THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR (1999) --- review (c) 1999 by Gordon R. Shumway
I've been a fan of Daniel F. Galouye's work for over four decades. Galouye was a WWII Air Force hero, retired early due to service-related injuries; he switched professions to become a journalist, and when further health problems appeared, became a free-lance writer in several genres. His work in Speculative Fiction, particularly minor milestones like "DARK UNIVERSE" and "SIMULACRON-3," put him near the top of the SF field, and earned him a good deal of respect (and awards nominations.)
For over three and a half decades, I've wanted to see a good movie adaption of "SIMULACRON-3." In fact, in the middle seventies, I pitched the idea to a couple of Suits at Universal, trying to get them to acquire the rights for a TV-movie.
Hilariously, I was completely unaware that Rainer Werner Fassbinder had already done a German TV "miniseries" adaption, which by all accounts was competent, respectable, decent work (1974). I have yet to see a copy of it, and as far as I know, no English-language or dubbed versions exist. The German version had a pretty healthy budget and production capacity behind it, so at least Daniel Galouye got to live long enough to see his work done on the screen, apparently by folks who did it well.
It's a pity that Galouye didn't live another couple of decades to see the current Emmerich/Rusnak version; I strongly believe he'd have been delighted, flattered, and hugely pleased.
"THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" will be largely savaged in reviews, and not get the box office it deserves, due to the heavy mining of the concept and similar concepts in recent years; viewpoint characters lost in ambigous realities finally shown to be a sham have been thrown at us over and over again, with over-budgeted c**p like "DARK CITY," "MATRIX," and "eXistenZ," and respectable efforts like Weir/Niccol's "THE TRUMAN SHOW." ( And Carrey was robbed, come Oscar Time, but I digress. )
Sadly, most of the movie-going public will simply not realize that Galouye did it first, did it better, and has been adapted by scriptwriters who obviously took the trouble to actually *READ* the book and show it some respect during the adaption process. The very real accomplishment here will be drowned out and buried beneath the high-budget flash of predecessors who derived their storylines from conceptual descendents of Galouye's original work. ( Galouye didn't do it first in prose SF, by any means; he was just the first one to do a really good job of it, and in its era, his novel was hugely innovative and important.)
The only prior English credit I can find on Joseph Rusnak is a second-unit director job on "GODZILLA, and I've certainly never heard of Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez, but I want to go on record as formally thanking them for not messing up one of my favorite books.
The movie's opening scenes, with Hannon Fuller ( played by Armin Mueller-Stahl, who's practically a German national treasure ) Seriously Fooling Around In, and leaving a mysterious message in, a Virtual Reality world -- and then getting killed after he returns to the real world -- set the tone for the entire movie:
Wonderful period sets, props, and costuming, and a selection of film stock and processing that creates a beautiful color version of classic "film noir" to establish a period "feel" very important to the rest of the movie.... the cinematographer, Wedigo Von Schultzendorff, has created a unique feel and look for the movie without blowing the entire budget. The handling of the obviously purposeful use of non-modern lighting, grain, and color balance are absolutely wonderful work, particularly considering the movie's base budget. The period music is handled superbly and is lovely to hear, in an era when movies seem to pride themselves on their ability to damage the patrons' hearing.
For me, the movie's greatest strength is that most of the major cast members are not "stars," but are professionals, quite good indeed.
Craig Bierko, who plays Douglas Hall, the much-beleaguered hero, and Gretchen Mol, his love interest, are both excellent and understated in their roles. The have to portray slightly unreal characters, in slightly unreal environments, and still make us believe in their characters; they do.
While it's a truism that any competent actor should be able to change into a different character with only alterations of body language and micromomentary facial expression, we don't often get to see it done with a reasonable degree of skill. Bierko, Mol, and Vincent D'Onofrio probably had a good deal of fun with their on-screen character transitions.
The plot is a bit simplistic by our present-day standards; Hall has to figure out how, and why, his life is being messed with, and Who The Mysterious Lady actually is. Long-time SF fans will see everything coming a mile away, since Galouye's major plot points have been recycled and fiddled with for decades. But like any classic or minor-classic work, the joy lies in the process, the trip.
The only carps I have about this movie are the relatively gratuitous use of zooming-tunnel-of-light symbology during the consciousness-transfer scenes, and sparkling eyes. Neither were necessary, and possibly should have been avoided. I would have preferred different architecture and atmosphere for the final scene, but it worked just fine the way it was, so what the heck.
This is the first movie I have ever seen with Emmerich's name on it that I was not embarrassed to admit in public I'd sat through all the way. I plan to see it at least one more time while it's still in the theater, just to take a few notes.
You'll be amazed by the exterior scenes from the late 1930's. The work is occasionally breath-takingly good.
I've been told that "THIRTEENTH FLOOR" was shot on $35 million, and frankly have trouble believing it; that's a pretty danged decent piece of work on a relatively average budget for something with FX work in it, and all I can say is, if this is the quality of work that Emmerich can manage when he's constrained to a sensible budget and does *NOT* have Dean Devlin on the staff, I'll be looking forward to his next project.
I might have gone five stars, if they'd left out the Descartes quote at the beginning and the diving-through-light-tunnels footage. ( Well, once would have been okay, since the glowing-network imagery was nice, and a good subliminal referent to neural dendritic structures. )
As far as I'm concerned, this one is " * * * * " out of five possible. In my personal rating system, this equates to "worth evening prices, WITH popcorn."
THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR (1999) * * * * ( four stars; see in theater! )
>From Centropolis Pictures, U.S. release by Columbia
Directed by: Josef Rusnak.
Produced by: Roland Emmerich, Ute Emmerich and Marco Weber;
Execs, Helga and Michael Ballhaus; Co-, Kelly Van Horn
Screenplay: Josef Rusnak and Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez,
based on Daniel Galouye's 1963 novel, "SIMULACRON-3"
Cinematography: Wedigo Von Schultzendorff
Stars: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Vincent D'Onofrio, Dennis Haysbert, Armin Mueller-Stahl.
Music: Harold Kloser
MPAA Rated: R (for mild violence, profanity, adult themes) Running Time: ~120 minutes.
** recommended **
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