Early life
John Dahl was born and raised in Billings, Montana, the second of four children (his brother is filmmaker Rick Dahl). [4] [5] [6] Dahl's father worked as an insurance salesman, and his mother was a homemaker. [7] He graduated from Billings Senior High School in 1974. [8] [9]
Dahl's interest in film began at the age of seventeen, when he first saw A Clockwork Orange at a Billings drive-in theater, [9] as told to Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life .
This film captured my imagination so much. It was the first film that I saw that made me realize that somebody has to make this stuff. Somebody has to build those sets. Somebody has to paint those paintings. All of a sudden it became accessible. The movie was so compelling and interesting to me on so many levels. The one thing that struck me was that somebody made a movie, and that it was something that maybe, possibly, I could do. [10]
He first attended the Montana State University, and then transferred to Montana State University's School of Film and Photography, where he received a degree in film. While at MSU, Dahl was a student of Bill Pullman. His first feature film at MSU was titled The Death Mutants made for $12,000. While at Montana State he played guitar in the punk rock band "The Pugs". He also met his wife, Beth Friedberg at MSU, and after graduation they both left Montana to attend the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles. [8]
Career
Dahl moved to Los Angeles in 1982, beginning his career by drawing storyboards for music video directors. He would go on to work on feature films Robocop, Something Wild and Married to the Mob as a storyboard artist and assistant director. Dahl also directed multiple music videos, notably for Kool & the Gang and Joe Satriani. [11]
Dahl's first work on a feature film was on 1987's crime thriller P.I. Private Investigations, which he wrote. Dahl's first feature film as a director was 1989's noir thriller Kill Me Again, which he also wrote; the film was a box office failure which garnered mixed reviews. [12] Dahl's second feature film was 1993's Red Rock West, which Dahl again wrote. Although the film achieved only a modest box office, it was a significant critical success with Roger Ebert describing it as "a diabolical movie that exists sneakily between a western and a thriller, between a film noir and a black comedy," and awarding the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. [13]
Dahl followed up Red Rock West with another tale of greed and deceit, this time told from the female perspective, with a critically-acclaimed performance by Linda Fiorentino in 1994 crime thriller, The Last Seduction. [12] [14] Both Red Rock West and The Last Seduction were instant cult classics, however Dahl's hot streak ended with 1996's Unforgettable, starring Ray Liotta and Linda Fiorentino once more, which gained decidedly mixed reviews and was a box office bomb . [15] Dahl rebounded from this disappointment with 1998's well-received crime drama film about the underground world of high-stakes poker, Rounders,starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. [16] Dahl followed this up with 2001's successful Joy Ride. Dahl's 2005 The Great Raid attracted mixed reviews and failed at the box office. Dahl's 2007 You Kill Me attracted generally positive reviews, but only a modest box office. [17] You Kill Me is Dahl's last feature film to date, as after this he has pivoted to directing television shows. [3]
In his career as a television director, Dahl has directed multiple shows, including Hannibal (TV series), and House of Cards. [3]
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