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The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition) |  | Director: Brian De Palma
Actors: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, John Kavanagh
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.99
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Seller: GFMEDIA
Rating:  227 reviews
Sales Rank: 10365
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 121 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D61029180D
UPC: 025192918025
EAN: 0025192918025
ASIN: B000K2UVZM
Theatrical Release Date: September 15, 2006
Release Date: December 26, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
The 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
Product Description
Two police officers find their lives changed when asked to investigate the gruesome murder of a struggling actress.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVD
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 227
 Big Disappointment January 11, 2010
Fred Nietzsche (San Francisco)
I was really looking forward to this movie. I love movies about LA crime in the 30's and 40's. I liked Elroy's book quite a bit. Love Brian DePalma and thought Scarlet Johanson was the sexiest thing in any movie ever in Ghost World and Lost in Translation. So I think part of what happened here is that I had such high expectations the film could never stand up. But also, I think DePalma made a major mistake in trying to be too faithful to the original book. All of Elroy's books are hard to follow and have overlapping plots with lots of characters but Dahlia is one of the most complex. It still works as a book but its too convoluted for a film. The adaptation of L.A. Confidential worked so well because they weren't completely faithful to the book. The still stayed faithful to all the main parts of the plot but they simplified it enough so that it worked as a movie. Depalma should have done that as well. I also thought that all the actors here were just out of their depth. Perhaps they were too young or picked for looks rather than acting skills. I felt like I was watching a bad high school play with kids all dressed up in their parents clothes that they just don't know how to wear. The movie does look great though, wonderful recreation of LA but not what I was hoping for, no LA Confidential or Chinatown, not even close.
 A "niche" movie for Ellroy fans, no one else December 6, 2009
Norbert (Oregon)
If you're interested in this movie because of its title's reference to the actual historical "Black Dahlia" murder case, or you're looking for an entertaining stand-alone thriller, stay away from this movie. You'll just end up writing another one of those over one hundred one-star reviews.
However, if you have read and liked James Ellroy's book, preferably recently, you should definitely give this movie a shot. I liked it a lot. You won't have any trouble following the story or handling the somewhat choppy editing, and can just enjoy the way Brian de Palma has quite successfully re-created the atmosphere of Ellroy's book. The recreation of 1940s Los Angeles is very convincing, even though the movie was shot mostly in Bulgaria. Usually, when I watch a movie after I've read the book, it rarely looks the way I had envisioned it while reading; that was not the case with this movie, which in many ways looked exactly the way I had imagined it. The necessity of reducing the book to about two hours has resulted in just enough changes to the storyline to give its suspense even though you know the overall story.
 Yes I know it isn't very much like the book .. October 12, 2009
Dick Pearson (Newark, UK)
.. but it is, nevertheless, a well though out and scripted film which conveys much of the feel of the book and the seediness that was apparently (I wasn't there so I can't really know) a feature of LA in the 50s.
 Worst Ever...Seriously.... September 2, 2009
AP
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Worst movie I've ever seen. Seriously. I actually got dumber during this film.
Classic DePalma : Stylish but silly May 17, 2009
Richard Ross
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If Brian DePalma would have focused solely on the murder and police investigation of the Black Dahlia this film would have been a near masterpiece. It certainly looks amazing thanks to production design by Dante Ferretti and photography by the Oscar nominated Vilmos Zsigmond. Everything else about it sucks. Set in the mid to late 40's the film resembles so many films from that era. Which is to say it's melodramatic and absurdly over the top in spots. Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) are two homicide detectives assigned to the murder case of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) a.k.a. The Black Dahlia so named because of her all black wardrobe and promiscuous nature. Bleichert is a by the book cop whereas Blanchard is a hothead zoned out on Benzedrine. He becomes obsessed with the Dahlia causing him to alienate his girlfriend Kay Lake (Scarlet Johansson) and letting a murderer go free. The film throws so many characters and motivations at us in the first half hour that after an hour and a half it's impossible to remember them when DePalma tries to tie up all the loose ends. It's a losing game because just when you think you've got it under control there is a gaping hole in the logic. Hilary Swank is useless in the role of Madeline Linscott a rich girl who keeps insisting she looks like the Dahlia when clearly she doesn't. Her and Bleichert have a steamy affair even though Buck is involved in a love triangle between Lee and Kay. All the sex scenes are ridiculously overheated. The whole film is laughable.The only things that save it are good looking femmes like Johannson, Rose McGowan, and Rachel Miner all of whom look good in the period costumes and hairstyles. The real highlight for die hard DePalma fans is his re teaming with the Phantom himself William Finley. What does Finley play? A disfigured killer of course. This film could have been something special instead of a film that looks great but is confusing and frustrating.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 227
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