Falling Down

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

There are far too many incidents where a male goes off the deep end and becomes violent, sometimes killing his family before committing suicide. Falling Down tells a story about one such individual, but the character is complex, and there is an attempt here to explore why these individuals who feel broken by the hopelessness of their lives are ticking time bombs. The movie starts out with a close-up of the face of Michael Douglas who plays D-Fens, (the name used in the film’s credits), his mouth and then his eyes, which stresses how he views things. It’s a hot day and it is claustrophobic in his car, adding to the pressure cooker sensation experienced by the main character. He and others are caught in a massive traffic jam in Los Angeles. While they are waiting, a woman is doing her make-up and children are playing catch in a bus, trying to deal with the situation. The camera presents an American Flag, implying what America has become, a vision of life going nowhere.

D-Fens looks nerdy with his eyeglasses, white shirt and tie. He has a crew cut which makes him, contradictorily, look like a military man, maybe suggesting he wants to get out and attack. He is observing his surroundings, appearing tense, as the Garfield window doll and people honking and yelling on their cellphones are adding to his frustration. Bumper stickers say, “Financial Freedom,” which we discover the main character does not have, and “Christ Died for Our Sins,” although D-Fens does not feel redeemed. One sticker indicates a lack of caring about others with the words, “How am I driving? Dial 1-800- Eat Shit.” D-Fens’s A/C isn’t working and flies pester him. Even his window handle won’t work. He starts to swat insects all over the car, as he appears unhinged. He gets out of his car with his briefcase, looking like a man at the end of his workday, but appearances are deceiving. He upsets the man in the vehicle behind him since the abandoned car will add to the traffic problem. De-Fens tells the man he’s “going home,” which we all want to do, but with this man we learn he really doesn’t have a place he can escape to.

He starts to walk between the stopped vehicles toward an underpass embankment as he begins his urban odyssey. Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall) happens to be behind D-Fens’s car. He sees a billboard that depicts a woman’s blouse that is low cut, and there is a superimposed drawing of a fellow on her upper chest who appears to be climbing out of the piece of clothing. Prendergast laughs, showing he can keep his sense of humor despite the situation. Prendergast exits his car and notices that the abandoned car’s license plate says, “D-Fens.” A motorcycle cop comes by and tells Prendergast that he is calling for a towing vehicle, which Prendergast realizes is overkill and takes too long, despite it being the proper procedure. The detective says they should just push the abandoned over to the side. The motorcycle cop says there are high speed vehicles that make that move dangerous, which shows how the cop’s rigid bureaucratic adherence is blind to the fact that nobody is moving. The civilian says D-Fens said he was going home. As the two policemen push the car aside, the civilian driver, despite the inappropriateness of the situation, makes a sales pitch for linoleum and ceramics to the cops, showing how capitalism dominates no matter what is going on. The motorcycle cop is sarcastic, saying “lucky me,” when Prendergast informs the officer he caught him on his last day as a policeman, and he becomes angry when Prendergast grabs his bike so it won’t fall. Not the best attitude to bond with others.

