| The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition) | 
 enlarge | List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $0.84
You Save: $14.14 (94%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $0.84
Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 221 reviews)
Sales Rank: 11661
Category: DVD
Actors: Brian De Palma, Steve Eastin, Troy Evans, Mia Frye, Gregg Henry
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios
Brand: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.
Label: Universal Studios
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 122 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 61029180
UPC: 025192918025
EAN: 0025192918025
ASIN: B000K2UVZM
Release Date: December 26, 2006
Theatrical Release Date: September 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Inspired by the Most Notorious Unsolved Murder in California History.From the acclaimed director of Scarface and the author of LA Confidential comes the spellbinding thriller The Black Dahlia. Two ambitious cops Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) investigate the shocking murder of an aspiring young starlet. With a corpse so mutilated that photos are kept from the public the case becomes an obsession for the men and their lives begin to unravel. Blanchard's relationship with his girlfriend Kay (Scarlett Johansson) deteriorates while Bleichert finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Madeleine (Hilary Swank) a wealthy woman with a dark and twisted connection to the victim.System Requirements:Running Time: 122 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:DRAMA Rating:R UPC:025192918025 Manufacturer No:61029180
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
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 216 more reviews...
 The Worst Film of the Year? October 12, 2008
This historical drama is inspired by a true crime from 1947, the murder of Elizabeth Short. The film opens with a riot in 1945 Los Angeles. Sailors were attacking the "zoot suiters" because of a prior attack on sailors. There is a plan to stage some boxing matches to help pass a municipal bond issue. There is a domestic scene that is supposed to mean something. Some of those hats don't have the wide brims of that era. Was the fight realistic? Do those scenes of entertainment have a meaning? There is a sudden shoot-out. Next police cars arrive where a body was found. [Do those scenes inside a home look too upscale?] The internal organs of that body were removed by the killer!
The police investigate the death of Elizabeth Short. [Does the film drag here?] Does that girl's family seem strange? "I'm really so sorry." That family is strange! Can anyone make a fortune by building cheap housing? Does the drama go downhill? The story just stumbles along from scene to scene. Does the ending seem believable? Will this movie never end? Finally there is a surprise at the end. Does it make sense? Any of them? Is that family really crazy? Will there be another cover-up? Will this movie never end? Was it the worst film of the year?
The credits say it was based on the James Ellroy novel. The tiny lettering for the credits suggests they were ashamed to be named for this film. I'll bet the Bulgarians turn out better films for their people. This film could have benefitted from a lower budget and a better script. Was the book better than this film?
Oh, my... mind....was....falling alseep September 13, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A painful and laborious game of trying to catch the killer of "The Black Dahlia." I'm glad I read the book a few years ago. At least it held my attention more than this movie.
Josh Hartnett, as "Bucky - ICE" the L.A. Detective is a real boring and stiff. Aaron Eckhardt, as "Lee - FIRE," his partner was intense, but average. Scarlett Johannson, "Kay" and Hilary Swank, "Madeleine" were also big bores, and they showed it with their acting.
It was almost like watching a stage play; with the dinner at Madeleine's house being excruciatingly painful to watch. As was the "love scene" with Hartnett and Swank, which looked like a "Carol Burnett Show" or "Saturday Night Live" parody of a classic movie. Some of these scenes will make you or snicker or laugh; which in effect, will wake you up and out of your boredom enough to finish the movie.
At 53 minutes into the movie, I checked the timing display to find that the movie is 121 minutes long. As Doctor Smith from "Lost In Space" used to say: "The pain. Oh, the pain."
DISAPPOINTMENT FROM DePALMA September 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Why wasn't this a better film?
The novel (so personal to author James Ellroy who wrote this to honor his murdered mother) has so many incredible elements: a provocative crime, interesting characters, sex and romance, and set in a really evocative time and place.
It certainly wasn't the fault of most of the technical professionals who worked on the film; indeed it has great work by one of the finest cinematographers in the world. Moreover, the cast, on paper, is quite good. So what went wrong to cause this to be so bland, so tedious, and such a whopping misfire?
Answer: Brian De Palma, who's never really managed an intelligent, singular style and usually best when he doesn't try to make his own conscious "art". But here his pacing seems way off, as does the overall cinematic movement of the film. I do like the fact this time he avoids pretty much copying Hitchcock (as he's done so much throughout his career) but he couldn't resist the last shot of the dead body: it is photographed in three quick cuts similar to the farmer's death in Hitchcock's "The Birds". And, if that isn't enough, De Palma roosts a crow looking down at the body to let us know Hitch was (again and alas) being forced to peer over the director's shoulder.
In summary, this is a disappointment even considering this displays good work by both cast and crew. And it is not even a pale shadow of Curtis Hanson's "L.A. Confidential", a classic of the genre. I'm thinking William Friedkin, for example, could have made a really effective film here but DePalma missed the target by a mile.
