The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition)
by Brian De Palma
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DVD details
Actor: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, John Kavanagh, Josh Hartnett, Scarlett JohanssonDirector: Brian De Palma
Brand: Universal
Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond
Composer: Mark Isham
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; German (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 122 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-12-26
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: This is a movie about the Black Dahila murder? Right?
Summary: 1 Stars
I should have come to Amazon to read the reviews before I rented this movie. This has to be one of the most horrible movies I have seen in my entire life.
First we begin with the Zoot suit riots. Why I'm not really sure..but we do. Then we have a boxing match between two young men who later become partners. Why we have this boxing match I'm not really sure. However, I was eating dinner at the time and I must have been more focused on my salad than the movie.
Anyway, Lee Blanchard and Bucky Bleichert are cops investigating pimps, I think. They are partners and there is some sexual tension because Bucky like Lee's wife (at least I think she is his wife). Finally 20 or 25 minutes into the movie we finally get into the Black Dahila murder. Our detectives stumble upon the crime scene because they happened to be in the neighborhood.
What happens next is mostly about the men's lives. We get bits and pieces of the Black Dahila's murder, but not enough to keep my interested in this movie and I nearly drifted off to sleep three times (after I finished eating). There are four different plots going on at once which makes this movie bloated.
The detectives' storyline is the main plot to this story which was aggravating to this viewer. If they wanted the Black Dahila murder to be a subplot, fine, but could it have been a little more prominent than what we got?
The book maybe better. I dont know because I haven't read it. Although books always tend to be better than movies. Still, go with the reviews on this. The majority of Amazon costumers believe this movie is bad, and they are right. Try the book before you rent this piece of garbage.
DVD Review: MY REVIEW
Summary: 3 Stars
I thought the movie took an interesting turn from the true story but would have like it more if they kept the story ending close to the true story.DVD Review: The Black Dahlia According to James Ellroy
Summary: 3 Stars
There's much to like in THE BLACK DAHLIA, the 2006 filming of author James Ellroy best-selling novel that was inspired by Los Angeles' most infamous unsolved murder case.
Director Brian DePalma has not only recreated Los Angeles of the 1940s to perfection, but he has also filled the film with several memorable sequences.
These include the discovery of Elizabeth Short's severed body at the same time that a police shoot-out is taking place on the next block, and, later, a triple murder on a three-story open staircase in an office building.
On the other hand, Ellroy's novel and Josh Friedman's screenplay adaptation are both very complex, with multiple storylines continually criss-crossing to the point where the picture is sometimes difficult to follow.
An audience can only assimilate so much exposition at one time. Thus, this is that rare movie that would have benefited from a longer running time, so that these storylines could have been better developed.
The principal plot revolves around the relationship between two Los Angeles police detectives, both former boxers who are now partnered. Josh Hartnett is the younger, more idealistic of the pair, while Aaron Eckhart has the experience, but is also plagued by demons from his past that are stirred up by The Black Dahlia case. Indeed, he becomes obsessed with Ms. Short's grisly murder.
Scarlett Johansson is Eckhart's platonic girl friend, who is attracted to Hartnett. She also has a dark secret, as does Hilary Swank, the bi-sexual, nymphomaniac spoiled daughter of a wealthy contractor who Hartnett ultimately discovers is the key to the Dahlia mystery.
There are some fine performances in THE BLACK DAHLIA. I was most impressed with Mia Kirshner as Ms. Short, Mike Starr as a police detective and, although some critics have disagreed, Ms. Swank as the femme fatale.
The DVD from Universal Studios Home Entertainment contains three excellent "Making of" documentaries, the most interesting of which has Ellroy discussing the facts of the actual The Black Dahlia case and revealing the personal tragedy (i.e. the murder of his mother when he was ten-years-old) that compelled him to write his novel.
? Michael B. Druxman
DVD Review: 2 stars out of 4
Summary: 2 Stars
The Bottom Line:
The Black Dahlia often looks good (some of its scenes are in fact spectacular) but it's so unbelievably over the top and convoluted that it has to be seen to beleived; a colossal waste of talent and money, the film is only recommended to those who enjoy watching cinematic train wrecks.
DVD Review: OK...what was this?
Summary: 2 Stars
This will be the shortest review I have ever written. This film has little to do (AT ALL) with the Black Dahlia. It is a series of disjointed scenes that are a good depiction of L.A. in the 40's-but that's it. For sensationalistic purposes, the film maker decided to throw in the Black Dahlia case, that has but a few minutes in the whole film. It was an attempt at 'Film Noir' in color. The title and promotional material are all very, very deceptive. "Josh Hartnett is hot" is about the only feeling one comes away with after seeing this long film. That equals "fail."
Description of The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition)
The black dahlia is set in 1940s l.A. Two cops bucky bleichert & his partner lee blanchard investigate the death of elizabeth short a young woman found brutally murdered. Bucky soon realizes his girlfriend had ties to the deceased & soon after that he begins uncovering corruption in the police department. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/08/2008 Starring: Josh Hartnett Aaron Eckhart Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R Director: Brian DepalmaThe Black Dahlia drips with film noir atmospherics as it unspools a lurid and complicated story taken from James Ellroy's true-crime-inspired novel of the same name. Two boxers-turned-cops--Lee "Mr. Fire" Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking) and Bucky "Mr. Ice" Bleichert (Josh Hartnett, Black Hawk Down)--are morally tested as they pursue the killer of a young would-be actress, grappling with corruption, narcissism, stag films, and family madness along the way. L.A. Confidential turned Ellroy's heated prose into a taut, compelling movie, but The Black Dahlia collapses like a soggy meringue. Director Brian De Palma (who once made such vibrant, entertaining movies as Carrie and The Untouchables) can't muster the energy to craft one of his trademark bravura action sequences and seems outright bored by the more mundane tasks of shaping performances and establishing mood. The actors flounder; Eckhart seems to be emoting for two, perhaps to compensate for Hartnett's bland lack of affect; even actresses as dependable as Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) and Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) give clumsy, unconvincing performances. The one exception is an unsettling performance by Mia Kirshner (Exotica) as the doomed actress, seen only in perverse screen tests and stag films. The story is incomprehensible (and when you can follow it, it's silly); the dialogue is atrocious; the characters make hardly any sense from scene to scene. The movie is, however, good for many moments of absurd camp, such as when Bucky enters the most lavish, palatial lesbian bar you'll ever see, featuring a Busby-Berkeley-style stairway of smooching babes and a crooning k.d. lang. --Bret Fetzer
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