Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: The Long Argument

From: Patrick King ( abrasax93@yahoo.com)
Date: 18 Feb 2007


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.
>
>

 
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