In 1947 Los Angeles, pugilists-turned-policemen Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) find themselves assigned to a task force investigating the brutal murder of Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), whom the press are calling the Black Dahlia. In the boxing ring, Bucky and Lee are known as Mr. Ice and Mr. Fire, since their personalities couldn’t be more different. As they carry out their investigation, the same can be seen. Lee had rescued girlfriend Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson) from her troubled past with smalltime pimp Bobby DeWitt (Richard Brake) in the case that launched his career. However, DeWitt is scheduled to be released from prison in a few days. As Lee obsesses about the Dahlia case, and about DeWitt’s pending release, Bucky finds himself getting involved with Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank) who has a connection to the victim. Linscott is the degenerate daughter of rich construction tycoon Emmett Linscott (John Kavanagh) and his slightly crazy wife Ramona Linscott (Fiona Shaw). The film explores the messy and deadly personal and professional lives of these two cops as they try to solve the mystery of the Black Dahlia murder.

The 2006 film The Black Dahlia is based on the James Ellroy novel of the same name, and is directed by Brian De Palma. This is the second one of Ellroy’s “L.A. Quartet” novels to be adapted into a movie, following 1997’s L.A. Confidential. The film has a pulpy noir look at feel, with portions narrated by the Bucky character, and this almost black-and-white feel, but with more sepia tones. I have never really been much of a noir detective genre fan, and this film didn’t do anything to change that. It felt like one of the longest 2 hours I’ve spent watching a movie. The acting was a bit sub-par across the board, with a general lack of chemistry between the actors, despite having a lot of well-known actors and director. There wasn’t really enough there to make me care about these characters or get invested in their storylines. The story itself was also confusing at times and all over the place. The titular case seemed to take the back burner most of the time, instead veering off into other tangents and side stories.

The Black Dahlia was previously released on Blu-ray in 2010 by Universal Studios. While that release included nearly 50 minutes of bonus material—two behind-the-scenes featurettes and an overview of the real murder case—unfortunately, none of this has been ported over to Mill Creek’s re-release. The barebones Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard HD keepcase without a slipcover or digital copy. This new disc just offers just a basic menu with a subtitle on/off option. So it seems like die-hard fans of the film would be better off trying to locate a copy of the original Blu-ray release. That said, the picture quality of Mill Creek’s new release was fairly solid, with a generally clean picture that captures the look and feel of the era and genre, but without a really remarkable level of detail. The audio track provides clear dialogue, and makes use of the surround channel to provide a somewhat immersive experience. This is especially noticeable early on with the ambiance of city, and in the gym with the sounds of people boxing in background or the immersive cheering of the crowd at the boxing match.

What’s Included:

Film: (2:01:07)

• 1080p / Widescreen 2.29:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

There is no bonus material included on this release.

None of the bonus material has been ported over from Universal’s original 2010 Blu-ray release.

Final Thoughts:

I have never really been a fan of the noir detective genre, and this film didn’t change that. I found the story to be a bit of a mess, veering off the titular case a lot of the time, and becoming quite the slog to get through. It also felt like a waste of a talented cast, who were not really at the top of their game. While the picture and sound of Mill Creek’s re-release are somewhat solid, missing from this release is all of the bonus material that had been included on Universal’s previous disc. Die hard fans of the film who already own that release don’t really have any reason to upgrade. For new viewers, I would suggest a rental before a blind buy, and even then Universal’s original release, if similarly-priced (which it is at the time of this review), may be the better option.