Curse the Darkness, by Tyler Smith

DARK CITY (1998)
Directed by: Alex Proyas
Written by: David S. Goyer, Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs
Starring: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly

I remember when I first saw this movie. I casually picked it up at the video store, knowing very little about it. Two hours later, I was blown away. There are very few movies like Alex Proyas’ Dark City, and, upon watching it, it’s easy to see why.

This is a risky movie. It creates an entire world, throws us right into the middle of it, starts the story, and dares us to keep up. Just as we’re trying to get our minds around the opening narration, about “the strangers” and “tuning,” we find ourselves introduced to a man with no memory who is accused of murder. We see a large, claustrophobic city (reminiscent of Gotham City). We see that, at midnight, the inhabitants of this urban nightmare all fall asleep at the same time. All except the murderer, who is just as confused as we are.

All of this comes at us within the first five minutes. And it never slows down. The film refuses to let us catch our breath, to try to figure things out. Just when we think we understand what’s going on, something else happens; a new building springs up, new characters are introduced.

This is probably due to the mixing of genres. Dark City is one of the few films that successfully intermingles the film noir genre with science fiction, with more than a dash of fantasy thrown in for good measure. We see a cynical, fedora-sporting detective in one scene, then blue spider-type aliens in the next.
It’s just so exhilerating to be a part of this world. It’s cut from the same cloth as Blade Runner, Naked Lunch, and Brazil, where we are transported to a completely different reality. We may not have our footing, but we kind of like it that way.

As if the visual element wasn’t enough, the story itself is intriguing. Playing with a concept that would be revisited later by The Matrix, we see that mankind (or, at least, the people that live in this specific city) is constantly being experimented on by superior beings for their own gain. By changing people’s memories, these alien beings hope to understand what makes us who we are; what some would refer to as our “soul.”

A key example is, if a man was imprinted with the memories of a killer, even though he himself was not one, would he become what his memories tell him he is, or would he fight it? Are we simply the product of our experiences, or is it something deeper, something intangible?

I would keep talking about all the things I love about this movie, but I’m afraid I’d just be repeating myself. There are some movies that I feel the need to completely deconstruct, then there are some that are just so good and so unique that I feel that, no matter how hard I try, I will never quite be able to truly convey the greatness of them. Dark City is one of these. Strangely, though, I’m okay with that.

Because, somehow, a film this original and intelligent wouldn’t seem as great if it could be completely grasped. Watch the movie; you’ll see what I mean.