Review of Black Dahlia (2006) by Andy S — 04 Jun 2011

A great film of L.A. Confidential potential, edited to pieces.

Review circa 2007 - Ending with a terrible pun.

I have to say The Black Dahlia possesses one of the most fantastic openings I have seen in some time. A group of army men and sailors duelling in the streets with a tender and sweeping camera. Brian de Palma, you man of exuberance! Then cut to a boxing match between "Mr. Fire" and "Mr. Ice". Fantastic.

The film also has two great scenes. Both murders are chilling. The first scene is reminiscent of the scene from The Untouchables mixed with the ending of Dressed to Kill. Pure art with the knife and the shadowy figure, the garrotte and the crazy psychopath. The way slow motion should work. The murder of Elizabeth Short was delightfully morbid. Something that remains etched in ones mind, yet never crosses the line into exploitation.

The disjointed nature that The Black Dahlia has been accused of destroying any value of the adventure. True to some extent but I still found it bearable. It became a little surreal in a Lynch-like manner. Disjointed, doppelgangers and some rather eccentric characters. Even on a second viewing I was extremely confused but the convoluted plots in noir films are part of the genre. I guess the reward wasn't there to the extent it should have been. But I feel I have most parts connected. It's just the narrative style is so dissimilar to most films that would present plot points as twists.

The biggest disappointment was perhaps Josh Hartnett. I hate the guy but nearly liked him in this film. Still, he is sub-par and nowhere near the league of Guy Pearce in L.A. Confidential. And Aaron Eckhart, I just love that guy. I can't wait to see him as Two-face, a character not too dissimilar to his role in this film. The Joker even appeared at the end thanks to a Gywnplaine reference. I was left dumbstruck. And The Great Christian Bale was in the lead trailer to the film. Too much. My other complaint was that it would have been better if The Black Dahlia and Hillary Swank were played by the same character (and not Hillary Swank). Alas.

The film itself was very appealing but missed the mark of L.A. Confidential wonder. It does make me wonder what will happen with the other two of the quartet of James Ellroy's novels. I've been missing my neo-noir fix of late and De Palma is certainly one of few who could have pulled it off.

Research update: After doing some research into James Ellroy I discovered some very odd things. Apparently he viewed a rough cut of The Black Dahlia and enjoyed it a lot. However this cut he saw was an hour longer than the version eventually released. That really explains a lot. David Fincher was also going to direct the film at some point but dropped out. Fincher would do magic with the noir genre. I also feel De Palma should feel a little heat for being unable to edit his film properly so feel less sympathy for him.

Other interesting things I discovered were that White Jazz is actually in production. This is another of Ellroy's quartet. The hilarious thing is that the director of Smokin' Aces is the director. My last post! I can see this working but there are some problems. Apparently the film will be unable to use the characters that Guy Pearce and Russel Crowe played in L.A. Confidential as another studio owns these characters. That really sounds quite terrible.

The plot thickens even deeper as L.A. Confidential 2 is in the works. And Ellroy isn't even involved. Now that's something for the record.