THE BLACK DAHLIA – Josh Hartnett – d: Brian De Palma
The Black Dahlia (2006)
Director: Brian De Palma. Screenplay: Josh Friedman; from James Ellroy’s novel. Cast: Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Scarlett Johansson, Mia Kirshner
THE BIG SNOOZE
Stylized without being stylish, intricate without being intriguing, heavy without being dramatic. That pretty much sums up director Brian De Palma and screenwriter Josh Friedman’s adaptation of James Ellroy’s crime novel The Black Dahlia — though other adjectives such as "overlong," "incomprehensible," "phony," and "inane" would also apply.
Loosely inspired by the real-life 1940s murder of a film starlet (see synopsis, notes), The Black Dahlia is a twisted morality tale about characters driven by ambition, greed, lust, madness, revenge, and bad dinner conversations. It is also proof that what is often referred to as "neo-film noir" is neither new nor noir, but merely the age-old debasing of a much-revered film genre. After all, Hollywood filmmakers and their myriad imitators around the world have been committing that sort of crime for decades.
From the film’s first sequence — a Los Angeles street fight involving cops, zoot suiters, and sailors — to the final credits more than two long hours later, De Palma and Friedman seem to have set their minds on mimicking the film noir genre but without actually bringing it to life.
Like most of the best-known American film noirs, The Black Dahlia is appropriately set in the 1940s. Men and women dress according to fashions of the period; they fall in lust and have unbridled sex; and they murder, lie, and cheat on one another. The superficial conventions of the genre are all there, along with scenes supposed to remind audiences of noir classics like The Maltese Falcon and Sunset Blvd. (and of several previous De Palma flicks).
Missing, however, is the crucial film noir atmosphere — the chiaroscuro compositions, the suspenseful climax, the sense of foreboding. The play of light-and-shadow is all but absent from The Black Dahlia, which offers plenty of killings like any TV cop show but little suspense and no feeling of doom. It’s as if the filmmakers were amateur painters intent on recreating a master’s work of art, while putting all their efforts on arranging the prettiest frame for their painting.
Since I haven’t read the novel, I can’t say how many of the plot contrivances and bad lines (the few that can be understood, since much of the dialogue is as muddled as the plot) should be blamed on Ellroy, and how many should be blamed on Friedman, De Palma, and the assorted powers-that-be behind the making of The Black Dahlia. But surely the self-conscious camera setups, the off-key music (by Mark Isham, who did a much better job scoring Crash), the sterile cinematography (by Vilmos Zsigmond, who also shot Robert Altman’s dreary 1973 pseudo-film noir The Last Goodbye) and the desultory acting are the filmmakers’ fault and no one else’s.
As so often happens in Brian De Palma’s films, the performances in The Black Dahlia are below par, though an overly powdered Fiona Shaw, who plays her foaming-at-the-mouth matron like a cross between Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt and Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, does manage to steal the few scenes in which she appears. (Admittedly, Shaw’s over-the-top performance is definitely not for everybody.) Also, Mia Kirshner looks stunning in black and white, and does a credible job as the doomed Dahlia in the film-within-a-film sequences.
Now, if De Palma had set out to destroy Josh Hartnett’s career as a leading man, he couldn’t have done a better job. As the film’s boxing-cop hero, the handsome and likable Hartnett is both badly lit and badly handled. Not surprisingly, the actor displays none of the intensity required for the role — certainly nothing compared to what Robert Ryan, or even Steve Brodie or Alan Ladd, brought to their conflicted characters.
In truth, The Black Dahlia would have been considerably more effective had Hilary Swank, the film’s woefully miscast femme fatale, switched roles with Hartnett. In both Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby (for which she learned boxing moves), Swank proved she can convincingly play masculine roles, while Hartnett would never have been confused with one of the film’s props had he sported a shoulderless gown and a peek-a-boo hairdo, while sultrily delivering lines such as "You’d rather fuck me than kill me."
Such gender switch would have fully suited The Black Dahlia, for overall it feels less like a film noir homage than a film noir send-up. Besides the bad acting, the poor dialogue, the flat lighting, and the inadequate music, De Palma comes up with several absurd sex scenes, including a lesbian encounter involving Mia Kirshner — who does the best she can in the circumstances, but even that capable actress can’t save a "blue movie" made by someone who apparently can’t spell the word s-e-x.
It may come as a shock to those who believe the apex of 1940s sensuality to have been Andy Hardy’s Blonde Trouble, but as so many film noirs — and blue movies — of the period have shown, sex was actually quite arousing in those days. In The Black Dahlia, however, sex runs the gamut from the hilariously awful (the aforementioned lesbian bits) to the appallingly prudish (a naked Hartnett gets dressed as the camera clumsily swerves this way and that in order to avoid showing the actor’s penis).
