As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen -- one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy -- investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
James Ellroy describes the character of Bud White as the biggest cop on the Los Angeles force. Noting that he wasn't even six foot, Russell Crowe decided to move into an apartment so small, that he had to duck to get into the doorways, and could barely stand up. Crowe said this worked in making him feel like a "giant" by the time he came to the set to shoot.
Sid Hudgens:
Come to Los Angeles! The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see. There are jobs aplenty, and land is cheap. Every working man can have his own house, and inside every house, a ...
When Bud White confronts Ed Exley in the hospital just outside the morgue, a modern lit "EXIT" sign above the door can be clearly seen in the background.
Characters from the movie were incorporated into period stock footage shown during the credits
In the Hong Kong television version, during the scene where Bud breaks into the interrogation room, the part where he removes all the bullets from the gun but one is removed for some reason. So it cuts straight from his coming into the room and then sticking the gun into the rapist's mouth without giving it a Russian roulette feel.
English
$5,211,198 (USA) (21 September 1997)
$64,616,940 (USA)