Beth (Barbara Hershey), the ex-wife of D-Fens, is returning home to her house at the beach with her daughter, Adele (Joey Singer). D-Fens calls on a public phone, but can’t get himself to say hello. He walks through a seedy graffiti-covered section of the city. He goes to a food market store and becomes more frustrated because he can’t get more change for a phone call unless he buys something. The owner, Mr. Lee (Michael Paul Chan), behind the counter speaks broken English, which makes it difficult for D-Fens to understand, fueling his anger. He announces that the soda he picked up is too expensive to get change for the call. He wants to bargain for a lower price. His American xenophobia surfaces, telling Mr. Lee the owner wants to take his money but won’t, “even learn my language,” arguing that is a prerequisite to be a worthwhile citizen. He lumps all Asian cultures together, so even though the man is Korean, he assumes he is from China. D-Fens says his country has given a great deal of money to Korea, and gets into a physical altercation with the man. A collection of souvenir flags spills to the ground, symbolic of the sullied image of America being presented by D-Fens’s actions to the audience, but also indicating how D-Fens internally feels that his country has declined by letting in unworthy immigrants. He grabs the baseball bat (a very American symbol) the shopkeeper reached for and begins smashing items in the store. The frightened Korean man tells D-Fens to take his money. Outraged, D-Fens says he’s not a thief, that the Korean is a crook for charging so much for the soda. D-Fens does not see himself as a criminal, but a man who feels he has been disenfranchised from the American Dream. He says he is rolling back prices to 1965 as he stands up for his rights as an “American consumer.” He channels the anger of many working-class people who feel they are being exploited. He asks the price of different products, and then smashes the displays as the owner announces the high numbers. He stops only when Mr. Lee agrees to the fifty cents D-Fens is willing to pay for his soft drink. De-Fens pays that amount, and walks out with his first acquired weapon, the stumpy wooden bat. However, D-Fens’s violence shows he has a pathology which goes deeper than just feeling disillusioned with the direction of the country.

Prendergast finds sand in a drawer of his desk, as his fellow cops play a prank on him about retiring to Arizona. They joke about how one man was run down two minutes after leaving the office on his last day by an impounded vehicle. It turns out that their joke foreshadows the serious situation that Prendergast will encounter. Sandy (Rachel Ticotin), who is Prendergast’s ex-partner, asks if he will be leaving early since it’s his last day. His conscientiousness and reluctance show when he doesn’t see why he shouldn’t put in a full day of work, even though he has been lately relegated to a desk. He looks at a photo of a young girl, and his look is sad, suggesting that his daughter died.

There is then a good segue scene showing D-Fens’s girl, Adele, as she plays with a water pistol (more foreshadowing), linking the main characters’ lives concerning children and Prendergast’s profession. It is the daughter’s birthday, and the mother is on the phone talking about a party, causing D-Fens to become even more frustrated by a busy signal as he tries again to call his family. He walks past an ominous set of large block-printed graffiti which repeats the word “KILL” several times (additional foreshadowing).

Prendergast gets a phone call from his needy wife, Amanda (Tuesday Weld) who is worried that he was making the move to Arizona because of her. He dodges the issue by saying that the main thing is that they are together. She is so insecure that she wants him home right away. So, he has marital problems, as does D-Fens. He has a snow globe in his hand and he sings, “London Bridge is falling down,” referring to the British bridge that was moved to Arizona, and where they will be going. But, we now get the reference for the title of the film, although in this story it is America, from the point of view of D-Fens, that is “falling down.” Prendergast cheers her up by getting her to sing along, and calls her “my fair lady,” the line from the song, which shows his affection for Amanda.

D-Fens looks at the city through a hole in his shoe, another image of how his view of America is from the perspective of a person on a low rung of the social ladder. He picks up an abandoned classified ads section which has circles around the previous owner’s job prospects that probably didn’t pan out. He uses the paper to cover the hole in the shoe, which is all the ads are good for, employment prospects not being plentiful for people in this poor section of town. Two Latino men approach D-Fens, harassing him, saying he is trespassing on private property and loitering. White people might sympathize with the Caucasian guy here, feeling that all he is doing is walking through an area that is different racially from where he comes from. Even though the action of the men is not justified, it suggests the many times a person of a different skin color was targeted for walking through a white neighborhood and charged with the same offenses. Also, for many impoverished people, their neighborhood is all they have left. D-Fens says there were no signs telling him to not sit there. One of the Latino men says the graffiti is a sign that warns to stay away. D-Fens sounds reasonable when he says that this is a territorial dispute and he respects that this area is their home. He says he understands their argument because he wouldn’t want them on his property. His remarks sound bigoted, but as we see later his anger is not just ethnically driven. But, they won’t just let him move on, saying he must pay a toll. They want his briefcase, which he refuses to turn over. One of the men flashes a knife. D-Fens, again erupting in frustrated rage, grabs the bat hidden behind the briefcase, and clubs the men, who flee, as he throws the bat at one of them. He tells them to “clear a path” since he declares again that he is going home. He picks up the knife of one of the young men, replacing the bat with a weapon dedicated solely to harm.

