From the director of Scar Face, the writer of L.A. Confidential, and the most famous unsolved murder mystery right here in Hollywood, there’s only one thing to think:
“I have to see it!”
September 16, 2006, the picture was released to Friday night movie goers who were sold on the sensationally eerie marketing campaign. The radio spots mentioning,
“The body was cut in half,” and “The most notorious murder mystery”. The release of non-fiction books about The Black Dahlia revealing disturbing photos from the actual crime scene, autopsy, and investigation. Most photos so disturbing that I would have to cover them with my hand just to look at the neighboring page. This impact of the case and inhumane cruelty Elizabeth Short went through forced me to want to learn more about her, the case, the monsters behind her murder, and possible cover ups. So when September 16th rolled around, I just had to see the movie. Maybe it would reveal more facts about the case that weren’t in the book. Due to the uncontrollable desire to get to the bottom of the case and make sure the murderer was put to justice, many audience members may have gone to the movie with a misunderstanding of what the movie was about. Even though the TV spots marketed the detective’s story to the audience, the audience wanted to find out one thing and one thing only … who was the monster?
As stated above, I became very interested in the case and who could do such a thing and why. As a result, I entered the movie theater hoping for something that wouldn’t be there. Not a great ending, not great acting, but an answer. This might have played against the film in an extreme way. Many audiences say they ‘hated’ the film, but that’s a little too tunnel-vision for me.
Looking back at it, the movie was a fantastic murder mystery. Lets pretend the case wasn’t based on The Black Dahlia case and that it was all pure fiction – great murder mystery! Great acting, maybe a little mis-casting maybe not, great twists, great ties, this movie had everything we as an audience could want … except the one thing we went for – the truth. The movie might not have had a better gross if the marketing entailed the “fictionalized” aspect to The Black Dahlia story, but it might have saved the movie from bad reviews, which may eventually hurt the DVD grosses.
All in all, the movie was good, but another Black Dahlia story needs to hit the screen, one revealing the truth, the secrets, and the legend.