Oliver Stone is a moron. He changed almost the entire story! Do yourself a favor and read the Matt Scudder novels by Lawrence Block. You'll be much more entertained than if you watch this piece of garbage. The only reason it was watchable was because of Jeff Bridges and Andy Garcia, and Garcia's character was made up for the movie.
shareI used to blame Stone for it, until I read a quite-revealing article where Stone wrote a very faithful screenplay and was set to direct it. But the studio didn't want him to direct, nor did they like the nuances in the screenplay, so the screenplay got rewritten and rewritten until there was little left of Block's characters and story. I mean, hell, Angel wasn't even a character in the novel!
shareI found a copy of Stone's draft and read it. Stone did introduce the characters of Angel and Sarah in his initial draft. He does keep that Scudder accidentally killed a little girl which is why in one scene, Scudder is unable to shoot Angel when he gets his chance, because he fears hitting a child. It is set in NY. His draft is not as good as the novel. However, his script is closer in spirit and tone to the novel than the movie is.
I looked at Hal Ashby's bio and from what I read, it sounds like Ashby does bear a huge blame for why the movie turned out like it did. Ashby wanted to set it in LA instead of NY. The production company hires David Lee Henry to do a rewrite of Stone's script. Neither the production company, cast or Ashby likes Henry's draft. Henry is fired and then Robert Towne is asked to rewrite it. Towne takes too much time and can't finish before shooting starts. The film is set to shoot without a finished draft that everyone can agree on. As a result, Ashby, Arquette and Bridges are writing scenes out on the day they are supposed to be shooting them. The production company is unhappy with Ashby shot and decides to do the editing themselves.
Thus, Stone is responsible for Angel and Sarah but as for shooting in LA and the confusing plot structure, that responsibility lies on Ashby and the production company.
I think the movie isn´t bad
BUT it´s got nothing to do with the book.
Not just because of the Andy Garcia Part.
In the book (and most of the other Matt-Scudder-books) Matt does not want to touch any guns anymore after he killed a little girl by accident.
In the movie he´s got his own arsenal