In contrast, the retiring Prendergast turns in his weapon as he looks at a newspaper article about a policeman getting shot, possibly indicating his reluctance to retire and give up the fight against lawbreakers. Mr. Lee shows up to report how his market was trashed. He is brought to Prendergast, but after explaining there was no robbery (Prendergast’s assigned department), since the man took no money and actually paid for his soda, the crime is reclassified as an assault. Lee says the man took his bat which he used for “defense.” It doesn’t click just yet with Prendergast about the license plate that said “D-Fens.”

Members of the Latino gang go searching for D-Fens, along with a young woman, Angie (Karina Arroyave), who urges them to let go of their desire for revenge and get treated at the hospital. De-Fens calls his wife again and says he is coming home for his daughter’s birthday. Beth says he can’t come home, she has custody of the child now and he doesn't even have the means to pay support, so he has no paternal privileges. She says it is not his home anymore and Adele is doing fine without him. These words hit at his failure as a parent. We now realize that he is not just some frustrated worker who was caught in traffic trying to get home. He has had severe financial and marital problems, and she is his ex-wife, who is afraid of his unstable behavior which pre-existed today’s events. Beth threatens to call the police.

The gang of youths find De-Fens talking on the pay phone. They kick Angie out of the car, probably because they believe they are doing men’s work, which amounts to acts of revenge. These guys have quite an arsenal of guns. They begin shooting automatic weapons, missing De-Fens who is behind some cars and instead they wound innocent bystanders. The gang members drive their car erratically as they try to wound De-Fens, and get into a terrible accident. Only one member is conscious. De-Fens is unfeeling about the bystanders who were shot as he approaches the car and simply says, “You missed.” He picks up one of the weapons and shoots the awake youth in the leg, acting like he is giving him a lesson on how awful it is to get shot. De-Fens takes their bag of armaments and tells the conscious car victim he needs to take shooting lessons. There are complicated emotions at work here in the presentation of the story. On the one hand we may be outraged by these violent youths who have no respect or decency for the welfare of others. But De-Fens, who acts like a vigilante who is demonstrating the anger due to wrongs inflicted on law-abiding citizens, is also unfeeling in his actions toward others, and also breaks laws because he feels he has a higher purpose to right wrongs.

Prendergast has an exit meeting with his captain, Yardley (Raymond J. Barry), a white self-absorbed macho guy who is seen punching a boxing bag in his office, turning the room into a gym. Yardley is condescending, acting like Prendergast is going out on early retirement with a reduced pension because he couldn’t cut it anymore. He implies that it may be due to Prendergast getting wounded, so he is safe now at a desk job. Prendergast is very deferential, and says no, it has nothing to do with his injury. The captain then asks about Prendergast’s kids, but he has none, since he lost his daughter, which shows how little Yardley knows about his own men.

De-Fens watches poor people on the street, with one man trying to sell stuff and another holding up a sign that reads he will work for food, which most likely adds more proof of his country’s decline. De-Fens tries to walk through an area but he meets another obstacle because there is a closed section where construction is being done. Meanwhile, Beth has called the police and talks with a cop. The film continues to add details about De-Fens’s personality. She confirms that she has a restraining order because of her ex-husband’s bad temper. She says that he never hit the child but there were times when she ran away before he could harm his wife. Beth says he has the potential for hurting others, which has been borne out by this day’s actions.

