Made an acquisition today — L.A. Confidential — [amazon] — went to Tower Records, didn’t have any taste for music, but L.A. Confidential is an amazing movie that never fails to delight. I’m a sucker for all things Los Angeles, and that’s a big part of my pleasure at the movie. The meat of the movie is compelling characters – Bud White’s obsession with justice and defending women, Jack Vincennes’ seeming to be on top of the world, but knowing in his heart he has lost himself; and the do-gooding political animal Ed Exley. I was surprised at how much of what appears in the film has real historical antecedents. One in particular is the LAPD atrocity “Bloody Christmas” – which opens the film – and it based on a real event.