Feature Friday: Dark City

As I mentioned yesterday, I spend a lot of hours here at Jo'T HQ. There are many a day where it is dark when I arrive, and dark again by the time I leave. Three days this week alone, I didn't even get to break for lunch. And, as I my office has no windows, I never saw that large bright disk in the sky.

But what if it wasn't just me being inside during the day? What if there were no day? What if you couldn't remember the last time you saw the sun? And what if your memories of the past were nothing more than a scrapbook collection of the memories of a thousand other people?

Title: Dark City
Year: 1998
Director: Alex Proyas
Staring: Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O'Brien, Ian Richardson, Bruce Spence

Welcome to the birth of John Murdoch (Sewell). He awakens in the bathtub of a rundown hotel in the bad part of town. He has no memory of how he got there, or why. All he knows is that he's naked and bleeding. Oh, and there's a dead girl in the bedroom, and he has a knife with him.

He receives a telephone call from the mysterious Dr. Daniel Schreber (Sutherland). Murdoch is informed that he being chased by "The Strangers," who, we are told via voiceover, are members of a dying, extraterrestrial race, searching for a cure of their own mortality. The Strangers feel that the key to prolonged life is imbedded within the human essence. They can alter the fabric of reality, using an extrasensory ability called 'tuning,' and traipse the nocturnal streets looking to conduct their nefarious experiments upon the sleeping city.

In Murdoch's first encounter with The Strangers, he finds that he, too, can 'tune,' leading to the death of one of his opponents. Armed with this knowledge, plus a memory of "Shell Beach," a summer vacation destination from his childhood, Murdoch tries to make his way back to the life he remembers. He believes he can do this by finding his wife, Emma (Connelly).

However, the dead girl in the hotel has been discovered, and all the evidence points to the "Street Walker Killer," whom the police now think is Murdoch. Inspector Frank Bumstead (Hurt), is assigned to track down Murdoch, and bring him to justice.

With the help of Emma, and the reluctant aid of Bumstead and Schreber, Murdoch eventually comes face to face with Mr. Hand (O'Brien), the lead Stranger who set the whole series of events in motion. But, it does not end there, as Murdoch and Bumstead discover the truth and must confront the entire race of Strangers, and their powerful leader, Mr. Book (Richardson).


I first heard about this movie when I read an article about it in the paper the day it opened. (Ah, the newspaper. Remember them? Back before we got all of our news via the web? I can't remember the last time I actually read one.) Anyway, I recalled no promotional advertising for this film at all. No trailers, no TV ads, no reviews. Nothing at all. Now, 99.9% of the time, this is the movie studio's way of disavowing any knowledge of a movie they want no part of. And, 99.9% of the time, it's well deserved.

However, Dark City is that magical .1% anomaly. Much like Murdoch himself. Rich in existentialist philosophy and a dark 40's and 50's film noir feel, with a nod to Serling, Heinlein, and even Hitchcock, Dark City actually pulls off the near impossible: A sci-fi movie with more substance underneath than on the surface. A movie that brings into focus the role of memory in shaping one's identity and the perception of reality. And it does it very well.

Director Alex Proyas, who also helped write the screenplay, really knows how to use subtext as almost another character, and how to ground the fantastical with the practical. Much like he did with The Crow, but on a much broader scale. The scope is bigger, and so is the playing field. And Proyas makes it look easy.

Rufus Sewell should be the next James Bond. He's roguish and tough. Dashing and broody. Deadly and quiet. He can convey pages of dialogue with the minimalist of expressions. Oh, and Win informed me that he is hella-cute. So, I guess that helps too. His John Murdoch is a man of mystery. But not just to the other characters in the movie. Or even to the audience. Murdoch is a mystery to himself. And Sewell uses that to his advantage. You can see him mentally questioning himself before he acts. That "is this something I would really do?" aspect you rarely see of someone playing an amnesiac character. You see him actually surprise himself. It's a treasure of a role, because you are free to go anywhere with the character. To be as over the top as you please. To literally become the person you always wanted to be, because there is no one who actually remembers the "real" you to contradict it. And Sewell does it with such aplomb, with such restraint, that he always seems natural. Very well done.