A man in the park (John Fleck) tells De-Fens that he drove from Santa Barbara and needs money and asks to lend him some cash that he will send back to De-Fens. The suspicious De-Fens wants to see his driver’s license. The man says he doesn’t have a license. De-Fens than questions how he drove a long way with no license. The guy says he hasn’t eaten in days, but he is munching on a sandwich. The beggar then has the audacity to demand money, which De-Fens refuses to give, and tells him to get a job. The man wants one of D-Fens’s bags that he can sell. De-Fens makes a decision here when he says he no longer needs the briefcase and gives it to him. This action shows he has quit attempting to be a working man who fits into society and instead embraces the bag of guns because he is bent on destroying whatever obstacles that stand in his way. The briefcase only contains lunch food, which confirms that De-Fens’s appearance of being a working man is a fake. We have here the depiction of the marginalized American white male’s anger being directed toward those he considers to be unproductive members of society who want to siphon off the hard-earned wages of the working class. This perspective however does not take into account the dire plight of the working man which may be due to exploitative employers, and does not consider how poverty-stricken members of society have been penalized by punitive aspects of a profit-driven economy.

Prendergast sees the young Latino woman, Angie, who was in the gang’s car that went after De-Fens, being interrogated. Prendergast does not yet know that Mr. Lee’s market and the drive-by shooting are connected. When the woman mentions a white guy with a baseball bat he barges in and confirms that the man had on a white shirt and tie. The detective kicks Prendergast out, not valuing the retiring veteran policeman’s help. But Prendergast looks at a city map and can see how the two altercations fit together geographically and chronologically.

De-Fens tries to order breakfast at a fast food restaurant just three minutes after the time that service ends. The employee is smug in her denial of him being able to order what he wants. De-Fens is similar to Jack Nicholson’s character in The Last Detail and Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke in that he is rebelling against the constricting rules closing in around him. De-Fens then asks for the manager, who is just as insensitive, not agreeing with De-Fens’s reminder that the “customer is always right,” a public relations line that isn’t even aspired to at this point. De-Fens pulls out an automatic weapon, which accidentally goes off, firing shots into the ceiling. De-Fens is amusing as he still tries to be normal in the midst of his antisocial behavior. He tries to placate the customers, saying he means them no harm and wants them to continue enjoying their food, as if that’s possible at this point. De-Fens almost sounds shaken as he asks again quietly for his breakfast, which they immediately give him. The implication is that an average person must resort to extreme means just to be treated fairly. De-Fens then changes his mind and wants lunch. He walks around the restaurant asking if everybody is doing okay, not in touch with the emotional trauma he has inflicted on them. When he asks one woman if she is enjoying her lunch the lady vomits out of fear, and De-Fens quips she must not like the special sauce. De-Fens is then critical of the squashed hamburger he receives which contrasts with the photograph on the wall of a large beef patty. In a way he is articulating the public’s feelings about being treated badly. But, he refuses, although dangerously, to submit to the mistreatment, unlike most submissive people.

Prendergast has lunch with Sandy. She questions his move to Arizona, noting that the decision is his wife’s idea. Prendergast says his wife only had her looks to fall back on when she was younger, and she is not handling getting older well, so he is accommodating her wishes. And he adds that the main reason he is being unselfish is because, “I love her,” which is the most important redemptive characteristic of human beings. Prendergast stands in contrast to De-Fens because the policeman can deal with the traffic jam, his family issues, and his job situation, in a civilized manner, at least up to this point, whereas De-Fens has snapped because he cannot deal with these conflicts.

Another detective interrupts their lunch, reporting the incident at the fast food restaurant. The cop says that it was odd that the man paid for his lunch. Prendergast, showing he still has game when it comes to being an investigator, remembers that the man who busted up Mr. Lee’s market also paid for his soda. He tells Sandy to find out if the man at the fast food place wore a white shirt and tie. She later calls him back and confirms the clothes, but informs Prendergast that he doesn’t have a baseball bat but was instead carrying a bag full of guns, which demonstrates how the lethal potential of his choice of weapons is escalating.

