Understanding L.A. Confidential

hello and thank you for joining me here today at why the book wins where I compare books with their movie adaptations my name is Laura and today we are talking about LA Confidential a book by James Elroy published in 1990 and then the movie adaptation is also called LA Confidential and was released in 1997 and is directed by Curtis Hansen and so this was part of a book first movie poll I had on my YouTube Community page and the theme for this poll was the Academy Awards since the 2023 Academy Awards are just around the corner hence the theme for this poll but LA Confidential was part of that mix because it was nominated for Best Picture Best Director cinematography art Direction and sound and then it won for best adapted screenplay and then Kim Basinger won for best supporting actress and this was part of the 1998 Academy Awards and Titanic that was part of that and so Titanic did win a number of those which fun fact I have never seen Titanic all the way through I've seen bits and pieces and I saw like a fair chunk of it once on TV TV but yeah I've never watched that movie all the way through before and I'm a fan of DiCaprio and Kate Winslet but I just don't have any motivation to actually watch that whole movie so on to the book review this is the first James Elroy book I have ever read Black Dahlia had actually been an option in a past book first movie poll from like sometime last year but it did not win obviously because I haven't read it so yeah this is part of the LA quartet and this is the third book in the LA quartet Black Dahlia being I think that's the first one anyway I haven't read the first two books in this series nor the last one so I don't know how this one relates to those like I know Dudley Smith is a character in the previous books but Ed Jack and Bud are all new and exclusive I think to LA Confidential although maybe Ed is in the next book I don't really know but anyway yeah this was quite something though quite the experience and I will start with what I didn't like about this book there are so many characters like it is ridiculous how many characters that there are there's no way you could possibly keep track of every character and what they're doing and how they connect to the plot like it's impossible unless you're actually taking notes while reading this book so I would recommend that if you are going into this book blind prepare to take notes and anytime a name shows up write down the name write down what they do and their connection to the main characters because otherwise you will be so confused or if you don't want to take notes check out the video I posted on Monday because this book was so confusing that I have a whole separate like video that is 25 minutes long just detailing the plot of this book and how all the characters connect because yeah it was so confusing and after I finished this book I was like wow I don't know how I would tell anyone about the plot of this book because even though I just read it I myself am so confused about the plot and do not understand it so I went through it again and took lots of notes and I made that video which I already posted so and so I will be talking about some things that I already talked about in that video but that video goes more in depth into the book plot so if you do want to know more of the details as far as how the night owl connects to this and that then you can watch that video but we will be getting into the bigger points today as well anyway so that is my first complaint with this book is just how complex the plot is and how many characters there are it was a lot to take in and next the writing style was also like it took time to adjust to that and so it was hard to follow along sometimes this does take place in the 1950s and so you have a lot of slaying as far as like the 50s slang plus there were Parts where it was just written in a very abrupt kind of way and yeah there were times when like something important would happen and then they would reference it and I'm like wait what like I do not remember reading about that happening but it's because the Way It Was Written some things just got lost in the mix although I will say when I went through the book a second time I didn't have as hard a Time following it so I think because I just knew the characters and the plot to some extent and maybe I was you used to the writing at that point too and I knew what I was looking for maybe that helped but the first time around it was hard to follow for the complex reasons but also just the writing style was just it took some adjusting and it was tough to follow and again this is the third book in the series because it kind of feels like you're just dumped into it but that might be my fault for not having read the first two books and then finally another thing that made this book not very enjoyable was the graphic nature of it both like with the violence but as well as like the sexual aspect because a huge side plot to this book is they are investigating these dirty magazines that are dirty pictures that someone made and they're trying to figure out who made this and who is trying to sell this and so that's huge part of the plot but what was unnecessary is some of the details about those pictures that were gross and that we didn't need to I didn't need to read about so I didn't like that and then also obviously this is a mystery a murder mystery crime Thriller and there is the Frankenstein case which is not in the movie but it is in the book and the details of that case were very very disturbing and so that also was just kind of like oh like it was too much for me personally and I did not like those parts because it was just like it was just very graphic and yeah I didn't enjoy reading about that but I will say I did like the three main characters we follow Bud Jack and Ed and even though a lot of the side characters I would get muddled and Confused those three main characters for the most part like I was able to keep them in line and I did enjoy seeing their character arcs and this book also takes place over the span of like over 10 years and I personally love books that take place over a long time so I like that about it as well and it's just going on the journey with these characters I really enjoyed and I do admire Elroy for writing such a complex plot like it is quite the feat so even though it was a lot and it was confusing it's also pretty admirable as well and as far as if I would recommend this book I like I said I would if you read it take notes that is my biggest recommendation right there but also just be aware of the content because that'll alone because it was gross and upsetting that would stop me from recommending it to just anybody because it wasn't just like it wasn't mild like it was graphic so granted you could always get past those parts if you wanted but I did go back and forth between listening to this on audiobook as