L. A. Confidential Essay, Research Paper

The Bad Cop

I was not really interested in seeing LA Confidential since everyone I knew who went to see it had bad things to say-too long, too boring, too confusing. After watching the movie, I became very interested in the movie. It?s rare to see a movie with great acting and a story that keeps me wondering what?s going to happen next.

LA Confidential is a crime-drama adapted from an infamous novel written by James Ellroy. Curtis Hanson directs the movie. The film looks and feels like what you might imagine LA to have looked like in the 1950s. The plot of the story is laid out through they eyes of Sid Hudges, a local publisher of a magazine called Hush-Hush. Hudges uses his magazine to publicize the private lifestyles of the well-known citizens of Los Angeles.

The frame of the story is the tax bust of a mobster, which left LA wide open to organized crime. A mass murder in an all night restaurant turns into a case of missing heroin and high class pimps; corrupt cops; straight and gay sex and blackmail and tabloid manipulation events.

LA Confidential is a tale of cops more crooked than the criminals they bust. One particular cop, Bud White, is known for beating confessions out of suspects. Bud White is one of the main characters in the movie. This essay will be focused on the role of Bud White in LA Confidential.

Throughout the movie Bud White is portrayed to have a personal hatred for women abusers. At the beginning of the movie, Bud and two other officers are seen sitting in a car, observing a man beating his wife. Officer White gets out the car, approaches the house, and then pulls the family?s Christmas assortment off the roof. When the man comes outside to see what the ruckus is all about, Bud White immediately begins to beat him. Afterwards, Bud handcuffs the man to a rail.

In another seen from the movie, Mr. White is seen leaving a bar. When Bud White exits the bar, he notices a women sitting in a car with two men. The woman had bandages on her nose. Bud White approaches the car to investigate the scene. In the process, the driver jumps out the car and tells him to get lost. Bud White roughs the guy up. Bud is thinking that someone has abused the woman, when in actuality the woman had been hit in the face with a tennis racket.

During an interrogation at the precinct, Bud White hears a suspect confessing to have raped a girl. The officer in the room is having trouble getting the criminal to tell him where the girl is. So Bud White storms into the room, pins the guy against the wall, and puts a gun in his mouth until the guy tells him were the girl is at.

Bud White?s hatred for women beaters seems to have erupted from seeing his mother beat to death by his father when he was a kid. He explained that his father tied him to a radiator while he beat Bud?s mother to death. They stayed in the same location for three days until a train officer found them.

Bud White proved to be loyal to his fellow cops, especially his partner. After the beating of the Mexicans, when Bud White was asked to testify against his partner and other cops, Bud refused to rat on them. Bud allowed his gun and badge to be taken away, just in order to protect his friends. After his partner?s death, Bud White was determined to find his killer.

Officer White is also portrayed as being a tuff cop with no brains at the beginning of the movie. He is seen throughout the movie beating confessions out of suspects. Once during the movie he is seen beating some Mexican prisoners. In another scene he is seen at a bar squeezing a man?s testicles until the man told him the information that Bud wanted to hear.

Throughout the movie other cops mention that they thought Bud was dumb. Once in the movie the coroner mentions, ?You know, he is not as dumb as I thought.? In another scene Jack Vincinnes see Bud making love to Suzanne and say?s ?Bud White is not as dumb as I thought.? While talking to his girlfriend, White mentions that he is not smart enough. He say?s ?I?m just the guy they bring in to scare the other guy.?

Even though Bud White was portrayed as being brainless at the beginning of the movie, by the end of the movie he had proven himself to be quite intelligent. He assumed from the beginning that the black guys were not the ones involved in the Night Owl murders. He knew whoever killed his partner was still around. He practically solved the night owl case by himself. It seemed like he was up to date on all the people in Los Angeles. It is always good to know people. For example, when Mr. White visited the Veronica Lake look ?alike, there was a councilman there. The councilman threatened Bud. Bud flashed his badge and told him to get out before he called his wife. Bud knew he the councilman was, but the councilman did not know who Bud was.

In LA Confidential Bud White believed in taking justice into his own hands. When they found the Mexican girl that they suspects had mentioned, Bud White entered the house first and shot the guy that was in the house with the girl, he took another gun, shot the wall, and then placed that gun in the victims hand to make it look like the guy had fired at Bud first.

Closer to the end of the movie Bud White proved that he would punish men who abused women and those men who touched his woman. Bud White was seen beating Detective Exley because Exley had slept with Suzanne. Although White hated women abusers, he certainly gave Suzanne a few good blows to the face. Could our women hero be turning into a woman?s worst nightmare?

Bud White even showed himself to be a true gentleman in the movie. When he rescued the Mexican girl, he tenderly wrapped blankets around her and comforted her. After he intruded an old woman?s house and found a dead man underneath, he gave her some money for her troubles. And last but not least, Suzanne. He definitely treated Suzanne like a lady. This is the reason that she fell for him so hard. He treated her like she was a real person, not just some Veronica Lake whore look-alike.

Towards the end of the movie, Bud White does not seem to be as tough. Captain Dudley mentioned ? Bud White does not seem to be his old cruel self anymore.? Whenever Bud found out that Exley had slept with Suzanne, he began to cry. We began to see Bud White feeling pain instead of inflicting pain.

At the end of the film, Bud White showed himself to be dedicated to his job. Even though he did not like Detective Exley and Exley had slept with his girlfriend, Bud White put his feelings aside in order that he and Exley may team up to solve the Night Owl Case.

Bud also shows that he has a forgiving heart because at the end of the movie it shows him and Exley shaking hands and Bud and Suzanne driving off together in a car. So evidently, Bud had forgiven Suzanne and Exley for sleeping with together. Bud must also have forgiven Exley for ratting them out whenever he and his partner had beat the Mexicans.

I enjoyed the character of Bud White in this movie. I must give Russell Crowe two thumbs up for his performance. Crow was an excellent actor throughout the movie. He stood out more than any other actors. His character is definitely what kept my attention throughout the movie.