As De-Fens walks through the city’s depressed area, he encounters an African American man (Vondie Curtis-Hall) picketing in front of a savings and loan building, carrying a sign which reads, “Not Economically Viable.” He shouts out that is why the bank denied his application for a loan. He is arrested and says that is what happens to people who are “not economically viable.” The thrust here is that once a person falls on hard times the rules are rigged against him to try to recover. As the police car stops next to De-Fens, the black man says to De-Fens, “Don’t forget me.” As IMDb notes, the man and De-Fens are wearing the same type of clothes, even duplicating the tie pattern, which shows how De-Fens feels connected to this black man. De-Fens nods his head, as if promising that he, for one, knows what can happen to the unsuccessful in society. As the man is taken away, De-Fens buys a child’s snow globe (echoing Prendergast’s London Bridge globe) as a birthday gift for his daughter. He places this innocent child’s object, ironically, in the same bag next to the weapons. Later, when a man complains that De-Fens is hogging the public phone booth, De-Fens destroys the booth with gunfire. He again shows his dark humor by saying, “it’s out of order.” De-Fens has progressed to the point that he is beyond accommodating anything that gets in his way or questions his actions, which shows the danger of unrestrained individuality.

The hole in De-Fens’s shoe is getting worse. He goes into an Army surplus store. The owner is a neo-Nazi named Nick (Frederick Forrest) who listens to a police scanner. As he shows De-Fens some hiking shoes he shouts derogatory comments at a couple of presumably gay men in the store. De-Fens shows here, as he did with the protesting African American, that he is not prejudicial toward any one type of group. He doesn’t like anybody who acts badly, which includes the white workers at the restaurant or this fellow as he pulls out a handgun when one of the gay men confronts him.

Prendergast tells Angie he knows she is telling the truth about the white man who attacked her gang friends. But, he also correctly concludes that De-Fens took a gym bag full of guns off of her friends and asks Angie to confirm the number of weapons. She says there were “lots of guns,” not exactly a positive argument endorsing the proliferation of firearms.

Meanwhile, De-Fens sees a police car park near the store, and Sandy and her partner approach the establishment. Sandy questions Nick, asking if he saw a man in his late thirties, who was wearing a white shirt and a tie, and carrying a gym bag. De-Fens is in a fitting room trying on shoes. Nick pushes the gym bag out of sight and lies by saying he hasn’t seen De-Fens. He then closes the store. Nick brings De-Fens in the back which has all kinds of weapons and military gear, including Nazi books and war souvenirs. He says he heard about De-Fens’s activities during the day on the scanner, and starts to use anti-Semitic and black racial slurs. He keeps saying he is backing De-Fens because, “we’re the same, you and me.” De-Fens says they are not the same, distancing himself from this man by saying, “I’m an American,” which to De-Fens means all of those qualities that he feels are worthy, including, “freedom of speech, the right to disagree!” He calls Nick, “a sick asshole.” Nick is outraged and tries to handcuff De-Fens while spouting his racist language. De-Fens tells Nick he can’t spread his legs, lean forward, and also have his hands cuffed behind him because of “gravity,” explaining “I’ll fall down.” This is another reference to the title of the movie, suggesting that he and the rest of the country’s people are all in this precarious position. (As IMDb notes, Nick’s extreme disgust about homosexuals mingled with his preoccupation with male rape in prison, along with him standing in a position that implies he may sexually assault the bent over and bound D-Fens, suggests that Nick may be gay, and is in deep denial). When Nick takes the snow globe out of the gym bag and throws it, smashing it, De-Fens stabs him with the knife he took from the Latino man, meting out some ironic justice that takes down the bigot with a person of color’s weapon. This irony is suggested by Nick’s statement, “This isn’t one of mine.” Nick looks at his wound and says, “Oh my God,” to which De-Fens again mixes in dark humor by saying that Nick gets it, because he’s exercising “freedom of religion.” Instead of leaving, De-Fens again goes too far and shoots Nick.

