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The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition)
 
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The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition) (2006)

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson Director: Brian De Palma Rating: R (Restricted) Format: DVD
2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (225 customer reviews)

Price: $9.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Product Details

  • Actors: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, John Kavanagh
  • Directors: Brian De Palma
  • Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Language: French (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0)
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rating: R (Restricted)
  • Studio: Universal Studios
  • DVD Release Date: December 26, 2006
  • Run Time: 122 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (225 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000K2UVZM
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,153 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #84 in  Movies & TV > Mystery & Suspense > Neo-Noir
  • For more information about "The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

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

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.

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225 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.1 out of 5 stars (225 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars 'The Black Dahlia': A Misnomer of a Title, December 29, 2006
By Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
Brian de Palma made an odd decision in creating this apparently very expensive, very strange and confusing version of a film, a movie less about the grisly/twisted unsolved murder (grossly illustrated ad infinitum here) of a wannabe 1940s actress of the title and more about two boxer cops (bland Josh Hartnett as 'Mr. Ice' and over the top Aaron Eckhart as 'Mr. Fire') and their bizarre ménage a trois with unfocused Scarlett Johansson. The film as written by Josh Friedman attempts to follow the novel by James Ellroy, itself a strange riff on the Black Dahlia murder. What results is an over produced, over directed, under realized recreation of the 1940s complete with slicky costumes and very loud music by (surprisingly!) Mark Isham.

There are so many subplots filled with walk on characters that keeping the story understandable is almost impossible - certainly not worth an attempt to capsulize for a review. There are some terrific little performances by Fiona Shaw as the druggie mad woman whose role becomes significant only at film's end, Hilary Swank as the copycat Dahlia who dallies in cops and soldiers and lesbians (convincingly so), and Mia Kirshner who presence as the true Black Dahlia is shown only in black and white film clips that indeed focus the unwieldy script while she is on!

Odd to see actors with the credentials of this cast wandering around in la-la land seemingly looking for a script that makes sense. But it is a pretty period piece to look at despite the lack of reasonable storyline. Grady Harp, December 06
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars MORE "FILM NO" THAN "FILM NOIR"!, August 3, 2008
By Bambi Shangri-La (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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?
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Another Disappointment From De Palma, October 18, 2007
By Scott Rivers (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
Despite his impressive visual style, Brian De Palma remains a hit-or-miss filmmaker. For every "Dressed to Kill" or "The Untouchables," there's a half-dozen misfires such as "Bonfire of the Vanities" and "Snake Eyes." Unfortunately, "The Black Dahlia" (2006) belongs in the latter category. This deliriously incoherent James Ellroy adaptation suffers from flat acting and lack of narrative focus. However, the Los Angeles period detail is spot on and film buffs will enjoy the references to director Paul Leni's 1928 classic "The Man Who Laughs." It's a shame this watchable mess didn't work out better.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes I know it isn't very much like the book ..
.. 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... Read more
Published 26 days ago by Dick Pearson

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Ever...Seriously....
Worst movie I've ever seen. Seriously. I actually got dumber during this film.
Published 2 months ago by AP

2.0 out of 5 stars Classic DePalma : Stylish but silly
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. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Richard Ross

1.0 out of 5 stars This is a movie about the Black Dahila murder? Right?
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. Read more
Published 7 months ago by YA Librarian

3.0 out of 5 stars MY REVIEW
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.
Published 9 months ago by Letosa Anderson

3.0 out of 5 stars The Black Dahlia According to James Ellroy
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... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Michael B. Druxman

2.0 out of 5 stars 2 stars out of 4
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... Read more
Published 9 months ago by One-Line Film Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars OK...what was this?
This will be the shortest review I have ever written. This film has little to do (AT ALL) with the Black Dahlia. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Damon Devine

1.0 out of 5 stars The Black Dahlia
I do not own the movie and will not own it. I saw the movie in the theater and it was a very bizzare movie. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Keith G. Cromer

1.0 out of 5 stars The Blah Dahlia
Wow - I didn't know they still made movies this bad. I knew Brian De Palma's reputation had taken a beating in the last decade or so, but I really understand why now. Read more
Published 12 months ago by J. Combs

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