidence on an obviously guilty person, beat a confession out of a suspect he knows to be guilty, and may have to shoot a hardened criminal in the back if there was a chance a lawyer would get the man off. (This last example is an ironic foreshadowing of the end of the film). Exley believes he can mete out justice by not doing any of the above. It is significant that Dudley, as do others, advise Exley to lose his eyeglasses. He looks too cerebral if he wears the lenses, and they want him to play the typical role of the macho cop. It may also symbolize that the removal of his glasses signifies the loss of his clarity of moral vision.

All of the above occur on the same evening. At the precinct, while Exley acts as Watch Commander, Jack arrives and tries to give him a payoff, which Exley refuses. Bud and the others party it up. Then, three Mexicans suspected of assaulting policemen are brought in. Instead of trying to find out “just the facts,” the inebriated cops spread rumors about one of the attacked officers losing an eye and another being in a coma. Exley tries to set them straight by saying they only suffered muscle bruises. The cops tellingly put Exley in a cell, as if truth and justice are being locked out of sight, hidden away from view so the “fake news” can flourish without contradiction. White first tries to control Stensland, but when one of the Mexicans curses him, he, too, joins in the fight, as does Jack, when his clothes are dirtied. (As opposed to Bud’s outfits, Jack dresses the part of a Hollywood leading man, showing he has strayed from his true role in life). The press, who interviewed Exley, are there, and, they photograph the beatings of the Mexicans, adding to the already compromised image of the police department. The newspaper headline is “Bloody Christmas,” mirroring the brutality that Bud exposed at the abuser’s house, which is in sharp contrast to the purpose of the holiday season.

The LAPD need to provide the public the look of an agency that is trying to clean up its mess, while at the same time not shaking things up too much. But, Bud White and others will not snitch on fellow cops who participated in the precinct braw. The Chief of Police suspends White for not cooperating. Using his considerable political skills, Exley agrees to give testimony, saying what he truly believes, that “Justice must be served,” and that the cops “confuse silence with integrity.” But, he bends the concept of justice with pragmatism, by suggesting that those punished should be ones close to retirement. That way they can leave early with full benefits. But, he argues there must be a sacrifice that doesn’t look convenient. Dudley is willing to let Stensland go, but wants to keep Bud because he is willing do the things that Exley said he wouldn’t. At Exley’s urging, the higher-ups use Vince’s love of working on “Badge of Honor” as leverage to get him to testify against those who can retire. In return, Exley receives a promotion. On his way out the door, Stensland turns down Bud’s offer of going for a drink because he says he has a “date.” Dudley gives Bud his badge and gun back, but only if he switches to homicide, not to solve cases, to Bud’s disappointment, but instead to use his muscle to intimidate others from taking over Cohen’s operations. It is interesting that when Dudley asks Bud if he follows everything he told him, Bud says, “In technicolor.” The use of a movie term, which is meant to imply vivid understanding, also has a connotation of something exaggerated, and staged. The place where the physical intimidations take place is the deceptively patriotic named Victory Motel, situated next to an ugly oil rig that plunders the earth in the midst of such an otherwise beautiful setting. 

In his new position, Exley is hated by the other cops for being a snitch. One evening, he takes a call about homicides at the Night Owl Diner. It turns out that many people were shot there, and it appears to be a robbery. Again, what something appears to be on the surface is not necessarily the case in this town. One of the dead is Stensland. But, it turns out that one of the women killed at the restaurant was Susan Lefferts, the surgically altered woman in Patchett’s car. Dudley says they have information that three African Americans were in the vicinity driving a Mercury coup. Exley goes with Jack, and after following a lead, show up at the home of one of the black suspects. However, two of Dudley’s men are already there, and they have found money (presumably the cash stolen from the diner), and the shotguns, which are a ballistics match in the Night Owl case. Exley stops one of these officers from killing the suspects, who look at each other as if some plan was thwarted.

Back at the precinct, Exley again shows his mental skills by playing the suspects off one another. He may not be willing to do Dudley’s required extreme actions to get a felon, but he is not above manipulating, even lying, to incriminate them. (There is a shot which shows the reflections of the police in the window of the interrogation room so that they are seen at the same time as the suspects inside, thus equating the cops with the criminals).  But, the suspects say they had no shotguns, and do not admit to killing anyone. It comes out that they have abducted a woman, and have raped her. Bud, exploding because of harm done to a female, plays forced Russian Roulette with one of the men, getting an address. White rescues the woman after basically murdering her captor and making it look like the man fired at Bud. White is willing to do what he feels must be done for what he calls “justice.” Exley yells at him, and says Bud doesn’t know the meaning of justice. Bud significantly says to Exley that he should go after criminals, instead of cops, referring to his snitching. These words are ironic considering what happens at the end of the film.

