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Dark City (1998)

Rating: 9 out of 10

Once in a while, a film comes along that changes the way you perceive Reality; a film that questions what it means to be human. A film that deals with issues of God, of memories, of mind control, secret conspiracies, and the existence of extra-terrestrial lifeforms. Once in a while, a film comes along that inspires you to think, to question, to defy. A film that presents you with a ghostly vision of a gothic world that may very well be our own, before blowing you away with incredible special effects. Once in a while, a film comes along like Dark City (1998).

Dark City does for 1990s sci-fi cinema what Tiger Woods has done for golf, what Nirvana did for grunge rock, what Star Wars did for film during the 1970s. In an age in which the advancement of computer-generated effects provides filmmakers with an unprecedented ability to materialise fantastic dream-like images, Dark City has reinvigorated the art-form of big-budget cinema. While mainstream Hollywood studios continue to pump out pathetic $75+ million disaster movies such as Alien: Resurrection (1998), Volcano (1997), Deep Impact (1998) and Godzilla (1998) as an excuse to flex their sfx brawn, while treating their audiences to half-baked scripts, Alex Proyas has blended big-budget effects with a truly provocative screenplay and a unique vision that shows why CGI-effects were invented.

Set within a brooding claustrophobic gothic wonderland, Dark City traverses the generic boundaries of both the science fiction film and the film noir mystery, in a similar vein to Ridley Scott’s poignant Blade Runner (1982). Like Blade Runner, the lead character, John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) is forced to consider whether his memories are actually his, or whether he has, like a replicant, been infused with someone else’s memories as part of The Strangers’ wicked experiments. Likewise, he is forced to accept that those around him, his friends, relatives, his love Emma (Jennifer Connelly), and his enemies may not be who they seem (in a tragic flip-side to the themes presented in The Truman Show (1998)), and may change at any time.

The Strangers are said to be a race of extra-terrestrial beings of some sort who, in a vain Ozymandian attempt to challenge their mortality, turn to taking control of human cadavers (ala Ghost in the Shell) in order to ‘discover’ what it takes to be human. Of course, they fail to comprehend that the human soul is something intangible and unmechanical. Therein lies the race’s weakness. Still, due to their ability to ‘freeze’ their created city – a city formed from the combined memories of its inhabitants, sometimes in a chaotic manner that blends a number of eras and moods – and manipulate human memories by swapping them with others and consequently morphing the city, the human’s have no power over the Strangers. That is, except for Murdoch whose unpredictable telekinetic powers enabled him to gain The Strangers’ abilities and a fractured memory of his past existence when he interrupted Dr. Schreber’s (Kiefer Sutherland) attempts to infuse him with the memories of a killer.

If this sounds confusing, that’s because it is. Proyas, to his credit, has created a story that presents both unique ideas and a captivating noirish mystery, as well as maintaining a degree of ambiguity that leaves a great deal to the viewer’s imagination in order to fill in the gaps. For this reason, a number of people, and critics alike, have left Dark City with a variety of interpretations. The film’s production design enhances this ambiguous vision, the city looking like a nightmarish retro township, blending architecture from the present with storefronts and cars from the 1940s.

Alex Proyas, one of Australia’s finest Post New Wave talents, has created a series of cutting-edge films during the past decade, all of which are regarded as cult classics. With roots in the music video industry, Alex has carried the impressive visuals, thought-provoking premises, comic-book style and fast pace of music videos through to his feature works to create a series of films unlike any produced by Australian directors in the past, with the exception of George Miller’s Mad Max films. Dark City, though, is by far his most developed, most inspired work yet. Its elaborate construction, challenging script, unique style and powerful performances have moulded it into one of the year’s finest films, and a must see.

Review written by Joshua Smith, 1998.

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