well as reading it and I don't know if I'd recommend that either because I think it was harder to follow at times when I was listening so I would recommend just reading it if it's your first time the narration is by David strathearn Stratham streatham who plays Pierce Patchett in the movie so he narrates this book and he does an amazing job narrating it like I said I think because it's so complex though it's better to read it than to listen to it by the way I love David strathon strathern you would think I knew how to pronounce his name since I like him so much but I have covered him in the past for nightmare alley Dolores Claiborne and where the Crawdad sings so he's like a character actor and he always plays you know a side character but he's always amazing and I love watching him and whatever he's in but onto like my movie review section before getting into the details of the plot just my general movie thoughts so Elroy and his agent laughed at the thought of this book being adapted and he is quoted as saying we thought this movie was adaptation proof it was big it was bad it was bereft of sympathetic characters it was unconstrainable uncontainable and unadaptable so you might be wondering like how could such an unadaptable book be adapted you know one that has such a complex plot and has so many characters and the characters are very unlikable like he says and the way you adapt a book like that is you don't fully adapt it they trim down the plot a lot for this movie they did leave out some details that made the characters more unlikable in the book so in the movie they're still not like the most likable characters but they definitely made them more likable in the movie than they had been in the book but this movie is incredibly popular obviously and it was very famous at the time with all the you know critical Acclaim and everything and I would say if you're a fan of the movie I think you would benefit from reading the book and just getting the full breadth of this story because the book is I don't know if Epic would be the right word but like I said the movie Just trimmed down quite a bit and so if you like the movie I think you would enjoy reading the book and getting the full story and this is a great adaptation despite the changes it made because even though it cut down a lot and made changes to the plot it still stayed true to the overall plot in general almost even more importantly like it stayed more it stayed true to the characters our main three characters it stayed true to who they are and so I thought this was a fantastic adaptation and a great example of an adaptation that's amazing even though it didn't like follow the book exactly which by the way if this movie had followed the book exactly like with some of the killings it would have been like a horror movie because that's how graphic some of those scenes were but thankfully it's tamed down obviously which that's the case a lot of times books tend to be more graphic whereas in the movies they have to tame it down to some extent but anyway I actually wish I would have watched this movie before reading the book because like I said the book was very confusing and I think if I had seen the movie first it would have helped me have the characters in line and know some details of the plot that would help me kind of know where things were going in the book and make it easier to follow but the book is also different enough that you could see the movie first and then read the book and you could still have a good book experience because there's enough changes that you don't know everything that's going to happen so as far as the movie goes I would recommend it if you have not seen it yet you should go check it out it is available to rent on Apple it is the breakout performances for Russell Crowe and Guy Pierre so that was cool seeing them in an early role we also have Kevin Spacey as Jack Vincennes and then of course Kim Basinger won an Oscar for her performance so yeah I would highly recommend this movie check it out and for the rest of this video or podcast I will be getting into the details of the plot so there will be spoilers for both book and movie going forward so trying to figure out where to begin with this because there's so much going on and obviously I won't be getting into everything that's going on with the book because there is so much going on and like I said you can check out that other video I did where I explained the book plot and in more in depth so some things I might not talk about here but I did talk about there anyway I will begin with uh Ed and Bloody Christmas so so Ed Exley in bookend maybe he is a cop and he is following in his Father's Footsteps who was also a cop and in the book he is a war hero this is the 50s so he was a World War II hero because he had killed a lot of Japanese soldiers however we find out that that's a lie like he got like a medal of honor or something for what he did but he came across these Japanese soldiers who were already dead and then he made it seem like he's the one who killed them so his whole war hero story is based in a line it just shows his Cur his cowardice but also his willingness to do whatever it takes to like rise in the ranks and to get that admiration whether it's earned or not and that is not in the movie also something that is also not in the movie is that his father is still alive in the book so Preston Exley is a former cop but now he is an investor and he has partnered up with Ray Dieter Sterling Ray deterling being like the Walt Disney of this world and Ray dieterling is opening up dream of Dreamland AKA Disneyland and edexley has partnered with him on it so they are opening it together whereas in the movie Ed's father has died so he died when he was on the forest he was shot by someone and they don't know who shot him it's a mystery the guy got away with it and so Ed is following in his Father's Footsteps wanting to make a difference in the world and so in the movie like I said he is more likable because we don't have that backstory about him faking his war hero status but so Ed is on duty when Bloody Christmas happens which is an event that took place in real life actually where a bunch of white cops beat up these Hispanic guys that were in custody but so a lot of the cops including Bud white and Jack Vincennes get involved and they've been drinking and they beat up these men but Ed Exley was like trying to stop it from happening and so once the Press finds out about it the police are trying to find a way to contain the situation but they know someone has to take the fall for it and so Ed voluntarily is like you know I'll snitch on my fellow cops I'm happy to do it and so they they end up having dick stenzland who is Bud White's partner take the fall and he was close to retiring anyway so they're like we'll just have him retire early and he gets his pension and someone takes the fall for it and you know it's