Ok...what in the HELL happened? Everything was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo confusing. Could anyone explain teh entire movie to me or show me a website that exlpains the movie's plot, please???
sharelmao. I've seen this movie three times and still can't figure out what the hell the plot was about. Glad it isn't just me.
"First I dream my painting, then I paint my dream."--Vincent van Gogh
If you don't understand it after 3 times your either simple minded or just being sarcastic. It's not a classic, but If you can't follow the story you must have a small brain
shareLol, obviously, I realize that it is a story based on Elizabeth Short's murder. The sub plot is so twisty, I gave up trying to follow it. The end result to realize, is that the LAPD has always been corrupt.
As for why I've seen it three times, (Probably more than that since my last post) I love the fashions and watching historical fiction of that era.
No need to be nasty by the way. It atrophies the brain, and size seems to matter to you.
Peace.
Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com
I wasnt being nasty at all, It's just if you want to call yourself a fan of film, you have to like some films with multiple storylines and not just one story. Come on how old are you really
shareOlder than you apparently.
OK, that's the last of my responses. Moving on.
Sorry, but you just made that too easy.
Ciao.
Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com
What did he make too easy? You look like a moron. Ciao? LOL. Alrighty then. Keep watching the same movie over and over again while not understanding it. Idiot.
"The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is."
Glad to help you feel better about yourselves.
Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com
What a NASTY attitude you have, PLEASE go away !
shareIs this film really the hill of condescension you want to die on? Couldn't you at least pick a good movie?
share[deleted]
And you could have actually helped by answering the question instead of being a jerk.
shareCareful admitting that...people here in IMDB will call you an "idiot" for not understanding "good cinema".
I can't beleive the guy that brought us GREAT films like Scarface & Carlito's Way directed this. His recent movies like Black Dahlia, Snake Eyes (to a degree) and of course, Mission Impossible 1 are all made up of "plot twists"...to the point where the movies are almost incoherent.
I actually voted Black Dahlia a 2/10...and that's because the ACTING was good. The movie is literally a "throw away" and there's nothing memorable about it.
Once is enough for me.
***
Recent:
Munich: 7/10
Balls of Fury: 5/10
Awake: 7/10
the idea of Black Dahlia being bad in comparison to Scarface and Carlito's Way is kinda funny. And the "plot twists" are inconsequential. Black Dahlia and Snake Eyes both made perfect sense to me the first time I saw them.
shareI'm sorry, but LOL.
The story is amazing and the dialogue is just awesome.
If you didn't like it.. then learn to like it..
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Basically in hollliwood style they turned something which really happen (and the killer still never found) into a holliwood film nuff said lol
shareIt was a film adaptation of a fictional book, that was based on a true story... and nothing to do with Hollywood.
sharewhich book is this? I didnt know it was based on a book
shareThe film is based upon James Ellroy's novel The Black Dahlia, a well written but inaccurate source for the real crime upon which it is based.
My understanding is that over an hour of material was cut from De Palma's movie, which affected its comprehensibility. However, my fault was not that I found it hard to understand, but that the mystery is "solved" in such a clumsy manner. However, that is my issue with Ellroy, not De Palma.
I was disappointed in this film, but the actress playing Elizabeth Short was fantastic. I wish that she had had more screen time.
And I think you explained that succinctly.
Short answer..read the book....it actually is worth the time.By the way.I'm not being flippant or rude to you,it will make more sense if you read...arguably a sad reflection on the film which looks fabulous but.....
'Off the record, on the QT, very Hush,Hush!
Actually the "Black Dahlia" was a real person who was in fact James Ellroy's mother. She was murdered and the case was never solved. Nothing like the book of course.
shareCan I just point out that the 'Black Dahlia' was not James Ellroy's mother.
His mother was murdered when he was young, a case which remains unsolved and is something that traumatised him hugely and led to serious illness for him.
It is argued that he became obsessed with Elizabeth Short's murder (Black Dahlia)which happened before he was born because of his mother's unsolved murder.
And he has said that he's been writing about it ever since....
Thus the book is arguably an imagined explanation of the 'why' what happened to Elizabeth Short happened and then the film of the book was made..(and arguably they rushed the end soo much that it confuses people.)
