The Black Dahlia - Case Study Example

The Black Dahlia Introduction: The solving of the brutal and shocking murder of a young woman in California is the plot line of the film “Black Dahlia” but the actual film concerns itself more with the corrupt and depraved characters that inhabit California, among the rich and even the cops. In its style and presentation, as well as its story telling techniques, the film appears to demonstrate all the features that are characteristic of a Brian de Palma film. Storyline: The “Black Dahlia” is the story of two detectives who become obsessed with solving the murder of a woman, who has been so nicknamed by the Press. The murdered victim was found severely mutilated with her body severed and drained of blood. Her mouth has been slashed at both ends in a macabre grin, while her head has been bludgeoned. The two detectives are the older, more seasoned Lee and the younger Bucky, who have been nicknamed as “Fire” and “Ice” respectively, because of their emotional response styles. While Lee gets involved in another case where an old enemy is about to get paroled, the primary investigation of the young woman’s murder falls on Bucky. The detective takes a fancy to the young murdered woman and becomes obsessed with solving the case and finding out who murdered her. In the search for clues, he arrives at a lesbian bar where he meets Madeleine Linscott, a spoilt rich woman who also turns out to be bisexual. This also provides him his ticket into the circles of the rich in Hollywood where he discovers a den of filth, corruption and crime. In his attempts to solve the mystery, Bucky only falls deeper into this corrupt world, where his own morals are tested. Analysis: Brian DePalma’s films abound in “highly improbable plots and characters.” (Hirschberg 79) and this appears to be a reasonable observation in the case of films such as “Blow Out” and “Body Double” for example, where the principles of irony and a general imperviousness to realism appear to predominate. This may also be applicable in the case of the film “Black Dahlia”, where the audience is presented with several improbable characters, notably the bisexual character of Hilary Swank who is presumably a look-alike for the murdered girl. Another character that appears to be almost a caricature is the character played by Fiona Shaw. The film “Black Dahlia” is characteristic of dePalma’s form of suspense noir, where the viewer is constantly reminded that he or she is watching a film from outside, because the events occuring are so surreal or because they appear to make so little sense. Some of the trademark characteristics of dePalma’s films include “visual kineticism, narrative convolutions and allusions to films ranging from Hitchcock’s Psycho to Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom.(DePalma and Knapp, 125), coupled with high levels of sexual and other violence. The Director has been accused by critics of engaging in showy mannerisms and directing just for effect, with “little heed to the integrity of the work as a whole.” (dePalma and Knapp, 130). His films undoubtedly pack a shock value, but most have not been commercially successful as runaway box office hits. Many similar features appear in the film “Black Dahlia as well, where the Director focuses on shock value even in a period film about the era of the 1940s. The film follows dePalma’s general suspense format, presenting an ambiguous relationship between the two detectives and their platonic friendship with their lady friend, Kay. Bucky’s descent into the lurid, crime filled world of Southern California portrays many of the elements that are found in his other films – depraved criminals and corrupt policemen. The film also demonstrates a high level of reliance upon camera tricks and a brooding, suspenseful music score to enhance the shock and suspense of the film. Not long after the film “Black Dahlia” opens, the body of the mutilated young woman is found, yet again conforming to DePalma’s characteristic trait of including violence perpetrated on women in his films, branding them with his own brand of erotica. Many of his films have been accused of sexploitation, and an undue obsession with the infliction of violence upon women by men. The young woman known as “Black Dahlia” is also shown as the victim of such violence, dismembered and disfigured in a manner that ranges far outside the realm of what a viewer would consider normal. Susan Dworkin, who has followed DePalms through the filming of “Body Double”, analyzes Brain de Palma’s tendency to portray women as victims of male violence and depraved sexual fantasies by shedding some light on the background that led to the adoption of his formula of portrayal of women as objects of male fantasy and voyeurism. While a film maker’s fixation upon the physical form of the nude woman could have originally been for aesthetic reasons and the need to worship a woman’s loveliness and thereby elevate her to the status of a sex object, times had changed. “The culture of the camera had been at work for generations, abstracting women, reducing thme to their colors and curves. Among men that had tended to produce a devastating myopia that could lead to heartbreak. They looked but they did not see, and they loved, therefore, what they did not know” (Dworkin, 198). On this basis, Dworkin contends that DePalma brings to his films, the expectations of being allowed to gaze upon female bodies in a form which they may not be privy to in reality, but which nevertheless are quite likely to constitute the reality of what is actually out there in the world. In the “Black Dahlia”, the social context of the film is the 1940s, at a time when women dressed more conservatively and there were strict taboos. But the image of the murdered young woman and the portrayal of the lesbian bar where Bucky meets Madeleine are only some of the examples by which DePalma continues to provide the voyeuristic