L.A. Confidential
Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Nominated for Palme d'Or
It's a murder mystery where surprisingly a character has a character arc, usually in detective movies we see detectives having a flat arc. Usually investigative films run on how the investigation unfolds and for that the detectives are more clever than the audience, so they don't really have an arc most of the times. Even in films like Se7en where the character traits of the character of Brad Pitt, he being restless, is important in the ending, even there we see a flat arc, they don't change. In Sherlock or any other detective films, the case can be one hell of an experience for the protagonists but very rarely it happens that the case changes them as a person. The case can leave them physically damaged like in D-16, but it changing them as a person is very rare in films.
Guy Pearce, as Ed Exley is labelled a snitch by the entire department because of his honesty and his self righteousness. There is a reason for he being that righteous and that's planted in one dialogue, actually a phrase, when he says, 'I don't want to do it your way, or my father's'. His father would've been a bad cop and he wants to prove himself that he isn't like his father. Over the course of this case, when he sees how things unfold he too changes by the end and it's a corruption arc and it's for bad, that's the theme of the film that you can't sustain in this world with absolute honesty and this theme has been explored well in this film. The murder mystery part of this film, could've been better. I wasn't that blown by it, but since we see a dramatic character arc in the film as well that is forgivable.
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