The Black Dahlia Movie Reviews

The Black Dahlia Dahlia: noun, Scandinavian word means deep valley. flower of a decorative type

When you travel to mountainous regions the first thing that awes you is the Brown tops tipped with green tips. When you are on top of one of these you invariably tend to find a valley between two such tops and when you shout, what you shout comes back to you!

A bit perplexing isn’t it? Yes, well when I watched this film it gave me enough food for thought because for one it promoted intrigue. Then the promos told me it was a mind boggling murder mystery, third, most importantly, it told me it was more than the murder. It was the pangs of a relationship with the echo of a mysterious murder!

Black is basically not a colour, it means absence of any colour! That is intrigue for me.

Dahlia also is a flower that is mainly found in Mexico and Central America(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlia), which meant the involvement of a beautiful thing.

Brian De Palma needs no introduction to cinema. He is known as the master of intrigue and Suspense. His work includes block buster films like The Untouchables, Scarface, Mission Impossible, Carlito’s Way etc. Need I say more?

Here he experiments with a 1940’s period film, where the premise is that of a murder of a well known Hollywood actress Elizabeth Short, whose body has been found in some vacant area cut into two. This gruesome murder raises hell and the entire Police department is not only baffled but at its wits end to get this mystery solved.

The department has the presence of two such talents Mr. Fire, Officer Lee(Aaron Eckhart) and Mr. Ice, ‘Bucky’(Josh Hartnett). Now these two are buddy’s in arms and are so thick that they solve crimes during the day and at night they box each other in the ring. The nick names are because of their contrasting attitudes. Lee is the more aggressive, action oriented officer and Bucky is the one who does not spring to conclusions and fights only when forced to. The talented Lee also has an undying attraction to Limelight. The murder thus finds its way right into the laps of this diametrically opposite pair.

Lee has a live in girlfriend Kay, (Scarlett Johansson) who he has saved from a bad meanie who has the habit of ‘branding’(reading carving) his initials on his girls. Fate has a cruel way of showing its head. Lee, obsessed with his quick fire success, takes the case to heart and virtually flies off the handle. He bungles, he fumbles, and he bounces and makes rank bad decisions. Kay turns her attention to the more somber, quiet and equally dangerous Bucky. During this process of Lee’s transition from the bad(read Good) cop to worst(read finished), the investigation of the murder leads to darker alleys, shady clubs and even lesb*an hangouts, from where Madeline(Hillary Swank) staggers into being a potential lead for Bucky to follow up. Thus begins the see saw of emotions. Rages and exasperation of a friend who is lost it along with his girl who also seeks solace with Bucky and top it all with Madeline who is not only a seductress but also has the moves which can wake the libido of a dead man! Add to that, she being the daughter of the wealthiest man in LA, what begins as a murder mystery turns out to be a trauma for Bucky who experiences the huge turmoil of his own emotions, mixed with lust and the stress building around his personal life.

Brian De Palma, in his signature style lends enough drama and introduces enough places during the mystery which plausibly explain the reason for the person being at a particular place at that particular time. The sleaze of the clubs, the streets and the costumes all bring to life an era of the 40’s intrigue. He also has a plausible reason to call the case The Black Dahlia, because Elizabeth is known to wear black at all times.

In fact, this I came to know much later, the story has been modified and condensed from a book by James Ellroy called The Black Dahlia which is very adroitly nick named as a Crime Noir novel.

Now to address the core issue. Story has certain gaps but that is expected because what the book can explain, the film cant but establishes it through screenplay and dialogues. This is where the actors also fall short at times. There are some red herrings thrown our way, but then you are left wanting as to the result at the end. Josh Hartnett are Aaron Eckhart are absolutely fabulous. Aaron has the reckless streak and the basking in the limelight attitude figured right to the ‘T’. Josh has the soft good looks that women fall for and call ‘cute’. Here as the quietly dangerous Bucky he will certainly put a flutter in their hearts. Scarlett Johansson is adequate in looking distraught and tarty. Hillary Swank is a little wanting here. As a bisexual she doesn’t carry the sex appeal nor the attitude of being a high society girl who swings both ways!

But all in all, it’s a must watch for all those who thrive on relationship drama underlined with a pulse racing whodunit. Brian De Palma has certainly a treat in store for you!

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Dir: Brian De Palma.

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner, Fiona Shaw.

A detective investiating the murder of a would-be starlet in 1940s Hollywood becomes obsessed with the case in this old school noir from Brian De Palma. The director captures all macabre details of the real-life slaying that sparked this fictional tale. He finally does the adaptation that David Fight Club Fincher wouldn't touch.

