Not all is Black and White

I thought a morbid start to the day this morning with something about soon to be released film, Black Dahlia. The horrific murder of an aspiring hollywood actress who's career was cut short (no pun intended) in 1947. She was cut in half and slashed across the face and then her naked body dumped. Truely horrific. Although there were many arrests no one was ever convicted of the crime to this day.

Unsolved murders are never pleasant as we know in good old blighty. Jack the Ripper? Still no idea about his identity either. What I personally find most disturbing of all is really the minds of some ordinary people who choose to make millions out of something so distressing. I'm not going to moan and groan about this too much as people tend to do as they please as long as it is seen as being morally acceptable. Does it make it acceptable to take pictures of Princess Diana and then to later publish the pictures? Not even Hello and OK! readers would find that acceptable (although a certain Italian magazine though it was).

Jack the Ripper spawned countless good, bad and damn right atrocious TV movies and cinema film releases. Nearly every single person involved with the production of every movie stands to profit from it. Profit from a murder (or two). Its as bad as walking to the tourist trap in East London and some old chancer looking to make a quick buck sets up a make shift stall with the sign "Jack the Ripper Tours Here". Some people will say, "well you've got to make money somehow". I'm not trying to say that every single person has made profits from 'immoral' earnings. A story has to be told as each and everyone of us has a sense of morbid curiosity to listen to it. That should be down to someone who can maintain the integrity of the facts and not glamourise/hollywoodise it.

Black Dahlia is I believe the first effort from Hollywood to describe the terrible events that happened. Will I go and see it? Maybe. Probably not. Why? The murder was sensationalised back then and it is now. Going to the principles I described earlier, why give this tragic crime a second look. Why not a film about Stephen Lawrence or Damilola Taylor?