good for everybody essentially and so this shows us how in book and movie Ed is willing to do what it takes to get his promotion because he uses this as a way to be promoted by showing that he's willing to testify against his fellow cops but we already knew he's willing to do what it takes based on the war story we got in the book but in the movie this shows us once again that you know in the movie he's standing up for what's right as well but he's also kind of manipulating the situation by using this as a way to get promoted and then Bud white was also suspended due to Bloody Christmas but then Dudley Smith this higher officer allows him to come back on early and he's like and you'll work for me so he basically becomes Dudley Smith's strong arm because they do a lot of uh interrogations and so but white is considered just like the muscle and so he'll beat these guys up until they get a confession out of them and he just basically does whatever Dudley Smith says now and Bud is also just thought of as not being very bright so he really is just the muscle in a lot of ways and then we have Jack Vincennes who again was also involved in bloody Christmas and he also testified but he testified because they threatened to take away his badge of honor position which he badge of honor is a TV show and Jack Vincennes is like the advisor for this TV show and he loves working amongst the Hollywood stars and he also has a partnership going on with Sid Hudgins who works at the hush-hush magazine and so and so they help each other out by either setting people up and then Jack Vincennes captures them and Sid writes an article about it and so so Jack is willing to testify against Bloody Christmas because he doesn't want to lose his place on badge of honor but there is a backstory to Jack which is not in the movie and that is that one he's he used to work narcotics and he was a kind of a drug addict as well as an alcoholic and while he was on duty he accidentally shot two people a husband and a wife and they'd had two kids so he caused their children to be orphans but he was able to hide that that was done I forget how I guess he blamed it on someone else but since that day he has not drank or done drugs and so he's counting those days and it's that was in 47 and we're currently in 51 but Sid Hudgins had known about him killing those two innocent people and so Sid is kind of blackmailing him in a way and so in the book they have this relationship or they're using each other but Jack is also scared of what Sid knows about him and he doesn't want Sid telling the world about what he did to those two innocent people and also in the book he makes donations to the orphanage the two kids went to so every year he makes a donation as a way to try to make amends for killing those two people and yeah that was not in the movie at all and I thought that was a great part to his character in the book that I wish they would have included so yeah basically we have Bud white who has his own uh code of honor because he also hates wife beaters because his father was abusive to his mother and then his father ended up killing his mom and getting away with it and so now it's a cop he is really harsh on men who are abusive to their wives and he gets them you know executed and put in jail or whatever but once they're released and on parole he will like go check up on them and threaten them and make sure that they're still not hitting their wives essentially so he has a weak spot for damsels in distress essentially and so he's not thought of as very bright but he is very you know forceful and he is not scared of getting his hands dirty literally or figuratively but he does have like I said kind of like some kind of moral code to some extent and then we have Ed Exley who doesn't really have a moral code per se in the book especially he's just willing to do what it takes to get to get ahead whereas in the movie he does seem to care about doing what's right and about bringing Justice while also manipulating the system in a way and not caring if his fellow cops hate him and then we have Jack Vincennes who just loves having the elite life of sorts with his Hollywood celebrities and manipulating people like with Sid hudgin so that he can get his Fame in the hush-hush magazine while Sid Hudgins gets a good story and so they will set people up but again that has more Nuance in the book due to his past which Sid Hudgins knows about effect so moving on to the night owl so in the book like I said this book spans like 10 years whereas in the movie everything takes place within like a few months not long at all so in the movie shortly after Bloody Christmas in the book it's a bit longer but anyway there is six people are found dead at the Night Owl Cafe and in the movie buds former partner dick stensland he is one of the people who was killed at the night owl whereas in the book it was this like former police offer police officer named Mel Lunsford who was like a disgraced cop who is now a security guard and he was one of the ones at the night owl so they just switched him out with dick stensland instead as a way to like trim down on the characters but in the book there was also a woman there who was a prostitute Sue Lefferts as well as a pimp named Duke and I'm just going to skip the details but basically they think it's this guy named Duke but turns out it was a guy impersonating Duke and the impersonator and Sue Lefferts who is the prostitute I don't know if I mentioned her name she and this impersonator killed Duke in order so that this new guy could impersonate Duke and get in on Duke's business deals but all of that is left out of the movie there is no like Duke and Duke impersonator but in the movie Bud white sees that Sue Lefferts is one of the women who was killed in the night owl and he had previously seen her with Pierce Patchett and Lynn Bracken and so he recognizes her from them and so he goes to see them and asking them about her since she has now been found dead whereas in the book he comes across Pierce Patchett and Lynn Bracken through you know the Duke Trail and that and eventually leads him to pierce Patchett anyway Pierce Patchett has like this uh escort service of sorts of both men and women and they look like movie stars and so Lynn Bracken is one of the women he has and she looks like Veronica Lake and so Bud why interview interviews both Pierce and Lynn in the bookend movie but he doesn't think they were involved in the Night Owl because they don't seem to know anything about that they just were connected to sue Lefferts in one way or another depending on if we're talking about the book or movie but that was it but meanwhile in both book and movie I hope this episode isn't going to be too confusing with maybe I should have separated out talking about the book and then the movie but regardless anyway in both three black men are arrested for the killings of the Night Owl but then