Brian De Palma: The Black Dahlia (2006)

[Chris Knipp]

Glad you checked out what he had to say. Go to the source, I say. The criticisms I have seen of the movie are the same things you could say against Ellroy's book. It's the product of a fevered imagination; all his books are. But it makes for compulsive, if disturbing, reading. They also say The Black Dahlia movie is "too allusive." Did they say that about Eliot's Waste Land? Joyce's Ulysses? Not a good criticism. The only review listed on Metacritic as really favorable -- The Onion's -- is one of the few perceptive ones ("the pairing of Ellroy and De Palma proves a marriage made in hardboiled heaven. ".). I'm sorry that this brilliantly cinematic movie is being and has been trashed. Neither the genre nor the director seem to be a la mode right now.

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/52881

[Johann]

I have to start reading Ellroy now.

L.A. Confidential was recommended to me a while back but I never read it. The film was great, as we know.

Black Dahlia is suffering from audience apathy- I'm sure of it.
Kids are back in school, it's getting colder out there...

I agree totally that the genre and DePalma are not on the minds of most moviegoers- a shame.

You're missing out, people!

This film should be savoured on the big screen- it's a MOVIE-MOVIE.

Hardboiled indeed.
As I suspected I loved it and I'll be picking up the novel soonest.

[Chris Knipp]

Take a look at all four novels, though I got bogged down with the Fifties one with the Commies and smears. LA Cnfidential and Black Dahlia will drive you wild.