With the exception of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown and — on a different level — Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects and David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr., I can’t think of any other American motion picture in the last forty-odd years that has captured the feel of the film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s. Many have tried, but despite their efforts they have succeeded in creating mere carbon copies of the originals. (And that includes Curtis Hanson’s film version of another Ellroy novel, L.A. Confidential, which I find one of the most overrated movies of the 1990s.)
Ultimately, what The Black Dahlia and its cinematic cousins do best is to serve as a reminder to current filmmakers that setting a muddled crime story in the 1940s, adding a voice-over narration, and displaying "The End" in the final credits do not a film noir make.
1940s Los Angeles: Two police officers, both former boxers, get ready to knock their brains out so the Los Angeles Police Department can get a little positive publicity.
Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett), known as Mr. Ice for his supposedly cool demeanor, has made a deal with gamblers to throw the fight so he can earn enough cash to send his demented, pigeon-shooting father to a good mental institution. Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart), known as Mr. Fire, is ready to use Bucky as his own private punching bag.
Following lots of slow-motion punches, Bucky has his teeth ejected out of his mouth. He ends up lying flat on the ring. Consequently, Bucky gets nice dentures — thus fully earning his nickname — while the elderly Mr. Bleichert gets a nice sanatorium.
If losing his teeth while fighting Blanchard wasn’t bad enough, Bucky must face the fact that he ardently desires his partner’s girl, the full-lipped blonde Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson). The trio eat dinner together, drink together, and sometimes they even catch a silent movie together.
Though they live in the 1940s, instead of going to see Betty Grable or Abbott and Costello, they opt for a 1928 silent film, Paul Leni’s Gothic love story The Man Who Laughs. Perhaps because Conrad Veidt’s creepy grin (his mouth has been sliced open for good) gives Kay the shivers — and thus the chance to hold the hands of both her companions.
Making matters a tad more complicated, Bucky must also deal with his immense guilt — especially after Blanchard saves his life during a stakeout. (Bucky had conked out in the car, and apparently would have been killed had Blanchard not taken quick action.)
In the vicinity where the shooting had taken place, a dark-haired woman screams for help. No one seems to notice or care.
Shortly thereafter, the severed, bloodless corpse of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), a struggling Hollywood starlet, is discovered by police. Mr. Ice and Mr. Fire are supposed to melt into one to find Short’s killer.
Dubbed "The Black Dahlia," partly because of her black clothes and partly because of the popular Alan Ladd-Veronica Lake film noir The Blue Dahlia, Short becomes an obsession for both Bucky and Blanchard.
Blanchard, however, has other things on his mind, too. A mean criminal he had helped put behind bars, Bobby DeWitt (Richard Brake), is about to be released. The meanie had been abusive to Kay, who years earlier had found freedom and love with Blanchard’s assistance. With so much going on — there are also family-related personal demons at work — Mr. Fire starts taking drugs, and is about to go off the deep end.
Bucky, for his part, becomes involved with a bisexual socialite, Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), who once had had a fling with Elizabeth Short because she wanted to know what it was like to have sex with someone who looked just like herself — even though only a mole might think that Madeleine and Elizabeth looked even remotely alike.
Little by little, Bucky becomes increasingly entwined with Madeleine and the lively Linscott family — mom (Fiona Shaw) is a nutcase worse than the elderly Mr. Bleichert; dad (John Kavanagh) is a ruthless real-estate tycoon; sis (Rachel Miner) is a total nympho.
Bucky also discovers that Short had made lesbian blue movies, but is unable to find any revealing clues — until disaster strikes and Blanchard is murdered.
Besides grabbing the chance to make out with Blanchard’s "widow," Bucky begins to unravel the Black Dahlia mystery. Mind-boggling — and utterly senseless — clues lead him to Madeleine, to Mr. Linscott, to Mrs. Linscott, to a deranged killer, to corruption within the L.A.P.D., to bad modern art, even to Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs.
But Bucky proves himself both a mind-reader and a genius by piecing everything together.
Justice — of the Clint Eastwood kind — will be made, but Dirty Bucky will have to keep his mouth shut about the matter.
Background:
Elizabeth Short was born in Hyde Park, Mass. She later moved to Los Angeles to try to break into films. After being sent back to Massachusetts, Short spent some time in Florida. Several months before her death, she returned to Los Angeles. The 22-year-old brunette was found dead on Jan. 15, 1947.
Short’s press nickname, The Black Dahlia, is derived from the title of the popular 1946 film noir The Blue Dahlia, directed by George Marshall, written by Raymond Chandler, and starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, and William Bendix.
Short had black hair and wore black clothes.
…
The Black Dahlia website has a page with a few Los Angeles Times reports on the Short murder.
Crime Library has a section on Elizabeth Short.