when they are brought in it interrogates them and it turns out that they don't deny or confess to being in the Night Owl but what they do confess to is that they had kidnapped and raped a woman named Inez Soto and they say they think she's still alive and they left her with this guy and so when Bud finds out that a woman has been involved he gets in he runs over to where she is at and he and Ed save this woman and Bud kills the guy that had been with the Nez and so they're bringing Nez back and she's in the hospital and they're waiting for her to tell them like how long were they with you like did they have time to leave you and then go do the night owl or trying to figure all that out and in the book it is like a while later like I don't know if it's months later but eventually these three men escape and Ed ends up going after them and he he and some other cops kill these three men in the movie The escapement Ed kills them but it was like within the same day or something and when they escape in our killed the D.A Ellis low in the movie or sorry in the book he claims that the three men had confessed to doing the crime and so you know night at night owl cases closed those three men were unfortunately killed and didn't get a chance to be tried but Ellis Lowe claims that they already confessed to him so it's all good essentially and so they basically closed the night owl case at that point too in the movie so to talk about Ines Soto the woman who had been kidnapped by those three guys so in the movie Ed goes to get her from the hospital while she was in the hospital she told the cops that the men had left at midnight giving them plenty of time to do the Night Owl killing because that happened at like 3 A.M and so Ed feels like it's them for sure because they also had other evidence pointing to them but then when he picks the news up from the hospital shortly after she confesses like actually they were there all night long and Ed is like wait what why did you lie and it's because she wanted revenge for what they had done to her and she's like if I didn't lie and say they were involved in the Night Owl then they wouldn't have been punished because like nobody would have cared what they had done to to me so I lied in order to make sure I got my revenge on them whereas in the book Inez like won't say anything about that night and she won't give any specific details as far as the time and it's not till years later it's like five years or more later where long story short but Ed finds out Ed has a really a romantic relationship with Inez but he finds out that she has been sleeping with Bud through the years and so he confronts her about sleeping with bud and then she also uses that as an opportunity to confess like and also with the night owl case those guys were there all night long so it wasn't them you never caught the real killer so in the book he finds out years later and then they reopen the night owl case after all these years whereas in the movie like I said they like kind of officially close the night owl case but like the evidence was still being left out and it wasn't like officially closed but also with the Nez in the book so so after the night owl stuff Ed is trying to like win anez over also his mom was very sickly and had passed away and so I think Ed is wrong wrong drawn to Inez because she was a victim and because she was like you know sickly recovering and so something about that wanted him to win her over and she didn't like him because she thought he was a coward but she liked Bud because Bud shot that guy who had been keeping her hostage anyway so Ed is trying to win her over and since his father is connected to Ray dieterling and dream of Dreamland he's like I can bring you to the dream of dream grand opening and she loves dream of dreams so she's like yes and she meets Ray deterling and he takes a liking to her and he offers her a job a dream a dream and so Annette starts working for this company throughout the rest of the book and she becomes very close with Rey and Preston Exley but to talk about Jack and Florida Lee so while the night owl is happening prior to that Jack was on Vice and they were trying to track down who was making these dirty pictures they had come across and in this process Jack finds fleur-de-lis which is this company like I said Pierce Patrick owns it and they have different men and women that can be hired out Pierce Patchett also has women get plastic surgery to look like the movie stars like I said and so he hires this plastic surgeon very Lux but if you call Sid at one point asking about Florida Lee and Pierce Patchett and like do you know anything about this and Sid is acts very unusual and he has a line where he says like we all have secrets Jack even you and that's his way of threatening like I Know What You Did don't dig any deeper or I'm going to expose you and so Jack is just very paranoid being like man like Sid is threatening me clearly he's involved with Pierce and Florida Lee and so he's in this personal conundrum and eventually in the book he goes to cease it and when he finds him Sid has been brutally killed and so while he's there he's trying to find the documents that Sid has on him however someone had been there I guess and it was like emptied out and he didn't couldn't find the documents but later on he ends up getting the documents from Lynn Bracken because she'd had them along with other files I forget how Lynn got them but anyway in the end he like Burns whatever information Sid had had on him but Jack when he finds Sid's body again he like doesn't want much investigation done into Sid because he's worried they will the police will find out about his past and so he doesn't call in Sid's death under his own name he calls in pretending to be someone else and when they call him in to see Sid's body he acts like he had no idea whereas in the movie so Jack again he's on Vice and they want him to find who who made these pictures and he had found a floor delay card earlier which he did in the book as well anyway so he knows it's related to fleur-de-lis but after the night owl he gets back on badge of honor and so with badge of honor Sid is wanting to set the D.A up with this guy who works for fleur-de-lis and he wants to expose the D.A with this guy and so Sid pays him 50 bucks which is an in our day is like way more money but in this moment Jack starts to not like the life he's living and how he is setting these people up to be caught and just using it for his own gain and so as he is waiting to show up and make this thought make this arrest he leaves the money Sid gave him he doesn't take it and he goes later than he was supposed to to help pick up the guy who works for Florida Lee but when he shows up the guy from Florida Lee has been killed but going back to pierce Patchett and Lynn Bracken in the book and movie Bud questions past it and he also ends up questioning Lynn Bracken and he asks