Opinion — Nine, Nine, Nine Part One: Top Nine Crime Films

1.Blade Runner — Is it possible for a robot to have a soul? Director Ridley Scott builds a fantastic marriage of noir and science fiction. Just as L.A. Confidential recreates the recent past, Blade Runner creates a believable near future. (Based on a book by Philip K. Dick)

2.No Country for Old Men — Heads or Tails, die now or later. It makes no difference — what you do, evil stalks you and yours. The typical Coen Brothers dark humor rides a desolately thin line as the movie tells us there is no escaping evil or the collateral damage it brings. (Based on a book by Cormac McCarthy).

3. Gosford Park — This is an Agatha Christie on steroids, though, of course it was not based on an Agatha Christie story. Before he created television’s “Downton Abbey,” Julian Fellowes created Gosford Park, a kind of murder-in-the-parlor mystery that tops the sub-genre. Robert Altman directs a sterling cast.

4. Fargo — The Coen Brothers do it again and again. They can make you believe in the absurd. Unlike No Country, Fargo’s dark humor is laugh out-loud. The people are so real and yet what they do is so insane. That’s why we laugh. It’s so true.

5. The Godfather: This is the standard for “mafia” movies. However, it is much more than that. Francis Ford Coppola sets up the relativity and the complexity of right and wrong in a powerful, richly told tale. (Based on a book by Mario Puzo)

6. The Maltese Falcon —What can I say? As a mystery writer, this just might be as good as it gets. Unlike the uneven screenplays based on Raymond Chandler’s classics (with the possible exception of the Bogart version of The Big Sleep) this Hammett private eye tale is perfectly rendered. (Based on a book by Dashiell Hammett)

7. The Talented Mr. Ripley (also Purple Noon) The first is the American version, starring Matt Damon; and the second is the same film done earlier by the French with Alain Delon. Both are perfect portraits of a charming, ingenious sociopath. The films are intricate, fun, and stylish. Cynicism at its best. Timeless. Ripley’s Game, with John Malkovich as Ripley, is also a fine crime film. (Based on books by Patricia Highsmith)

8. L.A. Confidential — You can choose to watch a movie made in the 1950s. Or you can watch a 1950s film from the perspective of the late 1990s. Oddly, the rear-view mirror approach gives us a rich cinematography not available in the fifties. (Based on a book by James Ellroy).

9. Chinatown — Roman Polanski may be one of the most underrated directors. However, this film shows up on nearly everyone’s list. There’s no question about its qualifications. It’s Los Angeles a couple of decades after L.A. Confidential. A lesser-known Polanski film, Frantic, is also well-worth watching.

Film Pairing — Murder & Politics, Not So Strange Bedfellows

Mixing politics and murder often makes for a great story. There are real life dramas surrounding the assassination of the Kennedys. Certainly the New Orleans-connected killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby could be the basis for a fascinating film if we every figured out what went on. And fiction pales against the stories of the killing of Martin Luther King, the disappearances of James Hoffa and Judge Crater as well as the attempt on George Wallace’s and Ronald Reagan’s lives.

But there are a number of films that deal with the mix of murder and politics. And given that we are subjected to politics, politics, politics all day long, here are two movies — studies in corruption — that can accompany today’s news.

The first is City Hall (1996). It is based on an original screenplay, and is set in contemporary New York. John Cusack, Danny Aiello and Bridget Fonda join Al Pacino. (Also, there is a brilliant appearance by Martin Landau.)

Some of the mystery blogs are listing the all-time great over-actors. Pacino is listed in the top ten. Admittedly, he chews a bit of the scenery in this one as well; but I don’t know who else could have played the savvy and charismatic mayor of New York as convincingly — and the ability to be both a saint and Satan is essential to the plot. Whether you figure it all out or not before the film let’s you in on it — and you might — it’s worth seeing if for no other reason than to be reminded how idealism is smashed in a sacrifice to the reality, perhaps necessity, of compromise. Someone once said that to fall in love with a politician is to have your heart broken.

LA Confidential (1997) has it all. It is based on James Ellroy’s book and has one of the best casts money can buy. Instead of 1990s New York, we visit 1950s L.A. The cast includes Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Bassinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell and David Stratham — all dealing with scandal, sleaze, crime and corruption. Much of the film’s action hovers around the needs of a magazine called Hush, Hush. I remember when I was twelve or thirteen. With some degree of embarrassment, I would go to the magazine section of the drug store and open up the pages of a sleazy scandal sheet called Confidential to see what lurid activities Hollywood stars were engaged in. Afterward, I’d feel I’d looked into a world I wasn’t supposed to see. I remember feeling a mix of excitement and disgust. That is pretty much what L.A. Confidential, nominated for nine Academy Awards, is about. It is also very much about L.A. In that sense, there might be a case for pairing Confidential with Chinatown. Not a bad idea, either, but it might be too much L.A. for one evening.

It’s whiskey on the rocks for the entire evening. No soda.