Conveniently, the three black suspects escape from jail. Exley remembers the address they disclosed where they acquired drugs. Exley goes there with other men. A gunfight ensues after one of the cops fires first after a bottle accidentally breaks. Exley, the man everyone thought was just good for the use of his brains, uses a shotgun to kill the suspects. He is now accepted as “Shotgun Ed,” and receives the department’s highest commendation. Again, appearances are deceiving as there is more to Exley than first meets the eye. But, those eyes get stained with blood during the shootings, as Exley did not wear his glasses, indicating that he does not yet see that he has been made complicit in a corrupt plot.

Jack was suspended for a while for his participation in “Bloody Christmas,” and as part of the deal, has to work in Vice temporarily before resuming work on the TV show. At one of the busts set up by Sid, he found a business card with the phrase “Fleur de Lis” on it. In Vice, he sees the same name on evidence involving a pornography ring. We later learn that Patchett runs this service, which involves the prostitutes, and since Lefferts was at the diner, there is also a link to the Night Owl killings.

Bud is not satisfied concerning Stensland’s murder, and the coincidental presence at the diner of both his former partner and Lefferts. He goes to the liquor store where he saw Lynn, and tracks down Patchett, who admits to the prostitution ring, but nothing else. Bud also finds Lynn’s address. Director Hanson said that her home was divided into two levels. The downstairs is where she entertains her clients. It represents the fake pretense of having sex with her as a Veronica Lake lookalike. It, like the movies, is a fantasy world. Upstairs is where Lynn Bracken, the real person from Arizona, lives. When Bud first arrives at her place, she is with a man, on the first floor, who acts tough (emphasis on “acting”), wearing an undershirt and a fedora hat. They are watching a movie starring the real Veronica Lake. Thus, the illusion is doubled, since there is only a film of the real person, and just a pretend real actress. When Lynn answers the door, the man asks if she wants him to get rid of Bud. Bud tells the man to get lost, knowing that he is no tough guy, but really a married city councilman, who Bud threatens with the possibility of notifying his wife about his unseemly activity. We are again shown the underside of the supposedly respectable surface of LA in the form of this man.

Even though Bud is on the job, he is obviously attracted to Lynn. She basically says that girls like her, who came to Hollywood to become stars, can only get a chance to act by playing sleazy versions of their idols. She says he is the first man who hasn’t immediately said she looks like Veronica Lake. He says she looks better than the actress. By delivering that line, he is telling her that he sees beyond the pretense, and is perceiving the real Lynn Bracken, who only has changed her hair, but nothing else. She has already observed in the liquor store how he has nothing to hide. When he doubts his intellectual ability to solve cases, she tells him he found Patchett, and her, and that he is smart enough. They become genuine lovers on the second floor of her place, which is free of any false illusions. There is a happy scene where Bud and Lynn go to, where else in this film, the movies, to escape the stressful world they travel in.

After checking out the evidence, Bud concludes that Stensland’s “date” was with Susan Lefferts. He visits Mrs. Lefferts (Gwenda Deacon), who identifies Stensland as Susan’s older boyfriend. Bud searches the house, smells a bad odor which Mrs. Lefferts attributes to a rat that died in the walls, and finds the body of Buzz Meeks. The decaying body, infested with rats, buried under the crawlspace of the house, symbolizes the ugliness beneath the surface of sunny, beautiful LA. Significantly, when Bud emerges, after being asked by Mrs. Lefferts if it was a rat, he says, “Yeah. A big one.” Buzz also finds out from a Mickey Cohen enforcer, Johnny Stompanato (Paolo Seganti) that Meeks came into a large supply of heroin (the missing suitcase), and Bud concludes that he was murdered for stealing the drug.