…
The case of the Black Dahlia has been portrayed in the 1975 TV movie Who Is the Black Dahlia?, directed by Joseph Pevney, written by Robert W. Lenski, and starring Lucie Arnaz as Elizabeth Short, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., as the detective dedicated to solving her murder.
Based on John Gregory Dunne’s novel, Ulu Grosbard’s 1981 True Confessions fictionalized the Short murder case, though this psychological drama mostly deals with the thorny relationship between two brothers, a Catholic priest (Robert DeNiro) and a homicide detective (Robert Duvall). Joan Didion and Gary S. Hall wrote the screenplay adaptation.
…
Prior to the faux film noir The Black Dahlia, screenwriter Josh Friedman wrote the faux 1950s-style sci-fi thriller War of the Worlds.
Production:
Brian De Palma provides the voice of the off-camera director who guides Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) in the black-and-white film-within-a-film sequences.
…
David Fincher was originally slated to direct The Black Dahlia.
…
Mark Wahlberg had reportedly signed on to play Lee Blanchard, but scheduling conflicts — Wahlberg was about to star in The Brazilian Job — forced him to bow out of the project. Once Brian De Palma was brought on, he hired Aaron Eckhart.
…
The Black Dahlia opened the 63rd Venice Film Festival in 2006.
…
Much of The Black Dahlia was shot in Bulgaria.
…
The Black Dahlia has echoes of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), adapted by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor, from a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. In Vertigo, the protagonist (James Stewart) is so obsessed with a purportedly dead woman (Kim Novak) that he falls for another woman who looks just like her (and who may very well be her).
In The Black Dahlia, Bucky (Josh Hartnett) becomes obsessed with the dead Elizabeth Short and falls for the living Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), who is supposed to look just like Short. (Even though actresses Swank and Mia Kirshner have absolutely nothing in common in the looks department.)
In 1976, De Palma filmed a near remake of Vertigo, written by himself and Paul Schrader, and appropriately titled Obsession, starring Cliff Robertson as a man obsessed with Genevieve Bujold, a woman who looks just like his dead wife.
…
Spoilers: At the end of The Black Dahlia, Bucky sees the body of the Black Dahlia in front of Kay’s house. That is typical De Palma. For instance, both Carrie (1976), and Dressed to Kill (1980) have similar nightmarish visions before the final fadeout.
The Black Dahlia - The Novel:
Following a Sept. 2006 Writers Guild screening of The Black Dahlia, author James Ellroy explained that he wrote the murder novel as "a blessing to [Elizabeth Short] and to my mother."
Ellroy’s mother was brutally murdered in 1958. Her case, like Short’s, has remained unsolved. In Ellroy’s novel, a solution is found though it never becomes public.
As per a Miami Herald article (by Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s William Arnold), Ellroy says his novel was a big success, but "it did not purge me of my demons.” (In his memoirs, My Dark Places, Ellroy discusses his mother’s murder.)
…
"Since I never had the desire to adapt [The Black Dahlia], since nobody came forth to offer me the opportunity to adapt it, I have absented myself from hypothesizing on [the film adaptation]. Overall, I’m satisfied with the results and it’s going to sell me a lot of books. But I don’t commit emotionally to motion pictures. Motion picture dysfunctionalism trumps the creative process most times. It has been said that the movie option is to the finished movie what the first kiss is to the 50th monogamous anniversary." James Ellroy interviewed by Robert Horton for the Washington Herald.
…
Spoilers: In the novel, Bucky and Kay Lake are married, though they split up before the Black Dahlia case is solved. In the movie, Bucky (Josh Hartnett) has sex with Kay (Scarlett Johansson), but they don’t marry. The couple end up together before the final fadeout.
Comments
One Response to “THE BLACK DAHLIA – Josh Hartnett – d: Brian De Palma”
Leave a Reply
NOTE:
All comments are moderated and may take some time before they are posted. Different views and opinions are welcome, but courtesy is imperative. Rude/crass/bigoted comments and name-calling of any sort will be immediately deleted.
Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has no contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog and no information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
I think Neo-Noir is a really stupid term just like the whole Neo-Soul thing in music, neither genre ever completely vanished, but rather people were looking to the mainstream rather than independent cinema for good examples. There is this one film called GOODBYE LOVER directed by Roland Joffe that is very nuanced in its approach to the genre, especially the detective in the film played brilliantly by Ellen DeGeneres (she is wicked, funny and delightfully corrupt). But it’s a film that I think not everyone would like because the ending isn’t at all moralistic. The most evil and conniving people in the film get away with murder (literally).
Back to THE BLACK DAHLIA (which I haven’t seen yet) I never understood what all the hoopla about Josh Hartnett was about. He’s basically Humphrey Bogart with a awful haircut and not real depth. Hilary Swank is really the most different actress of her generation, the most atypical of them all. But I think she struggles with the quest for mainstream box-office appeal and roles that are good for her career.