Prendergast tries to do his job on his last day by trying to convince Captain Yardley and the other cops working the case involving De-Fens that he has evidence that the incidents are tied together, and the perpetrator is heading west. The captain dismisses Prendergast’s argument, and tells him he doesn’t like Prendergast because he never heard him curse, claiming that is the sign of “real men.” He also claims that Prendergast was afraid to go back into the streets. Prendergast assures him he wasn’t afraid, not saying that he took the desk job to soothe his wife’s fears. The captain here reveals his macho prejudice, showing that there are nasty people on both sides of the law. Sandy decides to help him on his quest which is in counterpoint to De-Fens’s law-breaking journey.

De-Fens calls his wife and sounds menacing, saying he is on his way home, and he realizes that he can’t turn around because his actions have put him, “past the point of no return.” He compares himself to the Apollo 13 astronauts who had to go around the dark side of the moon before reemerging and heading back to earth. He seems to know that he has gone to the “dark side” of his soul and now has reappeared as someone who can’t go back to trying to fit in with the rest of society. Even though the police who had stayed a while at her house after Beth called have now left, she lies to her ex-husband, saying they are there. De-Fens is now frightening in his single-mindedness, intimidating Beth by saying there are countries that say it’s okay, “to kill your wife if she insults you.” His argument in favor of free speech seems not to extend to one’s spouse.

Prendergast and Sandy arrive near Mr. Lee’s store to question him. After getting out of the car, Prendergast looks up and sees the billboard that a graffiti artist painted on. He is at the same spot where he was earlier in the day in the traffic jam. He now remembers the guy who left his car close to where the crimes took place. He recalls the personalized license plate read “D-Fens.” He sees Mr. Lee and calls out “Defense,” which is what the shopkeeper said he kept his bat for. Prendergast tells Sandy to find out the address associated with the plate, since a witness said the man said he was going home.

We are in another traffic snarl as people sink to their baser natures, calling each other ugly names while stuck in a sea of cars. (Too bad they don’t sing and dance as they do in La La Land, but that was a fantasy). De-Fens punches one driver who is yelling ugly epithets at a woman, shutting down the bad behavior he has been ranting against. He has traded in his white-collar outfit for what he found in the surplus store, and he now looks like a soldier, wearing what GI’s put on when going on a mission in a jungle, which is how De-Fens perceives this urban sprawl. The traffic is a mess because the street is closed off for repairs. A worker tells De-Fens he can’t pass there (not a good day to tell De-Fens he can’t do something), and that he is there to stop people from “falling in” due to the underground construction (another reference to the film’s title). De-Fens tells the worker that the street was fine two days ago and believes there’s nothing wrong, that they are just keeping inflated budgets by acting as if work has to be completed. He again voices complaints that one can hear from any average person who has suffered because of forces beyond one’s control. The worker sees a gun tucked in De-Fens’s pants. De-fens keeps demanding that the worker say what he wants to hear, that there is nothing that needs repair. Afraid, the worker tells him that there’s nothing wrong, which satisfies De-Fens, who is so self-righteous in his crusade, he won’t allow anything to contradict him. De-Fens then says that he will give him something to fix. He took a rocket launcher from the surplus store. A boy on a bike tells him how to use it because he saw how to do it on TV, satirizing the questionable skills exposed to children through the media. But the boy here innocently thinks that they are filming a show, which De-Fens, joking ironically, calls “Under Construction.” The phallic-shaped launcher and the guns could represent De-Fens trying to regain his masculinity. De-Fens prematurely (another sexual reference?), triggers the weapon, releasing his anger, firing the device under the street causing a large explosion.