Now, I'm a big fan of William Hurt. He is one of a handful of actors who I can let go of reality and completely believe anything they tell me while on screen. He wears a level of authority and credibility around himself like a cloak. He's a actor from whom I take what they say at face value. I like the fact that his Frank Bumstead is not a finished character in the movie. He is made up of bits and pieces of the idea of what he should be. But the most astounding thing, is that Bumstead sees it himself. As the story unfolds, and he discovers his role in the scheme of things, he comes to understand himself completely for the first time. It wonderful and terrifying at the same time, realizing (and accepting) that you really are just a bit part in
the big picture. That you really are just an extra in someone else's life, with no story of your own. Hurt does an incredible job at conveying Bumstead's reaction to this, and in the hands of a lesser actor, it could have fallen flat.

And what film noir would be worth its weight in salt without a Siren? And who better for the role than Jennifer Connelly? She is quite simply one of the most beautiful women on the planet. She has an elegance and a poise that oozes sexuality and the acting chops to back up anything she's saying. Her Emma Murdoch is a torch singer in the film, and boy, does she portray that to a tee. However, she also gets to play the deceived, helpless innocent as well. The wife who has no idea who the man she married really is. Her memories, too, have been altered, reshaped, to conform to the current state of reality. But, like Bumstead, and, to some extent, even Murdoch, she is not whole. She knows she loves this man. Also, that she is afraid of him. She just doesn't know why.

Ah, Kiefer. This was back long before Jack Bauer became a household name. Back when the Kief was just starting to break out of the pigeonholed roles he created for himself, playing little, one-note characters trapped in little, one-note movies, which just happened to also star his father. Kiefer brings to Dr. Daniel Schreber a sinister edge that I'm sure the original character did not possess. Schreber is the cowardly traitor who actually thinks he's repenting for his sins. The Strangers use his expertise to rebuild the memories used in their experiments, but he had to voluntarily erase his own. Though he thinks he's doing the right thing by helping Murdoch, he fails to see that things would have turned out pretty much the same way he not intervened at all. Nor does he grasp that he is not, in fact, helping The Strangers, he is only prolonging the inevitable. Here again is a character who thinks he plays a larger role than was written for him. However, in Schreber's case, there was never a "real" person there to begin with. And because he traded his soul for his freedom, the character never gets to redeem himself, because there is nothing left to redeem. It's a juicy role, one with many layers, and one that Sutherland was born to play.

The Strangers themselves are almost the Mcguffin of the film. They are there to serve as the architects of the story, but with little more authority than the subjects they test. They are powerful, to be sure, but they have no conscience to abuse that power, because they have no conscience themselves. Before the experiments, they were merely drones, and after all is said and done, drones they still are. It's not until Mr. Hand decides to break with the experiment, and try to become this anomaly called Man, do they sense the true corruption that absolute power can bring.

Richard O'Brien brings a fresh face to an old evil, but in the end, it's the idea of Mr. Hand that is more dangerous than the character himself. Ian Richardson has some nice moments as Mr. Book, as well, especially when he keeps to the shadows and plays the overlord with his hands on the puppet strings. However, once we get into the 3rd act, it's hard to live up to the expectations of the previous 2. The Strangers had potential, but in the end, the action card was played a little too aggressively, when we may have wanted more complementation and a better sense of closure.

Regardless, this is a great movie that makes you think every time you watch it. It handles very well the concept that we are not just the sum parts of our memories. That who we are (or, who we THINK we are) is not as important as the actions we take. Am I me because of who I am, or because of who I remember myself to be? And in a sci-fi, no less…


Sorry this is coming out so late in the day, we're a little backed up here. Which is good. Much better than the alternative.

Have a great weekend. See you next time.

-Jos

"Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is." ~Albert Camus