Compared with 1997's LA Confidential (also based on a James Ellroy novel), however, it lacks momentum and final resounding impact. But if you go to the movies for the design, don't let me block your path. De Palma has brought together some of the finest visual talents in Hollywood and made a splendid looking movie.

Veteran cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond reminds of the talent he was on Deliverence, The Deer Hunter and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Costume designer Jenny Beaven - whose elegant period pieces include A Room With A View, The Remains Of The Day and Gosford Park - beautifully recreates the glamour of the 1947 movies.

But the story - organised loosely around the gruesome, real-life death in Los Angeles of an aspiring actress - never begins to work. Partly, this is a failure of screen writer Josh Friedman to organise his material, or create memorable characters. But essentially it's down to a boring leading man and lady.

Josh Hartnett is lumpish, inexpressive and dead behind the eyes as the kind of tough-guy cop who might have once been played, far better, by Robert Mitchum. The grievously over-rated Scarlett Johansson is lightweight and mannered as a young woman literally scarred by Hollywood. Rita Hayworth, she ain't.

Both are outclassed by the relatively unknown Mia Kirshner, who was the best thing in Atom Egoyan's Exotica, and is so touching and luminous in flashbacks of the murder victim that I kept wishing the film could have been more about her. Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart try hard with under-written subsidiary roles, and Fiona Shaw tries far too hard with a remarkably barmy turn as a society hostess with a guilty secret.

This is acting of such wildly over-the-top atrociousness that it makes Julie Walters' excesses in Driving Lessons look like self-restraint.

De Palma has frequently taken violence to voyeuristic excess, and he does so again here. The British Board of Film Classification has awarded it a 15 certificate, when the mouth-slitting scene alone would merit an 18. An even bigger problem is that De Palma connects not with real life, but with old movies.

The film only works in fits and starts, while the overblown climax is too Rocky Horror to ring true. Yet the heady redolence of a bygone era still proves seductive.

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We went to see The Black Dahlia a few days ago.

It was Directed by Brian De Palma and the screen play was written by Josh Ellroy from a book that was written by James Ellroy.

The score was written by Mark Isham and was recorded in London, England.

It happened in 1947 and was filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria and the Los Angles area.

Rate R and it takes about 1 ½ hours to watch it.

The Main Cast:

Mia Kirsher is the Black Dahlia whose name is Elizabeth Short.

Josh Hartnett plays Officer Dwight, (Bucky), Bleichert.

Aaron Eckhart is Sgt. Leland, (Lee) Sgt.Blanchard.

Scarlett Johannson plays Kay Lake.

Hilary Swank plays Madeleine Linscott who is a rich lady who wants to be bad.

Fiona Shaw plays Ramona Linscott, (Madeleine's mother).

John Kavanagh plays Emmet Linscott, (Madeleine's father).

I Thought I Came To See:

A movie about the unsolved murder of the Elizabeth Short, (the Black Dahlia), who was murdered in 1947. She was found dead in a field with here mouth slit open and all of her intestines removed.

Well I saw a bit of that but I don't think that the film was about her.

The Plot:

The movie focus' on Officer Bucky Bleichert and his friendship with his partner Sgt. Lee Blanchard, (both are boxers as well as policemen), and his girlfriend Kay Lake.

Madeleine Linscott says she is fascinated by Elizabeth Short because she looks like her. She has been following her around from casting calls, to homosexual clubs and to a movie set.

Madeleine lures Bucky into her web. She even invites him to have dinner with her weird family. Her father was born in Scotland, (his father was a doctor), her mother was a very thin socialite who is a snob and her sister draws porn photographs.

Everyone but Bucky is protecting their secret. So where was the Black Dahlia in all of this? Well she's in a few flash backs. We find out she was from L.A., (15 years old), and her father didn't like her.

The Score:

The Zoot Suit Riots, At Norton And The Coliseum, The Dahlia, The Two Of Us, Mr. Fire versus Mr. Ice, Madeline, Dwight and Kay, Hollywoodland, Red Arrow Inn, Men Who Feed On Others, Super Cops, Death At The Olympics, No Other Way, Betty Short and Nothing Stays Buried Forever.

I Thought:

Fiona Shaw was wonderful. I couldn't believe how super she played her part.

Josh Hartnett was great but he didn't smile too often. The rest of the cast seemed to over play their parts.

The music was fabulous and was the best thing after Fiona Shaw's performance.

I found the plot confusing and I began to get bored.

I end with something Officer Bucky Bleichert said, " Nothing stays buried forever."

Thanks for reading my review.

©LL2006

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