'Off the record, on the QT, very Hush,Hush!
I was drawn to this board because I came to IMDB today to see if I could find someone who could answer just this particular question for me.
I sat up until after 2:00 am watching this movie (taking full advantage of my free movie preview weekend on Directv), and I thought that maybe it was because of the late hour and my semi-exhausted state that I wasn't getting it.
I am going to go back and give it another go. I set up my DVR just in case I had fallen asleep in the middle of the movie. Maybe in the light of day it will make sense...although I'm not holding out too much hope on that. It's a shame. I've always found the Dahlia case to be very interesting, but it seemed like it was just in the background here.
You have to read the book. There are multiple plot lines in the book which are touched on in the movie but not fully explained - I guess there's only so much you can cover in a couple of hours.
shareMe too.
The plot seemed to be all over the place.
I also found it very confusing. I'm glad it (the DVD) was a loaner and not a purchase.
shareWell you basically have to ignore the boxing match at the beginning, it's meaningless. The movie really starts with the shootout or the "bank robbery" I think they called it. After this the film is filled with meaningless scenes, there aren't really any hints as to who killed Elizabeth, at the end it's explained that Emmett's introduced Elizabeth to the crazy clown guy and that Emmett's wife killed her because she's crazy... ? And I don't know why Madeline killed Lee, I guess he was going to figure it all out (you have to remember that scene where Dwight tosses Lee the matchbook, it's a key scene though pretty pointless at the time.)
The rest of the movie is a wash, its a bunch of stuff you didn't have to see that didn't add up to anything. I guess it was character development but you don't really care about the characters one way or another.
If you read the book, the boxing match is one of the MOST important scenes throughout the entire story, but was never fully highlighted during the film version. What a shame too because I found the book to be so good. The movie version is crap. It starts out good, but somewhere along the middle, director De Palma decides that there is not enough time to tell everything and tries to rush everything in and even makes his own make-believe ending. He also leaves all the important police politics stuff out (which I thought was what made the book such an awesome read). Also, Bucky Bleichart's obsession with the Dahlia case never really took enough time to bloom. Sad, sad, sad, because the story had so much potential.
shareTell me about it. I read and loved the book and I left the movie theatre utterly confused.
shareIts a really bad movie that definitely would have worked better if they dropped the phoney contrived ending. Eckart's character was overacting all over the place and they never really gave a reason as to why he was so angry all the time (they mighttt have said why with like one passing line)
shareThey did say why Eckart's character was angry. It was something like his sister was killed by a child molester.
He was not overacting in the context of cinema of the period.
The reason Madeline killed him is because he beat up and was blackmailing her father.
The movie makes sense, you just have to watch it carefully as the answers are given once and then not referred to again.
That's exactly right, you have to watch and listen carefully right to the end of the movie. The answers to the various questions raised are not easily given and this is probably why many people do not like this movie. I enjoyed it.
shareI know that this thread is super old, but can you explain why Lee(Eckart's character) was blackmailing Madeline's father to begin with? Did it have to do with the shady building developments or something? I was just a little lost on some of the minor connecting points in the end. The big stuff was pretty easy once it was all said and done, but it was late when I watched and the subplots were getting very tedious by the end.
shareWhat was this movie about?
It was about 2 hours but felt a lot longer.
Okay, it was about ACTING, in the worst way. And DIRECTING (wow, wouldn't this be a neat camera angle!!)
It's a fakey, almost-parody of film noir.
In all: a mess.
the film was sort of confusing, and that's the reason i even clicked on this feed; to try and understand it better. i knew right after the boxing match ended that it would be a film i would need to watch carefully and pick up every detail. the level of confusion reminded me of the prestige, which was good just as this film was, but had several different levels to the plot, making it hard to comprehend. overall, a very good film, but i think i will need to watch it at least once more to fully understand the plot, or better yet, read the novel it was based on.
shareOkay well this movie is based on the murder of elizabeth short, she was a wannabe actress that died in 1949.. google her and there should be a website with pictures and stuff..mind you there absolutely discusting so if you have a weak stomach dont look at them
hope that helps a bit :)