By Jamie Kennett
I can assure you it is simply a coincidence that the majority of the games I’ve chosen have been produced by Rockstar Games in one way or another. The reason I’ve chosen them is because of the bond they all share in great writing, and those of you who have played and appreciate L.A. Noire will understand why it’s my next choice.
The game received a lot of bad press amid the critical acclaim it was also subject to. A lot of people were unhappy with the lack of mystery the supposed detective thriller had about it and a lot of the same people criticised it for the occasionally lazy storytelling, but I believe that was only a problem because of the retrospectively misguided way that the people at Team Bondi went about presenting said story.
I can assure you it is simply a coincidence that the majority of the games I’ve chosen have been produced by Rockstar Games in one way or another. The reason I’ve chosen them is because of the bond they all share in great writing, and those of you who have played and appreciate L.A. Noire will understand why it’s my next choice.
The game received a lot of bad press amid the critical acclaim it was also subject to. A lot of people were unhappy with the lack of mystery the supposed detective thriller had about it and a lot of the same people criticised it for the occasionally lazy storytelling, but I believe that was only a problem because of the retrospectively misguided way that the people at Team Bondi went about presenting said story.
The plot itself is a classic piece of noir writing; a young, arrogant, and ultimately flawed veteran returns to Los Angeles after the Second World War and pursues a career in the LAPD. He quickly rises through the ranks and gradually ascends his ivory tower before meddling in affairs that aren’t his own and crashing back down to earth again, tarnishing his reputation and ruining a large portion of his life.
Former US Marine Lieutenant Cole Phelps is that man, and in 1946 he enters into the Wilshire Division of the LAPD after finishing his stint in the Corps during the Okinawa Campaign. He spends a year on the beat and, at the start of 1947, is promoted to the rank of detective on Central Division’s Traffic Desk. From then on he becomes famous to the people and the press as the LAPD’s “golden boy”. He finds himself at the Homicide desk in the summer of ’47, helping track down the man behind the infamous Black Dahlia murder (a case which, in real life, has remained unsolved since it happened in January of that year). After that however, his career and reputation go up in a ball of flames after he is caught having an affair with a troubled German jazz singer. He is suspended from the force and becomes nothing but the story everyone reads in the papers. He ultimately ends up on the dead-end arson desk for the rest of his short career.
Former US Marine Lieutenant Cole Phelps is that man, and in 1946 he enters into the Wilshire Division of the LAPD after finishing his stint in the Corps during the Okinawa Campaign. He spends a year on the beat and, at the start of 1947, is promoted to the rank of detective on Central Division’s Traffic Desk. From then on he becomes famous to the people and the press as the LAPD’s “golden boy”. He finds himself at the Homicide desk in the summer of ’47, helping track down the man behind the infamous Black Dahlia murder (a case which, in real life, has remained unsolved since it happened in January of that year). After that however, his career and reputation go up in a ball of flames after he is caught having an affair with a troubled German jazz singer. He is suspended from the force and becomes nothing but the story everyone reads in the papers. He ultimately ends up on the dead-end arson desk for the rest of his short career.
As with the re-growth in the popularity of Westerns, there seems to be a very subtle resurgence in films of Noire’s period. Public Enemies and Lawless were well received Depression-era action movies, but more specifically in January of this year Gangster Squad was released, a film which appeared to be partly inspired by L.A. Noire itself. Set in the late 1940s, it revolves around a team of detectives attempting to take down underworld boss and “King of the Sunset Strip” Mickey Cohen, a man who Phelps himself has several run-ins with in the latter half of his story.
Whilst the gameplay is structured in a non-linear fashion, and the chapter-based story itself sprawls the entire of 1947 and Cole’s police career, it can easily be adapted into something fit for the cinema. There would naturally have to be some very noticeable editing in parts, as the whole of L.A. Noire would not squeeze into a two-hour timeframe. If I were in charge of said task, I would propose turning Phelps’ story into a three-act play of sorts; his time as a homicide detective would be the first act, his work in vice as the second and his concluding time in arson as the third. All the while, gradual flashbacks of his time in the military and his rise to the top of the LAPD would be interspersed into the action, to give us all an idea of his background and how he came to be where he is. As in the game, by the time the film would reach its finale, we’re well aware of Cole’s true nature, and we realise what a flawed character he really is.
Whilst the gameplay is structured in a non-linear fashion, and the chapter-based story itself sprawls the entire of 1947 and Cole’s police career, it can easily be adapted into something fit for the cinema. There would naturally have to be some very noticeable editing in parts, as the whole of L.A. Noire would not squeeze into a two-hour timeframe. If I were in charge of said task, I would propose turning Phelps’ story into a three-act play of sorts; his time as a homicide detective would be the first act, his work in vice as the second and his concluding time in arson as the third. All the while, gradual flashbacks of his time in the military and his rise to the top of the LAPD would be interspersed into the action, to give us all an idea of his background and how he came to be where he is. As in the game, by the time the film would reach its finale, we’re well aware of Cole’s true nature, and we realise what a flawed character he really is.
If the film were to be as successful as it could be, we’d need to see more of Cole Phelps as the man and not the cop. This was another piece of criticism the developers were subject to. Cole has a wife and two daughters, but we see the former twice in the whole game and the latter only one. As small an issue it is in the grand scheme of things, allowing some screen time for Phelps as the off-duty detective would allow for some great character development, as well as a window into what the man is like when he isn’t looking at beer bottles and corpses.
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