The movie I’d like to focus on today is a science fiction, special effects driven story released in 1998 called Dark City.  It was directed by Alex Proyas, the man who brought us Brandon Lee’s final film, The Crow, and stars Rufus Sewell (an actor who’s cockeyed stare is what you’d instantly recognize him for rather then his name), Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, and William Hurt.

Look into my lazy eye!

Dark City uses a noir motif that is interrupted by the injection of horror and science fiction that quickly consumes the style in a delightful twist of genres that has rarely been done better.  Dark City’s theme is inextricably linked to the far more famous Matrix series, which came out a year after Dark City and used several of the same sets and props.  Yet the horrific pulse of Dark City pulls it into a much darker direction then the Wachowski brothers would ever dare go.

For anyone studying film or writing, the first three minutes of the theatrical release of Dark City should be a template for how NOT to start a Science Fiction story.  We’ve seen this happen far too many times in Hollywood, where a group of investors or producers don’t understand a complex Science Fiction story and demand that a voice over be used to tie things together.  We’ve seen it happen in Blade Runner and Dune to name a couple, and it is even more egregious here.  The most annoying character in the movie, played with a laughably stilted reading by Kiefer Sutherland, reveals the entire plot from the get go.  It nearly destroys an otherwise perfect movie, and I would have treasured a chance to see this without those opening few moments.  It’s like someone telling you who Keyser Soze is at the beginning of The Usual Suspects.  Unforgiveable.  That is why you must seek out the Director’s Cut, which is devoid of this wretched beginning.

Ve are NOT da GERMANS! Ve Swear it!

Dark City’s relentless score perfectly mirrors the insanity of what the main character, John Murdoch, is being put through as he tries to piece together the mystery of his life.  While having your main character be an amnesiac is perhaps the most over used cliché in any medium, the stakes that Murdoch is up against make you forgive it immediately.  From the moment the mysterious Strangers show up you understand this movie is going to take you places no other film has ever been able to, and John’s struggle to avoid them, then ultimately face them, is a pulse pounding experience.

William Hurt plays the role of the detective in this noir tale, and the parts with him slowly unraveling the secrets of the city is how the viewer should become privy to the plot, yet if you saw the theatrical release then you were robbed of this by the inexplicably terrible opening three minutes.   We are also introduced to John Murdoch’s wife, played by Jennifer Connelly, who cuckolded her husband and is trying to employ William Hurt to find him.  While her subplot feels extraneous at first, as the movie moves along you begin to realize how important she is to the theme and what underlying message Proyas was trying to achieve.

If you have never seen Dark City, then I implore you to give it a shot, but make sure to get the Director’s Cut to see it how it was meant to play out instead of how Hollywood executives thought that stupid people needed to see it.  Dark City is the best Sci Fi Noir since Blade Runner and has yet to be equaled.  Enjoy.