Jack Vincennes meets up with Sid at a party. Sid takes compromising photos of people for his exploitative version of journalism. (Photography can present illusions, reality, or even manipulated versions of the truth). He gives Jack money to catch the DA, Lowe (Ron Rifkin), in a homosexual encounter with the actor Jack previously arrested at a pot bust, and from whose apartment he picked up the porno ring card. The actor, Matt Reynolds (Simon Baker), thinks he recognizes Jack from a Fleur de Lis party. At a bar, Jack starts to feel guilty about his sleazy actions, and leaves the $50 Sid gave him on his whiskey glass. Hanson drives home the theme of the story when we see Jack under a movie marquee with the film title The Bad and the Beautiful, stressing the dual nature of LA, and, given America’s obsession with the film industry, the country in general. Jack decides to go to the motel and call off the sting, but is horrified to find Reynolds murdered.

Exley, wheeling the Hispanic girl, who was held captive and raped, out of the hospital, learns from her that she lied about the time she was with the black abductors. She gave out the false information (more deception) to tie them to the Night Owl killings, in order to get the justice (that word again, which everyone wants, no matter the cost) she did not think a girl like her would get. (While they are exiting the hospital, they are photographed by the press, the pictures painting a picture of a victim and a hero, but what is not seen is that they are also a liar and a manipulated killer). Since the African American men, who Exley thought he had righteously killed, had an alibi, Exley now starts investigating. When he finds Bud White was also checking evidence, he approaches Jack Vincennes to help him, since Exley wants someone outside the compromised homicide division. When Jack questions Exley why he wants to reopen the Night Owl case, Exley relates how his father was killed by a guy Exley calls Rollo Tomasi, the guy who gets away with the crime. Exley says he forgot for a while why he joined the force. He says, “it was supposed to be about justice.” He, like Bud, lost a parent to somebody who got away with it, and they both want that to stop. When Exley asks Jack why he became a cop, Jack hesitates for quite a while, and says he can’t remember, emphasizing how corrupt he has become. So, he works with Exley for redemption.

 Exley also visits Mrs. Lefferts’ house after finding out that was where Bud went. He too discovers the body and has it sent to the coroner, who identifies it as Meeks. Jack was tailing Bud for Exley, and they find White at Lynn’s house, where they spy on the two who act affectionately toward each other. Since Lynn is one of Patchett’s prostitutes, as was Susan Lefferts, Jack realizes that the there is a connection between The Night Owl, Reynold’s death, and Fleur de Lis. Exley, also attracted to Lynn, goes to interrogate her. She tells him that she sees Bud “because he can’t hide the good inside him.” She sees him because he “doesn’t know how to disguise who he is.” The woman who is a phony in her profession is drawn to the man of no deception. She also says she sees Bud because he not like Exley, who is a master at political deception, but who she does not realize is trying to aim for the higher good. She seduces Exley, because Patchett has sent Sid to photograph their sexual encounter, which Lynn thinks will be used as leverage to protect Bud. Sid’s spying is similar to that of Exley and Jack’s earlier, again showing how the police and the criminal are echoes of each other, and how, as before, photography can manipulate reality.

There is actually a humorous scene in the film, but one which still furthers its theme. Exley and Jack go to a restaurant to question Stompanato. There is a woman there with him. Exley comes on strong, and says the woman is a whore who was cut to look like Lana Turner. A smiling Jack tells Exley it really is Lana Turner, who throws a drink in Exley’s face. Back in the car the two laugh, with Exley saying, tellingly, “How was I to know?” The line between legitimate and illegitimate has become so blurred, even a detective can’t tell the difference, and it is Jack, the man traveling between both worlds, must be the one to reveal the truth.

Jack goes through police records and finds a connection between Meeks, and Stensland concerning an investigation into blackmail, which Dudley signed off on. Jack goes to Dudley’s house, tells him that he and Exley are working on something together, and asks him about what he has discovered. When Dudley is satisfied that Jack has not yet talked to Exley, he shoots Jack. We now realize Dudley is behind all of the killings. With his last laughing breath, Jack utters the name “Rollo Tomasi.” Dudley removes the body, and then starts a sham investigation into Jack’s death. He tells his men, “Our justice must be swift and merciless,” an ironic statement since he has perverted the practice of “justice” through his covert actions, and now in his overt words, exhorting a type of law enforcement that is not deliberate and without compassion. Dudley asks Exley if he knows of a person of interest in Jack’s death, Rollo Tomasi. Exley now knows that Jack sent him a message as to who killed him, and he realizes Dudley is the enemy.