MORE "FILM NO" THAN "FILM NOIR"! August 3, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Even though it is still one of California's unsolved murders, the whole Elizabeth Short case can be told in about 60 seconds. So making a 2 hour movie would be quite a feat. That's why the director factored the L.A. "Zoot Suit" riots of 1943, a boxing match, the killing of black pimps and prostitutes who were minding their own business, the dysfunctional love affair between Scarlett Johansson's character and Josh Harnett's partner, a bunch of very chic lesbians, and the bizarre wealthy family of a bi-sexual Hilary Swank (does her mother have Parkinson's or is that the actress' idea of an alcoholic socialite?)
We didn't hear about the murder until 20 minutes had passed and only then because it happened on the street behind the pimp shoot-out. Somehow the "first responders" on the Black Dahlia crime scene didn't hear all of that gun fire on the other side of the building. Instead of going to the rescue of their fellow officers, they and a dozen reporters stood transfixed on the naked body in the park. So much for "Officer down! Send back-up!" The best thing about this movie was the autopsy which was done in a compelling narrative by a jowly M.E. That's about all we learned about this murder victim who was made out to be a slut who slept with men AND women in exchange for a sandwich or pair of nylons. In fact, there was not one woman in this movie who was not depicted as prostitute, golddigger, or tramp. Only the lesbians had class and dignity - and there is a gang of them! (Look for an uncredited k.d. lang in a great piece of camp.)
Hartnett has the charisma of a grape. Johansson fits right in during an era when 20 year-old women looked like they were 35. But she handles a lame role like a pro. I don't know why Swank was even in the area. And that accent! I couldn't figure out if she was a "Valley Girl" or a Nazi!
Many of facts of the murder are wrong - Elizabeth Short's dad didn't live in Los Angeles - he lived in Vallejo, a good 8 hour drive north, 30 miles above San Francisco. Here he lives right down the street. Nothing was said about his staging him a suicide and sneaking off to Vallejo, abandoning Elizabeth's mother with 5 girls to raise alone in Massachusetts. He surfaced years later, trying to reunite with his wife, who declined. The "Zoot Suit Riots" were in 1943 and the Dahlia case was in 1947. Here they all happened within a few months. I understand "literary license" but here it wasn't used to make an existing story better - it was used to try to create something which wasn't much to start with.
The production has a great "film noir" feel - I was expecting Mickey Spillane to walk in. But this movies should have just been "FILM NO"! Brian De Palma, what were you thinking?
 SO MUCH POTENTIAL, SO MUCH WASTED 6 OUT OF 10 June 20, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I like crime dramas, they are a very sophisticated form of film and most of them have been compelling and rather interesting and they really know how to deliver plots and twists. This film however, squanders the potential it has by not taking its interesting ideas anywhere. Scenes go back and forth and really don't have much to do with the Black Dahlia murder most of the time, but rather it feels like a chronicle of the life of a cop and his sexcapades while supposedly investigating a murder.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: The time is 1947, and a young fledgling star named Elizabeth Short is found dead, cut in half and her face mutilated. Two detectives Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard are assigned to the case and uncover a plethora of of buried secrets and lies about the murders, all while having relationship problems and threats of being kicked off the investigation for numerous reasons, and sleeping with every chick that comes their way.
STORY: SCORE- 5.5 OUT OF 10- The story presents a lot of interesting ideas, but never properly implements them into the fabric of the plot. Randomly cramming in scenes of sexuality and girl-on-girl scenes is not going to make a compelling crime drama, but rather it is a bit of annoyance, it's more of something that should be kept in the privacy of the bedroom. I'm fine with maybe one or two scenes of that nature, but it cannot be a major component of the damn plot.
MUSIC: SCORE- 8 OUT OF 10- I've always enjoyed the jazzy cop noir themes of this kind of music and it is present and accounted for in here, but it's not the best music for these kinds of themes.
COMPELLING FACTOR: SCORE- 6 OUT OF 10- The story is fairly enjoyable, but the plot twists really aren't things you haven't seen or heard before, so basically it's the same old song and dance of age-old plot twists.
PORN FACTOR: SCORE- 8.5 OUT OF 10- There sure are a lot of scenes of sexuality, and why have these girl-on-girl scenes been added?
PLOT TWISTS: SCORE- 5.5 OUT OF 10- There is basically nothing shocking, nothing surprising, or for that matter, anything you haven't seen already, go get your fix elsewhere. Go, just walk away and go find another crime drama.
OVERALL: SCORE- 6 OUT OF 10- This film's mediocrity is shocking, especially since it was made by the director of Scarface, a much better crime drama. What makes this film all the more sad is the fact the short film; Detective Story from the Animatrix; had a more compelling plot than this... and it was nine minutes long. You're better going and getting your fix from films like Pulp Fiction, Scarface, The Godfather, The Departed, or the superbly crafted animated film Renaissance, or perhaps Sin City. Whatever your preference, you're not missing anything if you don't watch this movie.
THE GOOD: Interesting story ideas, good music, some okay plot twists.
THE BAD: Good ideas don't go anywhere, it's more focused on the sexcapades of a detective and boring relationship problems.
|
|
|