and violent image of women characteristic of his films. In explaining why his world tends to focus so much on violence perpetrated upon women, the Director explains that he puts women in jeopardy because he feels that they are more vulnerable memebrs of society. But Keough is of the view that the Director is saying that he “uses women as objects to ogle and violate because it works. For DePalma, women are tools to manipulate an audience.” (Keough, 15). This is also true in “Black Dahlia” where the character of Madeleine in particular emerges as that of a teasing temptress who is into playing games. Another characteristic element in DePalma’s films, especially those in the suspense genre, is the unpredictability in events that may occur. The director comments, “audiences are very much used to being told what theyre going to see and feel, so theyre very comfortable with that. . . . But when you make a film that plays with form, it throws a lot of people off. Theyre not used to playing with form….I don’t know what the solution is.” (Keough, 15). The Directors conforms to this in “Black Dahlia” as well, retaining the element of unpredictability. He presents the characters almost as near caricatures to some extent, especially for example, the character of the mother of Madeleine, so that the viewer is forced to constantly rethink and reassess what is happening; is contuinually shocked and surprised as the film narrative unfolds. In the making of a suspense film, DePalma appears to be more concerned with the impact he is able to generate in a viewer rather than in actually providing a tangible solution to the crime that appears reasonable and focused. This trend is also evident in the “Black Dahlia” where the Director does not provide a satisfactory resolution to a persistently puzzling crime, but focuses instead upon the events unfolding in the film as Bucky’s friendship with Madeleine Linscott progresses and he becomes more and more involved in the murky, dark underworld of crime, corruption and crushed dreams. It is the characters themselves and the changes that occur in them that merit the Director’s attention rather than arriving at a plausible solution to the puzzling and heinous crime. Brain de Palma’s work in general, is thus Brechtian in nature, where the viewer is not merely a passive recipient, being led through the lives of the characters; rather s/he is also forced to think about what is being viewed (Steve, 2006). This trend is also prevalent in the “Black Dahlia”, as the director himself articulates, “Much of the movie is making you aware of what you’re watching…It’s saying, ‘Beware of the filters’….we’re going to set you up and manipulate your emotions, but keep your mind working too.” The intent of a dePalma film is not so much good storytelling as creating an unparallel viewing experience for the film goer. Black Dahlia is characterized by stylistic film making, with trick photography and visual effects being used to enhance the shock value of the events transpiring on screen. The progress of the film does not appear to lead Bucky into solving this puzzling crime, rather it leads him into discovering secrets about other people, which only serve to lead him into situations where he could be accused of withholding evidence. The climax of the film also adheres to his generally tendency to create a blood bath with shocking violence interspersed within it. According to McCarthy (2006), the shocking and upsetting violence at the end of the film produces a “big and near-ludicrous explanatory scene in which far too much information needs to be swallowed in one gulp to be remotely digestible.” While the crime in the film might not have been adequately solved however, it nevertheless provides a visceral viewing experience for the film goer that is not easy to forget. Conclusions: This film “Black Dahlia” appears to be a typical example of the kind of work that generally characterizes a Brian de Palma film. Its focuses on the sexploitation of women and is riddled with shocking visual effects and an unashamed voyeurism of the female body that has been the victim of violence. The womna characters in this film also conform to the tendency of the Director to present them in a negative light, either as victims of exploitation or as the doers of heinous evil. The film also demonstrates the Director’s tendency to explote the dark side of the human psyche and to dwell upon it through the use of trick photography and shicking details. The scenes utilized are characteristically excessive and almost impossible, the characters are presented almost as caricatures in order that the viewer never gets too absorbed in the story of the character but keeps stepping back occasionally to question the reality of what is happening on screen. The ending also is characteristic of the Director’s film, racing to a heart pounding and bizzare conclusion that is specifically designed to confound viewers. The focus of the film is more on the provision of a visceral viewing experience rather than the solving of a crime or mystery and displays all the visual kinetics that are characteristic of the Director’s work. Thus, on an overall basis, it must be concluded that the “Black Dahlia” does indeed conform to the template of a De Palma film. Works Cited: * DePalma, Brian and Knapp, Laurence F. “Brian de Palma”, University Press of Missisippi, 2003. * Dworkin, Susan. Double De Palma: A Film Study with Brian De Palma. New York: Newmarket Press, 1984. * Hirschberg, Lynn. “Brian De Palma’s Death Wish,” Esquire. 79-83, 1984. * Giles, Steve, 2006. “Bertolt Brecht’s dramatic theory”, Modern Drama, 49(1): 124-127, 2006. * Keough, Peter. "Out of the Ashes." Sight and Sound 2(8):14-15, 1992. * McCarthy, Todd, 2006. “The Black Dahlia”, http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931413.html?categoryid=31&cs=1; ESSAY QUESTION: The Black Dahlia (2006) : Is it a classic Brian de Palma Movie???? Read More