her out on a date ultimately in the movie he kind of takes a while to officially ask her out whereas in the book he asks her out after that first interrogation and they start seeing each other so in both even though it takes him a while in the movie they start dating however in the book Lynn Bracken is 29 and the following month she turns 30 and in the book Pierce Patchett makes his woman retire at age 30. so she works as a call girl for like another month and then she quits and opens up a dress shop in Los Angeles partnering with Pierce Patchett at the dress shop but there was a great scene in the movie when he when budweight finally goes up to her and like shows he's interested in her essentially she shows him her actual bedroom because in her house she has like this really elegant fancy bedroom that she uses for her clients but she shows but but her actual bedroom right like revealing her true self and I just thought that was a really beautiful scene and really touching and there's a part in both book and movie where Bud white is like you know those other guys they get Veronica Lake but I get Lynn Margaret Bratton and so showing how you know who cares about Veronica like he gets the real Len Bracken and yeah so I just thought that was really touching and overall I just really liked their relationship and kind of jumping around but Lynn ends up sleeping with Ed and in the book it made a bit more sense I guess but in the movie it kind of is like wait what like why is he kissing her suddenly but anyway in both when Bud finds out he goes to Lynn and he starts like slapping her hitting her and remember he's very against woman a woman being abused by men because his father was abusive and so In This Moment he is hitting her but then he kind of realized what he's doing and he stops even though I don't like seeing something like that I thought it was a good scene in the book and movie because he was so obsessed about not becoming like his father but when you're so obsessed about not becoming like someone like you kind of do sometimes become like them because you're so obsessed about it right even though you're obsessed with not being like them it still is so much on your mind and so the becoming what you you hate kind of a thing and so yeah I I thought that was a good scene in book and movie though it was also very sad and upsetting but getting to the details of when they reopened the night owl case like I said this is years down the road when Inez tells him that those three men actually had been with her all night long whereas like I said in the movie like the case is closed but they're leaving all the evidence out so it's not like officially closed and so Ed and Bud and Jack just keep returning to it and then eventually Ed teams up with Jack in the movie specifically it's like the two of them team up at one point but in the book and eventually like it's all three in both book and movie eventually all three of these men team up together and remember because Ed testified against Duke stensland who had been Bud's former partner in both book and movie but just has a lot of animosity towards Ed because of that and so because they eventually have to work together like it's a struggle for bud in particular to you know work along with Ed but each three of them have different pieces of the puzzle and so when they come together finally all the evidence is brought together but remember I talked about the Frankenstein case and so that had been a case Preston Exley had been part of where he had been the cop investigating that and so there were photos of the people who had been killed but Ed had seen them like the photos weren't given to the public so very few people have seen these photos but Ed was one of them because when he decided to become a cop his father showed him these photos as a way to be like you know this is what you're getting into basically and so when he sees the photos of Sid's body he realizes that the way he was killed was exactly like the way these kids were killed in the Frankenstein case so he's like wait a minute like my dad must not have caught the real killer or there's more than one killer and he only caught one of them and also in book and movie they realized that Dudley is part of this whole scheme Dudley is the cop who is like using Bud as a strong arm and so Bud realizes that some of the things Dudley is wanting him to you know beat people up for you know if noticing some odd things being like wait why is Dudley asking about this and so he's starting to piece things together so in the book with the ending so bud has had also been investigating these killings of these various women in like the vicinity some of them were like in other areas not LA but it was close enough in the vicinity that he felt like there was a connection and eventually he finds the two men who did it and he and Jack go to get them and in this process when they're getting these guys jack ends up being killed and Bud is severely injured meanwhile Ed like I said he makes this connection with the Frankenstein case and they also interrogate Billy dieterling who had been the son of Ray dieterling and basically through this interrogation or so Billy and Timmy Timmy also works for dream dream he plays moochie Mouse and Billy and Timmy are dating like they're together and so he's interrogating both of them and then eventually Billy is found dead and so this is when Ed gets more of the backstory from Timmy about Billy which they had just found out right before Billy had died he had learned the truth and so they tell Ed part of that truth and so then Ed goes to Ray dieterling and hears the whole truth about the Frankenstein killer and so a reveal is so radiator link was married and had a son named Paul while he was with Paul's mom he had an affair and had the illegitimate child who he named Douglas and Douglas's mom had like mental instabilities which were genetically transferred to Douglas as well and so Douglas is being influenced by like these weird cartoons these graphic cartoons that Rey draws that pierce Patrick comes up with because the two of them had been friends and I get into this like I said in the video I posted the other day I get into this whole plot line but anyway his son Douglas and his friend Lauren Atherton the two of them were the Frankenstein killer when Rey finds out that his son was part of it like he doesn't want his son going to jail and so he gets Lauren Atherton to be sentenced and accused and so then the Frankenstein case is closed and Ray dieterling has plastic surgery done on his son so that people won't recognize him and he gives him the new name David Mertens he hires a nurse for him Jerry Marsalis and then Jerry and David Mertens who is Doug get a job on badge of honor along where Billy diederling his other son he also works for badge of honor but then sometime later a woman comes forward to Preston actually being like hey I saw Paula