Anybody get Encore?

I just finished watching one of their films and it reminded me so of Dick Stodghill and Lane Rogers, so I just had to post about it.

Who doesn't love a good mystery? This one was written by James Ellroy, set in the early 1950's Los Angeles. All the way through watching it, I thought of our missing buddies.

When director Curtis Hansen decided to make the Ellroy novel into a film, he decided it would be best to cast unknown actors in the pivotal roles, so that the audience wouldn't bring any preconceived notions into the theater with them.

He was totally unaware, though, in the beginning, that his two unknown actors were both from "The Land Down Under." Guy Pearce, who plays the LAPD cop, Edmund Exley, had gone into his audition using a West coast American accent, and did it so well that nobody knew his country of origin. The other Aussie, the actor playing Officer Bud White, had no such anonymity, since he had already won several AFI awards (AFI being the equivalent of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards, the Oscar.). It would still be several years before this unknown was noted three years in a row at the Oscar awards, winning the Best Actor award in 2001 for his role in the film, Gladiator. In 1997, hardly any American film goer had ever heard of Russell Crowe. And now, my personal fave RC line is not, "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridus... or England is our home, and though we be on the far side of the world, this ship is England, but, simply, "It's Bud." Watch and learn why.

This film was billed as a crime drama, but it is really a love story, the story of how love saved two of the major characters, Bud White and Lynn Brackin (played by Kim Basinger, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role - the Screen Actors Guild, or SAG award for best cast went to this film as well.) Once again, even in a realistic crime drama, love wins out in the end. Pardon the spoiler and see this movie - on encore this month.

Lane and Dick, we miss you.

Just me

Ann

Sounds great , Ann. Thanks for the tip off.

Are you keeping the title a mystery, Ann? Or is it only confidential in LA?

Here's a little more Crowe for you:

How could I forget to name the film? Yes, Shelagh. It was L. A. Confidential.

Love the clip. That last bit makes me think of a more recent film, State of Play, where he gets to put the bloody idiots in their place by showing them a mirror.

Ann

I meant to add:

I once told my son, David, that I would get married again as soon as I could find an intellectual cowboy. David said it couldn't happen. It was a contradiction in terms. I guess an intellectual bloke is about the same thing. They do exist, apparently. It's too bad he's a happily married father who is young enough to be my son. I guess I will have to keep looking.

Ann

I never would have guessed that you had a crush on the Aussie.

Shelagh wrote:

I never would have guessed that you had a crush on the Aussie.

Moi?? I just like his characters. They inspire me. When I watch one of his films I am working .

Ann