Alex Proyas 1998

1
Alex Proyas 1998

• Themes in SF and Fantasy
• Dystopian Future Noir

2
Introduction

• Premise
• Characters
• SF Elements
• Remake of Metropolis?
• Genre
• Cinematic Conventions
• Conclusion

3
Premise

• A literally dark city (where dawn never arrives
  with no escape) is controlled by Strangers
  (aliens).
• Setting appears to be any Northern American city
  with Gothic-style architecture from the 30s to
  the 50s (like New York/Gotham/ D.C.s
  Metropolis).
• The main character wakes up to no memory of who
  he is. He finds his wallet at an auto-mat (and
  discovers his name is supposedly John Murdock).
• The Strangers control memory through injection
  and switch their victims identity without
  detection during every clock rotation while the
  city sleeps. Even buildings are deformed and
  reshaped.
• Mind-control in the film is called tuning.

4
Memories and the Mind

• Characters dont remember one day changing to the
  next.
• Photographs and notebooks cannot capture the
  past.
• Occasionally, a character begins to have flashes
  of memory.
• One character, Walenski, takes his own life due
  to these break-through memories.

5
Characters

• Rufus Sewell plays John Murdock, a suspected
  psychopath.
• The experiment went wrong and his new identity
  didnt take.
• Doctor Schreber, who is employed by the
  Strangers, contacts Murdocks wife (who
  supposedly cheated on her husband) to locate
  Murdock.
• William Hurt plays Detective Bumstead, who hunts
  Murdock and then assists him in the quest to find
  the truth about Dark City.

6
Femme Fatale

• The femme fatale combines sexual allure with
  danger.
• True noir has two females, one good, one evil
  here they are one.
• Jennifer Connelly is Emma Murdock, whose first
  introduction to the film is as a lounge singer.
• Her character remains pure, although her
  identity as Emma is an adulteress.
• In the end, her identity is switched again to an
  unmarried theatre cashier, Anna. Her memories of
  John are completely removed.

7
Endangered Female
Johns protective instincts are engaged by Emmas
endangerment.
8
SF and Horror Elements

• The Strangers have abducted humans in order to
  reinvigorate their alien dying race.
• The strangers lack a soulthey are truly alien
  forms that inhabit the corpses of humanshence
  the blue faces.
• Their mental abilities give them telekinetic
  advantages over humans.

Kiefer Sutherland plays the Doctor who is
co-opted into making the experiment a success. He
distills memories into chemicals that can be
injected to change identities.
9
Remake of Metropolis?

• You probably noticed some visual and design
  similarities to Langs Metropolis (expressionist
  lighting).
• Murdock takes on the role of saviour to liberate
  his fellow humans from the Strangers.
• He is also responsible for ultimately reshaping
  the upper world and bringing light, life, and
  love to the oppressed who dwell in the darkness
  of ignorancethe heros journey.

10
Genre Neo-Noir Thriller

• Dark City has all the elements of neo-noir
• Dark urban setting
• Murder mystery
• Ambiguous Hero
• Ambiguous Heroine/Femme Fatale
• Class relations
• Property crimes
• Noir lighting and
• End-of-Millenium tension

11
Genre Detective Fiction

• In detective fiction, the hero is typically the
  detective, not the killer or prisoner.
• Noir films like Maltese Falcon often have dark
  endings through which the femme fatale is
  punished.
• Conversely, Detective Lieutenant Frank Bumstead
  (William Hurt) sacrifices his life so that
  Murdock can succeed.
• Another SF film that uses the detective (includes
  dead-pan voice-over narration) is Blade Runner
  (Scott 1982).

12
Dystopian Depiction Violence and American Culture

• The Strangers experiment is designed to discover
  the essence of the human soul how is character
  formed?Are we products of our memories and
  experiences or are persons inherently good or
  evil?

13
Cinematic Conventions

• As a formalist film, as most SF and Fantasy films
  are, formal conventions include stylized design
  in mise en scene (closed form in the upper shot)
  as well as moody lighting, sound effects, musical
  drama, and visual fx.
• The maze is a typical external expression of
  internal states.

14
Conclusion

• Shell Beach represents the romantic ideal or
  goal of the quest, the utopian paradise that
  everyone longs for.
• The Strangers use Shell Beach to give their
  prisoners hopelike the AI in The Matrix.
• Shell Beach has all the elements of a mythical
  ideal place light (sunshine), freedom, endless
  water, happy childhood memories of family and
  fun, the possibility of finding true love (note
  the lighthouse)
• How does Murdock find Shell Beach when he learns
  the truthits only a myth?
• He creates it using the power of the mind to
  shape reality.