dieterling with Lauren Atherton with one of the children they killed and so Preston Exley confronts Rey deterling and he's like hey like your son was involved and Preston actually does not like his son Paul and so he knows the woman had seen Doug with Lauren Atherton not Paul because Doug before his plastic surgery looked a lot like Paul but since Rey doesn't like Paul he lies and he says yes that was him he was involved and so Preston Exley is like I can't let him go free so if you just take care of this yourself then you don't need to go through the public humiliation of having your son you know be involved with this case and so Ray dieterling kills his son but says it was an avalanche that killed him and so that you know appeases Preston actually but so Ed confronts his father about this and he's like you need to pay the price for what you did but I'll give you a few days to get your Affairs in order and he like tells Ray duderling the same thing but then a few days later Ray deterling Preston Exley and Annette Soto because she had been close with them are all found dead at dream of Dreamland and it appears they have committed suicide side there is also this whole Side Story with art to Spain who is Preston exley's partner like they had been cop partners and now they're investing partners because he was also involved the murder of these other guys who were connected to the dirty pictures which I didn't even get into that with the book but Jerry Marsalis who is the nurse for uh David Mertens Doug dieterling he had done the dirty pictures but like yeah it's just like so much to get into so uh I'm just not going to get into that here because this video is long enough so you can just watch the previous video if you want to know more about all of that drama anyway so the book ends with the death of Ray dieterling Preston X leoness Soto and then Bud white is severely injured also like I said but he and Lynn Bracken end up getting together and moving to Arizona where she is from and living happily ever after essentially Pierce Pasha ends up being killed and Dudley white is the one who Dudley Smith is the one who has Pierce Patrick killed and they find out that Dudley Smith is the one who ordered the killings at the night owl because that guy Duke he had wanted him dead because Dudley wants in on this new drug scene scene that had Mickey Mickey Cohen had been part of but then Mickey Cohen is this Crime Boss who was in prison so dully's trying to take over this crime scene crime business and so he wanted Duke killed and that is why that all happened um but he's not able to officially get Dudley because as they're you know going across this trail of information no one will confess to Dudley's involvement and so they aren't able to actually pin anything on him but they know he's involved so at the end of the book Ed Exley is still in the police force and he is like you know rising in the ranks and he promises Bud white who obviously is no longer a cop because of his injuries so he promises him like I'm gonna get Dudley and that's basically how the book ends and like I said Jack ends up dying and so I guess maybe in the fourth book we see them officially nailed Dudley hopefully but I haven't read that one so I don't know for sure whereas in the movie so they're piecing things together and then Jack talks to Dudley and he's like telling him why he's found out and Dudley is like have you told anyone else this and Jack is like no I haven't had the chance I came to you first and so then Dudley shoots him and that is when we realize that Dudley is the bad cop who is involved in all of this drama with the dirty pictures with the drugs and everything and Jack's final words are Rolo tomasi and earlier in the movie Ed and Jack had been talking and Ed is like you know I joined the police because I wanted to make a difference in the world because my father was killed by a man and he named The Man Rolo tomasi because he doesn't know the guy's actual name but he's like I named him Rolo tomasi and the reason I came a cop became a cop was so that Justice would be served and people like this Rolo tomasi wouldn't get away with things anymore but he admits that like somewhere on along the way he lost track of his moral code so to speak and so he wants to find that moral Center again and get back to doing what's right and he asked Jack why he became a cop and Jack is like you know I don't even know anymore and so they both have this moment kind of trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be and so Jack's final words are Rolo tomasi this word this name that Ed had given to his father's killer and so after Dudley announces the death of Jack you know obviously not admitting that he was involved he later goes up to Ed and he's like hey did Jack ever mention someone named Rolo tomasi and Ed like realizes like wait a minute like how would you know about that um like so it Clues him in that Dudley is Shady in one way or another and I love that moment that was so good but yeah Dudley tries to get budwhite to kill Ed because Ed slept with Lynn Bracken and they show budweight the evidence like Sid Hudgins was involved and Sid Hudgins had been partners with Dudley but after Sid Hudgens tell tells Bud that Ed had been sleeping with Lynn Dudley then kills Sid Hudgins which was different from the book obviously so many differences but anyway so he is hoping Bud will kill Ed but then Ed stops them and he's like hey Dudley is behind all of this He is wanting you to kill me so we need to go against what he wants and we need to partner together we need to work together to bring him down and so they end up partnering and working together and then there is a setup where they are both sent to the Victory Motel which in the book Ed goes to the Victory Motel oh but now I can't remember why anyway in the movie they both show up there and Dudley had them sent there as a way to Ambush them and kill them however there is a shootout and a lot of people are shot but Ed and Dudley are left standing and Dudley thinks that he's got Ed you know as a dirty cop now and so as Dudley's walking away it ends up shooting him which earlier in the movie Dudley had been asking him like if he's capable of doing things that a dirty cop needs to do and Ed is like no I wouldn't do any of those things but then in the end of the movie he does he shoots Dudley in the back showing that he is capable of making tough choices and making uh not 100 legal choices basically so yeah in the end of the movie Ed is brought in and they're like uh can you explain yourself and so he tells them the whole thing about how Dudley was involved and he ordered the night owl killings because Duke stensland who was the cop who was killed had this heroine that he wanted from Mickey Cohen who is the crime boss and so he had the night owl killings happen so he could get back at dick stensland and then Florida Lee like how did the dirty