"Dark City" A SCIENCE FICTION WORLD review, (C) 1999/2000 KWISATZ HADERACH. Visit SCIENCE FICTION WORLD: WWW.SFWORLD.ONLINEHOME.DE
Cast: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connely, Richard O'Brien, Ian Richardson, William Hurt Director/Author: Alex Proyas Producers: Alex Proyas & Andrew Mason Origin: USA/Australia 1998 Duration: 103 minutes
SFWORLD Rating: 4 1/2 Stars (out of 5)
"Dark City" is a very special movie. Published in 1998 it creates a very interesting atmosphere by using many good ideas from different sf-novels, -short-stories and -movies. For me it can be described best as a mixture of Franz Kafka and Philip K. Dick. Maybe that's the main reason why I like the movie that much. The movie starts with the main character John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) lying sleeping in a bath. Very soon he awakes and recognizes that he has lost his memory. Neither can he remember who he is nor where. He gets to know that is in a strange hotel and after a while he finds out that he is wanted for a series of brutal and very bizarre murders. In panic he leaves the house to find himself on the dark and cold street near a ringing telephone. He answers the telephone and a man who introduces himself as Dr. Schreiber (Kiefer Sutherland) tells him that something has gone wrong and that he has to hide because "they" are searching for him and that they must not get him. Although he flees the same moment "they" are able to find him shortly afterwards. Being attacked by them he uses the ability to "tune" that means to use a supernatural power which originally only "them" had. This power allows him to make things happen while only thinking of them. He did not knew that he had those power but now he has a weapon to defend himself. Of course he tries to find out the following: Who am I ? Why do I have those powers ? Why are "they" hunting me ? In the further story he gets to know that he is the only human in the dark city who has such powers and that these powers must be a result of the failed experiment that "they" had done to him. What he also gets to know is that the whole city is used by the aliens as a big labor to study human behaviour. "They" are from a dying race which believe it's only chance to survive is to find out what makes humans humane. To study the humans "they" have brought some ten thousand of them to a synthetic city which drives through space. From where they have been kidnapped no one knows. But on the asteroid only the city exists there's nothing around it although all people of the believe so. Only our main character realises that but he is always on the run so that he can not be caught and he doesn't know how or if he can change the things. "Shell-Beach", in the memories of many people of the town a wonderful place, doesn't exist too. It is false as nearly all the peoples memories are. Every night at 12 o'clock the strangers stop all motion in the city and all the human inhabitants fall asleep from one second to another. The strangers then visit all humans sleeping and manipulate their memories with the help of Dr. Schneider by injecting a special liquid directly into the people's brains. Every portion of the liquid includes new memories which erases the old ones. So when the people finally awake they are absolutely sure that they are someone else, have another job and another personal history. The strangers' work is perfect which means that "they" are not only changing the people's memories but that they also change their environment. The whole environment is changed in that way that it fits the people's new image of themselves including photographs of their last holidays which have never taken place but their wrong memory tells them that it has been and the photographs or other things confirm their belief. The strangers who are searching for the secret of humanity, for the "soul" as they call it, have a collective conscience similar to the borg in "Star Trek". While hunting John Murdoch everyone of them gets to know when and where he is found by someone of the collective. But by using his tuning-abilities he is always able to escape from them. On his run step by step he finds out all the secrets of the dark city and of their "owners". He discerns that "they" can not cope with sunlight and that "they" hate every form of water. That is also the reason why there has never been a day, never been a ray of light in the dark city. The whole town lives in an endless night although the human inhabitants believe that they live a "normal" live with day and night because of their synthetic memories. During one of the nightly tuning-sessions John Murdoch meets Dr. Schneider who tells him the whole story and promises to help him. "They" are finally able to find him because one of "them" has been injected the same memories he has and so he is able to think just like Murdoch. Threatening his "wife" (also a false memory) Emma Murdoch (Jennifer Connely) they force him to give up. Although he knows that she is not his real wife he loves her and to save her he accepts to be captured. In "their" central "they" want Dr. Schneider to let his spirit melt with "their" collective conscience but doc Schneider injects him something else which makes him even more powerful. With the help of those new powers he faces "their" leader in a final fight and as he wins he is in the city's control. He frees the dark city and lets the sun shine, in the end he creates shell-beach where he meets his "wife" again.
Although "Dark City" uses a lot of old ideas from Kafka, Dick, Star Trek and many others it is able to create an own atmosphere and a very special dark and mysterious mute. Maybe the single ideas aren't new but in this special mixture they are ingenious. Many critics accused Alex Proyas, the author and director of "Dark City", of having created a movie which looks really good but which story isn't worth to talk about. They said that he has concentrated himself too much on the visual effects and therefore has forgotten the content. In my opinion it is true that the backgrounds of "Dark City" are fabulous and that they can be best compared with "Blade Runner" which is a real compliment for every movie. But I don't think that Proyas has forgotten the content. Not only that the movie has a very intense atmosphere it has also a story which in my eyes is worth to think and talk about. The music fits the style and mute of the movie perfectly, it is dark, mysterious and powerful. I can't remember who composed that music but whoever it was he has done a really good job. Regarding the movie as whole "Dark City" is in fact one of the best science-fiction movies ever, watch it !
A SCIENCE FICTION WORLD review, (C) 1999/2000 KWISATZ HADERACH. e-mail: KWISATZ-HADERACH@GMX.NET Visit SCIENCE FICTION WORLD WWW.SFWORLD.ONLINEHOME.DE : more than 60 other movies reviewed and rated, illustrated by 200 pictures and photographs. ------- End of forwarded message -------
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