james wood be the most underrated of all the great actor . maybe it because he hasn not star in enough classic and but there something fundamentally trouble in his personality that discourage full recognition . it not because he usually play villain audience have have great affection for the hateful throughout movie history . wood be too normal to be a melodramatic villain while he a tense up and selfish and narcissistic and arrogant jerk . he have neither redeemable quality and nor conventional charisma . his look compound these drawback with it strangeness it somehow seem all wrong while his body be to wiry for his head and shoulder and his head be reptilian and bug eyed . and yet he charm by his total indifference to what we think of him . ( he also very funny ) cop be too flaw to be great it plot mechanic be too predictable while james ellroy and have start with the dare proposition that wood might be mad and and his investigation just an extension of this and be too afraid of loose end to be truly scary ( serial killer plot and ostensibly about the black modern evil and be paradoxically reassure they suggest pattern and order and and an identifiable problem and which once root will result in restoration ) while the visual style could be out of any dour 70 cop show ( except for some gorgeous kubrickian track shot ) while the music be hellish 80 synth orchestration while the climactic showdown be implausible and silly and although the film boast one of the best ending in cinema . what make this film essential be wood and and harris direction . laura mulvey once claim that hollywood cinema privilege the action of the male hero while the woman be an object to be star at and win . cop refute this by have an archetypal male hero a cop whose action shape the movement of the film and and yet who be rivet to the screen and subject to the merciless exposure of the camera . wood can not lie to u and every tic and flaw and line of thought be lay bare . even though he always seem in control and we be constantly aware that he be be star at ( even before this become a narrative element ) and that he be stick in the frame . harris and producer of the killing and dr. strangelove and lolita etc . and have learn much from kubrick in this unforgivingly formal and analytic approach ( see also melville ) . the film subvert the usual maverick cop cliche . unlike dirty harry and hopkins concern for the cause of murdered woman be undermine by his egocentric insensitivity towards the woman who practically need him in his life . there be a freudian framework use and a hopkins neurosis ( he be accuse of have a fixation on murdered woman ) be link to his past and but the final working of them out ( it take place in his old school ) be not reassure . the force itself be pervert and corrupt and both in obvious ( one sherrif be a drug dealing and rent boy pimp ) and not so obvious ( most of hopkins superior be born agains ) way . hopkins be like a kubrick hero and an instrument of a corrupt social force . there be problem the co opting and infantilising of feminism and the possible homophobia while like the searcher and the critique sometimes seem to become confused with what be be criticise . but this be brave and dangerous and clever film make that deserve to be good know .