1947project, L.A.'s original time travel blog, previews the digital 1947 of "L.A. Noire"
GAME REVIEW: Nathan Marsak of 1947project explores the recreated 1947 "L.A. Noire" city at
http://www.1947project.com/47PplaysLANoire
ABOUT: 1947project is a blog packed with stories of historic 1947 Los Angeles crimes and social history, plus visits to the scenes as they are today, now with a social media "crime-a-day" feature on Twitter and Facebook
ONLINE: There are four blogs in the 1947project series:
the original 1947blog at
http://1947project.blogspot.com
1907 and 1927 stories at
http://.1947project.com
Bunker Hill stories at
http://onbunkerhill.org
Historic Core stories at
http://insroland.org
OFFLINE: Many of these stories are told at the crime scenes on Esotouric's weekly bus adventures, visit http://www.esotouric.com for info and schedule
Since the early 1970s, each new generation of artists andwriters has become fascinated with the noirish Los Angeles of the 1940s, andfound a way to make fresh works of art inspired by the period. From Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" (1974) to James Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia" (1987) to Curtis Hanson's "L.A. Confidential" (1997) to the original time travel blog 1947project (2005-06), the glamorous, gritty, corrupt, secret-drenched post-war city is a source of perpetual inspiration.
And now the video game innovators of Team Bondi / Rockstar Games are taking the real life L.A. noir source material to a completely new place with the launch of their long-awaited video game "L.A. Noire," featuring "Mad Men"star Aaron Staton as Detective Cole Phelps. The game is released on May 17 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.With its promise of a meticulously recreated 1947 Los Angeles playing field, game narratives derived from real crimes of the time (The Black Dahlia mystery, Jeanne French's "lipstick murder," The O'Connor Electroplating explosion) and genre-busting Motion Scan technology, expectations are high for "L.A. Noire" not just for gamers, but for architectural historians and scholars of old L.A.
Last weekend, Rockstar hosted a private "L.A. Noire" press preview at Hollywood's historic Roosevelt Hotel (prominently featured in the game), which was combined with a sweepstakes prize won by Canadian gamer Marty Weishaupt. Marty won a trip to Los Angeles, tickets to the Los Angeles Festival of Film Noir at the Egyptian Theater, a seat on Esotouric's Real Black Dahlia tour, and a chance to play "L.A. Noire" a month before its official release. Rockstar also invited the 1947project time travel bloggers down to the Roosevelt Hotel playing rooms to take a spin around 1947 L.A. -- Nathan Marsak and Kim Cooper jumped at the opportunity to get inside the lost city that obsesses them.
"I see [Los Angeles] as an artichoke, where one must peel back layers to reveal its heart. But it's also an onion. Peel away its layers, find nothing inside, end up crying." Nathan Marsak
Marsak is the first social and architectural historian of 1940s Los Angeles to play and critique "L.A. Noire." In his review of his one hour spent playing (or more accurately, driving around in) "L.A. Noire," Marsak calls into question the pre-release hype that describes the game world as a "perfectly recreated 1947 Los Angeles" (Bunker Hill is all wrong, major downtown buildings are absent or shown with architectural features that never existed at the same moment in time, 1950s-era signage is seen, the notoriously polluted skies are too blue, the famously gridlocked traffic non-existent), and yet marvels at the many things that Rockstar gets right, including a long-leveled dusty hill above the Broadway tunnel and the incredible recreation of downtown's landmark (and now tube sock filled) Spring Arcade as the luxury shopping destination it once was and can be again. In this "L.A. Noire" blog post at 1947project, Marsak raises provocative questions about the nature of time, memory and history, and the role this game will play in shaping the vision of L.A.'s past for the millions of young people who will play and virtually inhabit the place.
Visit 1947project for a fascinating take on "L.A. Noire" and stay tuned for further insights as Nathan Marsak has announced plans for a series of blog entries comparing the real city with his ongoing game experience, much as he previously compared the visuals of the "Ask the Dust" film with real images of 1930s downtown and Bunker Hill.
LINK TO NATHAN MARSAK'S "L.A. NOIRE" GAME REVIEW
http://www.1947project.com/47PplaysLANoire
LINK TO NATHAN MARSAK'S "ASK THE DUST" FILM REVIEW
http://onbunkerhill.org/AsktheDust
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