To get Exley out of the way, Dudley tells Bud he needs him at the Victory Motel to interrogate someone he feels will lead them to Jack’s killer. It is all a setup to get Bud to go after Exley. They brutally question Sid, who admits that he had a business relationship with Jack to photograph people in compromising positions, arrest them, and Sid ran stories on those taken into custody. He says about Patchett that he used his prostitutes to be photographed by Sid with people to be blackmailed. He says he has pictures in his car of Exley and Lynn, which the enraged Bud discovers. As he drives away, Dudley says he wouldn’t want to be in Exley’s shoes. Dudley then kills Sid, as he starts to tie up loose ends.

Bud first stops at Lynn’s, who says she thought she was protecting him. His anger then takes over, and it subverts his caring for women, as he hits Lynn. He then feels so much guilt that he quickly and silently leaves her. He goes after Exley, who has checked work reports and sees the link that Jack discovered between Stensland, Meeks, and Dudley. Bud bursts in on him shows Exley one of Sid’s photographs, and then attacks Exley. The latter holds him off long enough to tell him “Think!” He previously called Bud a mindless thug, but now he appeals to his investigative intelligence, as he tells him about Dudley’s conspiracy, and how he pointed Bud at Exley. Bud reveals that Stensland lied to him about not being familiar with Meeks or Lefferts. Stensland and Meeks stole the heroin, Stensland killed Meeks to have it all for himself, and received retribution for the rip off. They start to see how Dudley had his men plant the weapons and the money at the African American suspect’s house before Exley arrived there. They also see how Dudley and Patchett manipulated all of them including Lynn to take over Mickey Cohen’s operation. Bud asks Exley does he want to tear down the Night Owl case that made him. Exley says yes, “with a wrecking ball. You want to help me swing it?” These two who misread each other, now realize they both have the smarts and the guts to exact justice, and they can do it together.

The two visit DA Lowe, and after threatening the man’s life, get him to admit to his being blackmailed, and poor Reynolds was killed because he heard too much about what was going on. Bud’s beating the man up and dangling him from the window raise the question of how far are these two willing to go to exact justice. However, the question is what do you do when the people in charge of the legal system are themselves the criminals? They then go to Patchett’s house. They find him dead and a suicide note left behind. But, Bud sees that his fingers were broken, showing again, that what really happened is not what appears to be the truth. Since Dudley is covering his tracks, they then realize Lynn is in danger. Bud, feeling ashamed of hitting her, sends Exley to protect Lynn. Bud goes to see Sid, who he finds dead. He gets a call to meet Exley at the Victory Motel. When he arrives there, Exley says he thought Bud wanted the meeting. Bud suspected it to be a setup, and says this way may be how the story must end. Dudley shows up with his men. There is a fierce gun battle, and Bud and Exley take out everyone, except Dudley. Exley is wounded in the process, and Dudley shoots Bud, but not before he stabs the captain in the leg, and Exley aims a gun at him. Dudley promises Exley he will be rewarded if he just walks out to greet the police cars arriving. He tells Exley to hold up his badge so the cops will know he is a policeman. This advice echoes the title of the TV show “Badge of Honor,” which is as fake as Dudley’s false presentation of integrity. Exley then does what he told Dudley he wouldn’t do. He shoots Dudley in the back, and then holds up his own badge, his honor, though extralegal, intact. Bud earlier told him to go after criminals instead of policemen. It turns out, they were one in the same.

Exley tells the whole truth to the Chief of Police, who again sees how disastrous it would be for the force if the real story came out. The DA starts to think how to spin it, saying that maybe Dudley can be painted as a hero. Exley, he himself now in the interrogation room, seems to read their minds, and says there has to be more than one hero. We then see the story in the newspaper that Dudley is depicted as a crusader rooting out corruption. Exley is again awarded the Medal of Valor. The ugliness of the truth is once again hidden by the illusion of a happy ending.

Bud somehow survives, and will be going with Lynn back to Arizona, away from La La Land. Exley tells her that even though the police department is using him, he will be using them, presumably to try to have it live up to the standards of a true badge of honor. Exley and Bud exchange a brotherly handshake, and Bud and Lynn drive away. It is ironic that in LA, the two redeeming angels are these flawed ones. The song heard over the closing credits contain the lyrics, “Accentuate the positive.” It is, after all, Hollywood.

The next film is Medium Cool.