James Ellroy: American Dog (2006)

Directors:  Clara Kuperberg, Robert Kuperberg

Writers:  Clara Kuperberg, Robert Kuperberg

Starring:  James Ellroy, William Bratton, Dana Delany, Gerald Derloshon, William Stoner, Bruce Wagner, Tim Wride

More info:  IMDb

Plot:  James Ellroy is the hugely successful crime writer whose novels have proved gripping reading since his first publication in 1981. Among them, a number have also been turned into films, most famously LA Confidential. In this unique documentary, he reveals himself to be a writer in search of himself as he pursues his life-long obsession: his investigations into the murders of both his mother in 1958 and the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, who came to be known as 'The Black Dahlia'.

Why do all his books keep returning to the same subject, with the same protagonists? Because his entire life, both as a man and writer, has revolved around a single obsession: the murder of his mother - a murder which became entangled with the killing of the girl known as the Black Dahlia, found naked and mutilated years earlier. This intriguing film explores the journey of a man and author who plumbed the depths of hell before finding redemption.

A series of contributors, including Helen Knode, novelist and Ellroy's wife; Steve Hodel, former LAPD police officer and the author of the bestseller The Black Dahlia Avenger; Dean Tavoularis, production designer and painter, and William J Bratton, LA police chief, provide key information to help better understand this rite-of-passage of a man who had all the traits of a serial killer, a man who is now one of the greatest thriller writers of the age, a man for whom the journey is not yet over.


My rating:  7/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah.

I could listen to James Ellroy talk for days.  He's a really interesting guy and what happened to his mother is just tragic, to say the least.   Now knowing more about his mother's murder when he was a child, it makes complete sense that he's held a lifelong obsession with The Black Dahlia killing.  It's interesting hearing all of this from the man himself, learning about his childhood, early influences and his career as a writer.  Good stuff.