John Dahl (director)

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John Dahl (2007)

John Dahl (* 1956 in Billings , Montana ) is an American storyboard draftsman, film and television director . He became known through the neo-noir trilogy Kill me again , Red Rock West and The Last Seduction as well as the war film The Great Raid - Liberation Day, based on a true story from 1945 .

life and career

As the second oldest of four children, Dahl spent his childhood and youth in the US state of Montana. After college, he studied art history and film at the University of Montana . A fellow student at Montana State University was the actor Bill Pullman . Pullman, who became internationally known for his comedy Sleepless in Seattle , later took on roles in several Dahl films. Dahl also played guitar in the punk band The Pugs . At MSU, he also met his future wife - camera assistant Beth Friedberg, who was responsible for editing , technical assistance and post-production in Dahl's early productions . To continue his training as a director, he moved with Beth Friedberg to Los Angeles , where he continued his studies at the American Film Institute . During his studies, John Dahl made the obligatory short films - three in all. He made his entry into the industry with commercials and video clips - among others for the funk group Kool and the Gang and the rock guitarist Joe Satriani . He also made a name for himself as a storyboard artist for mainstream film projects such as RoboCop by Paul Verhoeven and Dangerous Friend of Jonathan Demme .

With Kill me again Dahl delivered his first feature film in 1989. The film - a psychological thriller in the tradition of film noir - also made it to cinemas in Europe . Laconic noir stripes in the style of the Coen brothers , underlaid with black humor, were also Dahl's trademark in the following years. Dahl continued the neo-noir trilogy that began with Kill me again with the films Red Rock West (1992, with Nicolas Cage , Lara Flynn Boyle and Dennis Hopper ) and The Last Seduction (1994, with Linda Fiorentino , Bill Pullman and Peter Berg ). The main motif shared by all three films: femme fatales , which act as a catalyst for the plot of each film. The thriller The Last Seduction , which is exceptionally successful as a genre film , brought the decisive breakthrough for the hitherto unknown actress Linda Fiorentino - a success that she repeated a year later with a similar role in Jade by old master William Friedkin ( French Connection ) .

With the psychological thriller Unforgettable (1996 Starring: Ray Liotta , Linda Fiorentino and Peter Coyote ), who in the world of poker -playing murder mystery Rounders (starring 1998: Matt Damon and Edward Norton ), the horror - road movie Joyride - jaunt from the year In 2001 and the crime comedy You Kill Me (2007; with Ben Kingsley and Bill Pullman) Dahl continued to produce ambitious noir genre films. Despite predominantly positive reviews and - in the case of Joyride - isolated nominations for industry awards, the majority of the titles listed were only released on DVD. The Great Raid - Liberation Day was released as an ambitious feature film in 2005 . The war film, which is based on a true story (the capture of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on the Philippines main island of Luzon by US ranger units in April 1945) received positive reviews. However, the film flopped at the box office and only appeared in DVD form in Germany . The laconic, unfiltered depiction of violence also meant that the FSK labeled the film “No youth release”. Together with his brother Rick Dahl , with whom he had already worked at Rounders , John Dahl was also involved in a post-war documentary about Jewish combat units in World War II : Striking Back: A Jewish Commando's War Against The Nazis.

In recent years, Dahl was mainly as an episode director working for horror, fantasy - and crime - television series like True Blood , Breaking Bad , Battlestar Galactica , Vampire Diaries , Dexter and Life . John Dahl lives with Beth Friedberg. The couple have four children.

Style and reviews

In the US film industry, John Dahl is a specialist for straightforward neo-noir films - with a pinch of cryptic humor. At Dahl, colleagues and partners like JJ Abrams particularly emphasize the realistic-human elaboration of the main characters as well as the network of relationships that ultimately drives the plot in his films. The film weblog Lichtermagazin described Dahl as a “cinematic weirdo”, albeit as a “weirdo in the positive sense, who can be called the spiritual brother of the Coen brothers with a clear conscience.” The film portal kino.de characterized Dahl's style as follows: “Aus A lover of film noir, who paid tribute to his first films in the Black Series, director John Dahl became a clever thriller specialist who likes to combine his brilliant nightmare crime stories with motifs from road movies. Dahl's cinema was described by Donald Lyons as 'abstract noir' because, in contrast to its role models, it largely ignores the social aspects and varies the genre patterns . "

The feature sections of the leading German print media also reviewed several of Dahl's films. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, for example, rated You Kill Me from 2007 as a tragic thriller and “good school for fatalism” . Mixed judgment on Dahl's second film, Red Rock West , Die Zeit . Conclusion: “In ' Wild at Heart ' the heroes race across the continent, in 'Red Rock West' they keep running out of gas. They don't move, and the film steps on the spot with them, despite all the feint, action scenes and attempts to escape. "

Dahl's war film The Great Raid received rather terse feedback . Lapidary note in the Süddeutsche Zeitung : "'The Great Raid' [...] is a classic war film, the front is clearly drawn, the harassment and atrocities of the Japanese are mercilessly played out, the underground is also involved, which smuggles medicine into the camp." The special film portal Schnittberichte.com provided more factual material on the flop of this film : “When the film opened in US cinemas in 2005, it flopped a lot and only brought in a good 10% of the production costs. Because of these bad numbers, the film didn't even show in our cinemas, but was instead put in stores by Buena Vista as a direct-to-DVD release. The film was labeled 'no youth release'. This is probably less due to bloody fight scenes, because they are limited. It is certainly much more due to the relentless portrayal of the Japanese executions and torture of their prisoners. "

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c John Dahl , express.de, accessed October 1, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c d Portrait: John Dahl , kino.de, accessed October 1, 2012
  3. ↑ a b The Great Raid , report on schnittberichte.de, accessed on October 1, 2012
  4. ↑ Production notes on Joyride ( Memento from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Dirk Jasper FilmLexikon , accessed on October 1, 2012
  5. ^ John Dahl (You Kill Me) Gerhard M. Vogl, lichtermagazin, accessed October 1, 2012
  6. ↑ A hit man on the mend , Bert Rebhandl, faz.net, June 11, 2008
  7. ^ Jeans stays jeans , Christine Peitz, Die Zeit, July 9, 1993
  8. ^ Culture: The Great Raid ( Memento from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), süddeutsche.de, September 3, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Dahl, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film and television director
DATE OF BIRTH 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Billings , Montana