pictures even go into the movie this is just so much to take in and so much to try to sort through but anyway basically Dudley was behind it all and that is why he killed him but the police are like you know we can't give that story to the public and so they want to make Dudley out to be a hero who had died and Ed uses this opportunity to be like well you're gonna make me out to be your hero too and he's gonna use the system to get a promotion you know achieve his desires to get things done and so in the movie and book we see him using like the ways the police force lies he kind of uses it and manipulates it to serve him as well but yeah at the end of the movie we see him walking away with Lynn Bracken and we don't see Bud like he got shot at the shootout at the Victory Motel and so I was like oh my gosh and the movie Bud dies and Ed gets with Lynn like that's going to be the end right now and I was pretty upset because I wanted Lin to be with Bud however it is revealed that bud is alive but he is injured and Lynn and higgy are going to Arizona like they had in the book and there's a line where Lynn says how uh because also in the book because Ed's father died he inherited in millions and so in the book she's like you know some guys get the world and millions of dollars other guys get a former prostitute in a trip to Arizona in the movie she says something similar but she leaves out the millions because obviously the story with his dad is different in the movie but yeah and then a big difference obviously being that he gets Dudley in the end of the movie whereas in the book Dudley still has not been accused of anything uh but yeah so that's it for the plot I know that took up so much of this video and I know it was confusing so I apologize but this book and movie both have a lot going on and there's enough differences that it's just confusing to try to talk about both at the same time but anyway that's the basic premise of both of them and so just my general thoughts for one the movie it does it gives us Exposition through the narration of Sid Hudgins reading his hush-hush magazine and I thought that was a great way to fill us in on what was going on without using like an actual narrator and the book does this too where it will have chapters where it's just articles and newspaper clippings informing us on what has been happening so I like those in both book and movie I thought that was well done and I thought that performances in the movie were fantastic James Cromwell played Dudley and he had just been in babe I think it was where he played like a very likable person so there was like extra shock for the audiences at this time because they had just seen him in this other movie and then suddenly he's here as the bad guy and so people were very shocked at that reveal uh but yeah I love the acting by everybody and we get Great Character arcs in both book and movie you know we have Ed who was cowardly in both book and movie but especially the book and just like not had no loyalty to his fellow cops which again they were beating up those Hispanic prisoners and they were in the wrong but by the end of the book he learns loyalty and to trust his fellow cops and he pairs up with bud and Jack and he learns to get focused on what he believes in again whereas in the book like he had been intimidated by his father but by the end of the book he confronts his dad and he's like hey I'm not gonna let you get away with this even though people like art to Spain are like please don't do this to your father like you can't do this to him but Ed is like no like I'm gonna stand up to him and I'm gonna do this and then we have Jack who also had a good character Arc where in the book he ends up like inadvertently confessing about killing those two people to Ed and his wife because in the book he is married and like I said this had just been weighing on him he also starts drinking again part way through the book which I forgot to mention so he relapses and becomes an alcoholic again but anyway by the end of the book his wife is like hey like I know about everything you confessed when you were delirious but I still love you and you know he's at a good place where he's at peace with himself and then he ends up dying and same with the movie where like he has that realization where he doesn't like what he's become and he wants to change his ways and so he is changing for the better when he ends up dying and then we have Bud who is thought like I said to be dumb and he's just the muscle and no one expects much from him but then in both book and movie he shows them like that he had been collecting all of this evidence and he had been investigating and it isn't as dumb as people think and in the book dick stensland ends up dying a different way because Dick Stenson wasn't involved in the night owl in the book but he leaves six thousand dollars to Bud and Bud uses that to go to school to further his education so that was a cool part of his story as well but yeah even though the movie leaves out the backstory with Jack killing those two people and he doesn't have his wife both book and movie we just really do see the self-loathing that he feels and just the inner struggle that he goes through in both book and movie and speaking of Ed and Jack I did like the part this is specific to the movie where they go in our questioning Johnny stampinato who is a real person in real life and in real life he had been dating Lana Turner and so they see him with Lana Turner and they think that she's one of Pierce patchett's girls who is made to look like Lana Turner and so Ed says something like you know a hooker made to look like Lana Turner is still just a hooker but then Jack reveals like that's the real Lana Turner and so it's just this funny moment where Ed is embarrassed and yeah anyway I got a kick out of that and seeing the two of them partner together and grow closer together also like there's the part where in the beginning Sid and Jack set this couple up to be arrested so that Jack can get in the papers and Sid gets a good good story and they're like hey like should we get the movie theater in the background for like a really good photograph with like you know Hollywood but there there's also another part where they're at the Night Owl Cafe and it's Dudley and um Ed and the cops show up or the Press shows up and they're like can we get a picture and Ed and Dudley like pose for this photo which it's just funny like they're in the middle of a murder case and then photo photographers show up and they like do a cool pose so it's just very fitting since this is Hollywood right but also I wanted to do a shout out to Bullet Train the book because then bullet train the characters lemon and tangerine are talking about like if one of us is killed before you officially die say a key word to your killer that way when the killer says something about this key word it clues in the one who's still