Prendergast and Sandy arrive at the home of De-Fens’s mother (Lois Smith), which is where the license plate led them. De-Fens’s real name is William Foster. One of the walls in the house has pictures of a man in a military uniform, presumably De-Fens’s father. There are small American flags in a vase. The impression is that this was a patriotic family, which points to the feeling that his country has now failed De-Fens. The mother is herself defensive, and Sandy alienates her by acting official. But, Prendergast wins her over by praising her display of little crystal figurines. The woman shows them her son’s room which is very neat. She thinks he is still working at a defense plant. Prendergast senses the mother’s wariness about talking about her son. He believes she knows something is wrong with him. He gets her to reveal that her son sometimes won’t even speak at dinner. The mother says De-Fens eats like a machine and she is so nervous she chews the same piece of food. When she spits it out she says he looks at her like he will kill her. We get a picture of a disturbed control freak who can’t handle things not going the way he wants. Prendergast finds De-Fens’s wedding ring in a drawer and a picture of his ex-wife and child. Prendergast finds out the ex-wife’s maiden name is Trevino and Sandy discovers that De-Fens was fired from his job a month ago, suggesting that his mental instability was already becoming manifest for a while.

De-Fens, not following any restrictions on freedom, climbs a fence that says “No Trespassing” onto a private golf course. He tells some senior men that he is passing through. One of the men is an elitist who yells about how he doesn’t want someone from the outside interrupting his game. He hits a ball at De-Fens, who pulls out a shotgun, and calls back that he is trying to kill him with a golf ball because of his silly game. He says that the land should be used for children and families to have picnics and enjoy a petting zoo, implying the area has been cut off for those who can afford the expensive fees. He shoots their electric golf cart which then rolls off toward a water hazard. The man who hit the golf ball falls down (referring to the title again), appearing to have a heart attack. He gasps that his pills are in the cart. De-Fens has no sympathy for the damage he is causing, as if the man has received justice for trying to prevent De-Fens from passing through the fairway. He tells the suffering man he’ll die wearing his silly little hat. For De-Fens, his will supersedes the lives of others at this point.

De-Fens scales another fence as he has moved from the poor side of town to the rich one, and he sees wrongdoing no matter the economic area. He complains to a man who is having a cookout with his wife and little daughter that his barbed wire caused him to cut his hand, as if he has the right to go wherever he pleases. The man is actually the caretaker and he is barbecuing there while the owner is away. Once De-Fens realizes that these people are not part of the exclusive upper class, his anger subsides. The people at the golf course have called the police, and De-Fens moves the family under cover. He finds out that a plastic surgeon owns the property. De-Fens jokes and says he is in the wrong field, and wonders if there are “correspondence courses” for that medical specialty. But, while he is trying to be funny, he holds onto the child’s hand, as if substituting her for his daughter. De-Fens confesses that he was fired, and is “obsolete,” (which hints that part of the reason, which happens to many people, may be he was replaced by automation) and can’t even support his daughter. He echoes the situation of the African American man who was arrested, and most likely many others, saying he’s “not economically viable.” De-Fens is astounded again for being viewed as a bad person when the man asks to be a hostage, but to leave his family alone. De-Fens says that he has no desire to harm the man’s family. He then reminisces about how ideal things were with his family and mentally escapes into a daydream fantasy about how everything will be the way it was.

At the police station, Prendergast and Sandy check out Beth’s single name, Trevino, linked with Foster, De-Fens’s name. Prendergast learns about the murder of the surplus store owner. Sandy reveals that she visited the store earlier. Then they get word about the man dressed in military clothes who terrorized the men at the golf course and the family at the doctor’s home. Prendergast looks at De-Fens’s progress on the map and deduces that the ex-wife lives in Venice even before Sandy provides the address.

Beth called the police after De-Fens’s threatening phone call, but the policewoman who arrives at her house shows no compassion, acting like it’s just a prank. Only Prendergast and Sandy seem to really care about following through on the case. De-Fens calls Beth from Santa Monica Pier, which is right next to Venice, and talks about how the ice cream shop they frequented no longer is there. She immediately hangs up as she realizes he is very close and takes her daughter out of the house. He quickly understands that she may try to escape, but when he arrives at her home, they are gone. De-Fens looks at home videos of his family when he lived there. He now has the daughter’s water pistol replacing the real gun he held before, showing how torn this man is between his affection for his family and his pathological violent impulses to have things his way. But the home movies dispel his idealized version of the past. They reveal how domineering he was, yelling at his family, and scaring his daughter who cried as he tried to force her onto a toy horse he bought.

