I've only seen Chinatown once but I prefer L.A. Confidential. It was my favourite film for a long time. Not sure it's necessarily a better film than Chinatown, taking into account that L.A. Confidential was made much later and improvements were made in the genre. Like I enjoyed Chinatown more than The Maltese Falcon. But I don't think it's a better film.

I'm also a big James Ellroy fan. I've read many of his books. L.A. Confidential was the middle part of a trilogy and I so wish they'd adapt the other two.

@JustinJackFlash said:

I've only seen Chinatown once but I prefer L.A. Confidential. It was my favourite film for a long time. Not sure it's necessarily a better film than Chinatown, taking into account that L.A. Confidential was made much later and improvements were made in the genre. Like I enjoyed Chinatown more than The Maltese Falcon. But I don't think it's a better film.

Ah yes, The Maltese Falcon, another highly-regarded movie that I just didn't get - and it's not that I don't like "old" movies (Double Indemnity is an all-time favourite, and my favourite movie-maker is still Billy Wilder). But, I digress...

I'm also a big James Ellroy fan. I've read many of his books. L.A. Confidential was the middle part of a trilogy and I so wish they'd adapt the other two.

THANKS FOR THIS! I followed your lead here and found out that he actually wrote an "L.A. Quartet", and another title from that series was also made into a movie, The Black Dahlia, which is now on my list to see! If you check it out too, we can discuss it on The Black Dahlia's discussion board :-)

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@JustinJackFlash said:

I've only seen Chinatown once but I prefer L.A. Confidential. It was my favourite film for a long time. Not sure it's necessarily a better film than Chinatown, taking into account that L.A. Confidential was made much later and improvements were made in the genre. Like I enjoyed Chinatown more than The Maltese Falcon. But I don't think it's a better film.

Ah yes, The Maltese Falcon, another highly-regarded movie that I just didn't get - and it's not that I don't like "old" movies (Double Indemnity is an all-time favourite, and my favourite movie-maker is still Billy Wilder). But, I digress...

I'm also a big James Ellroy fan. I've read many of his books. L.A. Confidential was the middle part of a trilogy and I so wish they'd adapt the other two.

THANKS FOR THIS! I followed your lead here and found out that he actually wrote an "L.A. Quartet", and another title from that series was also made into a movie, The Black Dahlia, which is now on my list to see! If you check it out too, we can discuss it on The Black Dahlia's discussion board :-)

I've seen The Black Dahlia and I wouldn't get my hopes up for it as it's not very good. It makes a lot of changes from the book and so does L.A. Confidential. But whereas L.A. Confidential adapts the core spirit of the book into it's own story and becomes an excellent film, The Black Dahlia is just a silly but straightforward thriller with a couple of neat Brian DePalma touches.

I actually never understood why they call it an L.A. Quartet because The Black Dahlia has absolutely nothing to do with the other three other than being set in the same universe. But Ellroy has written a number of books set in that universe that aren't part of that quartet. The other three have recurring characters appearing in all of them and the narratives are connected. You don't need to read The Black Dahlia in order to follow the other three. So I always considered them a trilogy.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

THANKS FOR THIS! I followed your lead here and found out that he actually wrote an "L.A. Quartet", and another title from that series was also made into a movie, The Black Dahlia, which is now on my list to see! If you check it out too, we can discuss it on The Black Dahlia's discussion board :-)

I've seen The Black Dahlia and I wouldn't get my hopes up for it as it's not very good. It makes a lot of changes from the book and so does L.A. Confidential. But whereas L.A. Confidential adapts the core spirit of the book into it's own story and becomes an excellent film, The Black Dahlia is just a silly but straightforward thriller with a couple of neat Brian DePalma touches.

I hear you. What's (sadly) interesting is that James Ellroy's mother was murdered, and he identified with the tragedy of Elizabeth Short. Too bad the movie failed to capture the spirit better.

I actually never understood why they call it an L.A. Quartet because The Black Dahlia has absolutely nothing to do with the other three other than being set in the same universe. But Ellroy has written a number of books set in that universe that aren't part of that quartet. The other three have recurring characters appearing in all of them and the narratives are connected. You don't need to read The Black Dahlia in order to follow the other three. So I always considered them a trilogy.

I dig how you look at it!

@DRDMovieMusings said:

I hear you. What's (sadly) interesting is that James Ellroy's mother was murdered, and he identified with the tragedy of Elizabeth Short. Too bad the movie failed to capture the spirit better.

Yeah, you can really get the sense of that in his writing in the novel. It's very much about obsession. To the extent that it's very repetitive. There's a lot of endless descriptions of following tenuous leads that go nowhere. And that's very much the point of it. And that's hard to convey in a mainstream film.