Dark City
In 'Dark City' (1998), all of the human memories are newly fabricated when the hands of the clock reach 12. This is defined as 'midnight,' but the term is deceptive, because there is no noon. 'First came darkness, then came the Strangers,' we are told in the opening narration. In the beginning, there was no light. John Murdoch, the hero, asks Bumstead, the police detective: 'When was the last time you remember doing something during the day?' Bumstead is surprised by the question. 'You know something?' Murdoch asks him. 'I don't think the sun even exists in this place. I've been up for hours and hours, and the night never ends here.'" "The narration explains that the Strangers came from another galaxy and collected a group of humans to study them. Their civilization is dying. They seek to find the secret of the human heart, or soul, or whatever it is that falls outside their compass. They create a vast artificial city, which can be fabricated, or 'tuned,' whenever they want to run another experiment. " The Strangers are not evil. They simply proceed from alien assumptions. They are not even omnipotent, which is why Murdoch, Bumstead and Schreber have relative freedom to move about the city. At the end, we feel a little sorry for them. They will die surrounded by happy beings whose secrets they could not discover." "I believe more than ever that 'Dark City' is one of the great modern films. It preceded 'The Matrix' by a year (both films used a few of the same sets in Australia), and on a smaller budget, with special effects that owe as much to imagination as to technology, did what 'The Matrix' wanted to do, earlier and with more feeling." ------ Roger Ebert DVD:
Curator's Comments: Read Roger Ebert's essay on this DVD Classic. Director: Alex Proyas Country: Australia/U.S.A.
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