While The Black Dahlia does not capture the true creepiness
of that very real crime (nor did Elroy's novel on which it's
based), I think it can hardly be called the "worst of its
year." The resolution of the story is absurd, as it was in
the book, and the climax owes too much to True Confessions, a
better book and film on the same subject. The ultimate film
based on the Black Dahlia murder has yet to be made. When it
is, it will owe more to the work of John Gilmore and Donald
Wolfe than to James Elroy. Both those other writers offer
more interesting and sinister solutions to the case than
Elroy or Dunn did.
Patrick King
--- foxbrick <
foxbrick@yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Dave
> Zeltserman" <dz@...> wrote:
> > > TLG did poorly at the box
office
> >
> > As did Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, Wizard of
Oz
> and Casablanca when
> > they came out. So what? If box office receipts
are
> a measure of how
> > good a film is I guess Norbit is Oscar
winning
> material.
>
> Well, never mistake an Academy Award for a mark
of
> distinction, at
> least for the entirety of a film (particularly
the
> "big" awards, such
> as best picture). THE BLACK DAHLIA is a
contender
> for best
> cinematography, absolutely the only award this
film
> could reasonably be
> considered for (this kind of "technical" award
is
> often reasonably
> close to justice in the nomination and
> awarding)...the film is the
> worst of its year among those I saw, or
close
> enough, otherwise.
> NORBIT might just be a contender for makeup
effects
> next year, probably
> the only arena in which it deserves any
credit.
> Dreck such as TITANIC
> and CRASH regularly win the "major"
prizes.
>
> > > and was not well received by
critics.
> >
> > It's certainly being received well by
critics
> rediscovering it. Check
> > out mrqe.com for recent reviews.
>
> Well, John Simon rather liked it at the time. And
he
> has certainly been
> no pushover (full stop) for Altman's
films.
>
> --Todd Mason, who thinks that PSYCHO the film
is
> pretty impressive (the
> original, not the misbegotten remake), just not
up
> to the novel. The
> novel and film STRANGERS ON A TRAIN are a
pretty
> close match, indeed.
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go with Yahoo!
Mail for Mobile. Get started. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mail
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 18 Feb 2007 EST