The Venice cops tell Sandy in a phone call that they can’t justify a visit three times in one day to satisfy the complaints of a “hysterical” woman. This is a flaw in the plot because it is difficult to believe that they would not investigate when other cops call them verifying the danger Beth is in. So, we have the main characters move to a confrontation on the Santa Monica Pier (which shows up in several Hollywood films). Before that happens, Prendergast takes on some of De-Fens’s aggression, finally setting his wife straight. She calls him and is jealous that Sandy answered the phone and yells at him to come home. He tells her to “shut up” and have dinner waiting for him when he gets to his house, as Sandy stifles laughter on the side. And, when Sandy’s partner makes a negative remark about Prendergast’s wife, the retiring cop responds to the insult to Amanda by punching the guy. (This event occurs at an office goodbye party for Prendergast, where, as IMDb points out, there is a retirement cake decorated with the London Bridge, another reminder of the film’s title).

By watching one of the videos De-Fens realizes that Beth may again want to bring their child on her birthday to the pier, and maybe Beth would not think that he would go back there after going to her house. Prendergast and Sandy arrive at Beth’s house. Sandy goes in and De-Fens shoots her and escapes. Prendergast gets the neighbors to call 911 and he goes after De-Fens. Beth and her daughter are at the pier and the girl is thrilled to see her father running toward them. He hugs and kisses Beth who says she wants him to leave them alone. He reminds her that they made vows that said “‘till death do us part,” which is frightening considering the circumstances, and he then pulls out a handgun. 

She says he is sick, and De-Fens says that walking through the city is what’s really sick. Prendergast shows up and acts folksy, not confrontational, eating a snack, and saying he used to fish off the pier, but the fish are now poisonous, and the water can infect a swimmer. He says he is retiring to a place that some would call paradise, and others would say there is nothing but a muddy lake there. Prendergast says everyone has their own idea of paradise, which connects to De-Fens’s concept of perfection for himself and America. While Prendergast talks he flashes his revolver at Beth to show he’s a cop. Prendergast says that paradise for him was having babies. He said his wife had a child for him which tells us why he is now willing to sacrifice for her. He says that his daughter was two years old, went to sleep, and didn’t wake up, which connects with De-Fens’s feelings of loss. Prendergast hands popcorn to Adele who shares it with her father, as he puts his gun down. De-Fens is distracted as he hears police sirens, and Prendergast intervenes, getting Beth and the girl to run away. Prendergast says he knows that De-Fens was going there to kill his family and then himself. De-Fens is surprised to realize he is now “the bad guy.” He says he helped build missiles to protect America, and should be rewarded, not punished. De-Fens says they lied to him about who gets rewarded. Prendergast says they lie to everybody, so that doesn’t make De-Fens special, only his little girl does. Prendergast wants him to give up. De-Fens says he has a gun and they should have a showdown, as if they are in a Hollywood Western. He says if he gets killed at least his daughter will get the life insurance, and he doesn’t want to see his girl grow up while he’s in prison. He counts to three and draws, but he only has his daughter’s water pistol, so he knows he’s going to die. Prendergast doesn’t know the gun is a fake, fires, and after being shot, De-Fens falls into the Pacific Ocean, an affront to its peaceful name.

Captain Yardley, now in front of the press and trying to grab positive publicity, hypocritically now praises Prendergast. Prendergast passes by the cameras and as the captain thanks him, Prendergast now finds the right time to curse and tells him “Fuck you very much.” He sees Sandy off to the hospital and tells Beth to let her daughter enjoy her birthday party without mentioning her father to keep her in an innocent state for another day. In answer to Adele’s question about his name, he says it’s “Mud,” which he says it will be when his wife finds out he decided to still be a cop. The movie seems to be saying that there is a need for him and other decent individuals to try to keep the country from “falling down.”

The next film is Get Out.

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.