Aaron Eckhart stars as Lee Blanchard... in the adaptation of James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia, due to be released September 15th. Morbid fascination drew me to the book itself: an addictive and dark escapade that paints Los Angeles black and shrouds the mind in a psychological, inescapable darkness. Sexy, gory, fascinating, scary, beautiful, brutal. Page one of The Black Dahlia is a commitment to an obsessive relationship that stretches the nerves until the very last word. The narration is straight out of the mouth of a black and white noir detective; the shadows of Venetian blinds, the faint smell of hard liquor, the coolness of a steel .45 clamped against a sweaty palm. Guilt, fear, corruption, revenge. Everything looks a little darker when it's done, there is a strange uneasiness that can't be shaken, there are images and taut, raw feelings left reeling into sordid, obscure spaces. James Elroy packs this book with such intensity that it leaves you feeling exhausted and fearing the dreams to come.
The narrator, “Bucky” Bleichert, is a buck-toothed boxer-turned-cop.
His nemesis is Lee Blanchard – a fellow cop a little further along in the ranks but nevertheless hailing from the same sport. The two come up against each other in the ring, resulting in partnership and quickly, friendship glued together by Kay, Lee’s girlfriend. Bucky’s lust for Kay is fuelled when he discovers that Lee isn’t having sex with her, but he maintains his distance to keep their partnership healthy. However, when Lee becomes obsessed with the murder case they have been assigned to, normality becomes distorted as sordid secrets are discovered.The Black Dahlia has been described as “too dark," but James Ellroy’s darkness is inherent, formed by a childhood that saw his own mother brutally murdered.
His descriptions are uncomfortably detailed – death is grotesque and brutal, sex is furious and frantic and the seedy streets of Los Angeles are sickeningly corrupt, dirty and morally promiscuous. I read this book in the space of a few days and even though my eyes hurt and my stomach winced with each new gory detail, I was utterly and thoroughly addicted. If director Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables, Carrie) can capture even a fragment of the beautiful and dark essence of the book - this is going to be one hell of a movie.Bookmark with:
