New DVD – James Ellroy: American Dog

DVD Savant, Glenn Erickson, reviews this new DVD on noir novelist, James Ellroy, who penned LA Confidential:

Arte’s DVD of James Ellroy: “American Dog” is an excellent presentation of a show with a beautiful look; the views of Los Angeles are a slick tour of a noir city. The audio is good and the music editorial excellent, with those classical pieces weaving in and out of Ellroy’s edgy speeches. An extras menu leads to several interesting sidebar videos. Two dinner conversations with Ellroy and his friends (Rick Jackson, Bruce Wagner, Dana Delaney, Joe and Matthew Carnahan, Michelle Grace) at the Pacific Dining Car are followed by a 2005 reading of American Tabloid at the Hammer Museum by Ellroy, Bruce Wagner and Dana Delany. Ellroy is presented with the ‘Jack Webb Award’ by the LAPD, an honor that must have been a prelude to the film’s interview with the oddly worshipful Chief Bratton. Galleries of vintage L.A. postcards, and gruesome crime scene photos finish the presentation. More