James Ellroy is one of the most important American fiction writers. Born on March 4th 1948 in – of course – Los Angeles, California, he has written countless crime novels, some of which have turned into movies.

Probably Ellroy’s most famous work is the L.A.-Tetralogy, which includes amongst three other books the 1990 published novel L.A. Confidential. It is, like almost every Ellroy story, a neo noir, set in L.A. between 1950 and 1958 and mixes facts about crimes that actually happened back then with made-up, fictional stories. In 1997 the book was adapted for a 1997 highly acclaimed film of the same name by director Curtis Hanson, which was nominated for several Academy Awards. In fact the film received only two, one for Kim Basinger for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and one for the writers duo Curtis Hanson and Brian Hegeland for Best Screenplay – Adapted.

 

 

In RAMPART’s case, a new movie by Oren Overman with the legendary Woody Harrelson in the leading role, the film is not based on a James Ellroy novel, but on script written by the author Ellroy together with director Overman specially for the movie:

Set in 1999 Los Angles, RAMPART is about a dirty cop rushing into a train wreck with reality. The cynical and enraged 24-year LAPD veteran is locked in a whirlwind of events that rip him to his inevitable destination. If this sounds familiar, too familiar, no problem; Woody Harrelson takes us way beyond the familiar cop-gone-nuts with an extraordinary performance, one with an incredible range, from emotional nuances to brutal night-stick assault – from the goon to the sensitive to the raging to the caring.

Sergeant Brown might be a gun-toting moron, but this moron has real brains; although a redneck with the interesting nickname of “Date rape” – the history on this, however, is quite different than initially thought – he’s respectful, even loving toward women, although this isn’t the whole story; sure, he comes off as a racist, but he’s not. As Sergeant Brown says, “I hate everyone.”

(Stewart Nussbaumer)

 

 

 

If this has awaken your interest, we want to point out two other masterpieces by James Ellroy. On the one hand the Underworld USA Trilogy, in which the author rewrote the history of the United States from the end of the 50ies to the early 70ies. And on the other hand his only sort-of-autobiographical work, My Dark Places. The book is based on Ellroys’s memories of his mother’s murder, but again it’s very hard to draw a clear line between fiction and fact. But isn’t that the stuff the best stories are made of?