alive to that being the Killer and that's what happens in this with Rolo tomasi so because Jack says Rolo tomasi to his killer and then the killer says it to Ed and it's clued in to be like wait a minute something's up with Dudley they did what lemon and tangerine said you should do when you're killed so I know this has been a long video but I did want to talk about women in this book because this book is obviously centered around men despite a woman being The prominent person on the covers of both bookend movie be but in the book we have two both Lynn and Annes who play key roles we have Karen Jack's wife but she isn't like a key character in the book but in Nance was a great character and she was one of my favorites and I just really felt for her and I found her to be really interesting and well-rounded and I also thought it was cool that even though this was based in the 1950s he has a prominent woman of color be one of the main characters and he does show the racism meaning Elroy shows the racism of the time because in a letter we see um like art to Spain writing or someone is talking about how Ed and Inez have this relationship which is fine because they know Ed won't marry Inez because that would be career suicide since she is Hispanic which I don't know if I mentioned that but she's Hispanic so they're saying like oh he could never marry her though because that would be horrible for his career and just showing the racism and there were a lot of racial slurs in this book which I get these are white cops in the 1950s so it makes sense that they're using racial slurs but it still was a lot so just be aware of that if you read this book but anyway even though I liked Inez and I liked Lynn I did think Lin would be more more of like a femme fatale and have some ulterior motive or something more going on but she didn't she was just there wasn't anything more to her like she wasn't involved in the case in some deeper level necessarily but what I didn't love though is that both main characters both women characters like sex is a key part of who they are because Inez is introduced in the story when she is raped by The Men Who were thought to be involved in the night owl and then she ends up sleeping with both Ed and Bud and then Lynn sleeps with both bud and Ed as well and obviously sex is part of her character since she's a prostitute and so it would have just been nice to have a character a female character where sex wasn't a key part of who they were right because it is just adding to the sexualization of women I guess but even so I did like both of those characters and I did find them both very compelling I was sad that the movie cutting as is rolled down so much she isn't hardly any of the movie and Lynn is the focus is the only female character in the movie so I wish they would have kept denez but again they were trying to trim down characters in general because there's just way too many characters in the book to fit into this movie but onto book versus movie so first of all so much of the dialogue in this movie is taken straight from the book so I love that because it shows the strength of the book's writing and the strength of the dialogue and that it fit and it just feels effortless in the movie where there's books where the dialogue is like no one talks like this and so if the movie tries to take that dialogue it just doesn't fit and it does not sound natural whereas that is not the case here I thought the dialogue was very natural and so the book is Well written in that aspect and it also shows that the script writers you know they didn't need to fix what wasn't broken like they saw what was good and they just kept it the same and even though I have a lot of complaints with this book as I talked about in my book review portion it is one that was very intriguing and even though it was hard to follow I never got bored with it and it is Well written you know although I have my complaints with the writing style too so as far as it being well it's written in a unique way I guess there is that to say about it um but then again the movie is a great adaptation and it shows how you can adapt something that is going considered unadaptable as after I finished the book I was so excited to watch the movie because I just assumed I would like the movie better and as I was watching the movie I was like yeah I think the movie wins here but then when all is said and done as I think about it I'm tempted to say the book wins actually which is I'm surprised to say that because the movie is fantastic great performances they stay true to the book it's just really well done and I like the twists in the movie but the book there's just so much depth in the book and there's just so much going on in the book which is a pro and a con but it's really close I don't like doing Thai so I don't want to say they both win so I will say the book wins uh we also have a Nez like I said and I loved her character in the book I found her really interesting and I really felt for her and I liked her journey although I didn't love that she commit suicide in the end I wish she would have kept living so I didn't love that part but then you could also debate whether or not they committed suicide or maybe they were killed and it was made to look like a suicide so then that kind of adds to the mystery if you think of it that way but uh but yeah I'm gonna being kind of out of breath now been talking for a long time but I'm gonna say the book wins despite my complaints about it which I did have some big complaints with it but so it's with a reservation that I say the book wins so thank you so much for watching this video don't forget to like And subscribe I know this was a confusing one and I myself am like getting a headache just trying to keep both book and movie in order so I already know this video probably came out confusing so if you've seen the movie or read the book you probably were able to follow along but if you had had not read or watched either this video just probably made you really confused so I apologize but anyway don't forget to like And subscribe like I just said I also created a patreon so if you want access do bonus exclusive content and if you want to support my channel you can click the link down below and become a patron for as little as three dollars a month it would mean so much to me uh Randall Griffith is a patreon he signed up recently and he also commented saying he was really excited about my LA Confidential video so thank you so much for becoming a patreon and I hope you enjoyed my LA Confidential confidential coverage anyway so don't forget to leave my podcast a rating and review as well if you so choose but uh yeah thank you and I will see you next time bye

Channel: Why the Book Wins *book vs movie*

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Id: OI1MMOhpdn4

Length: 47min 9sec (2829 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 15 2023