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Bit 1
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Dark City begins with a breathless monologue, delivered by Kiefer Sutherland.
It's pure exposition, what SF critics call an 'info-dump', and it sets the
scene for the unfolding story in more ways than one.
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Bit 2
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John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens and finds himself in a dingy, dark hotel
room in a squalid dark city with a dead woman and no memory of what
happened, or indeed, of anything. This is bad in itself, but he's also
being chased by the city's police (represented by the brooding William Hurt)
and some zombie-like figures (the Strangers) wearing black greatcoats. He's
also developed psychic powers.
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Bit 3
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One of the film's premises is that human memory can be manipulated as though
it were the contents of a filing cabinet, that it is moveable (between bodies) and
infinitely arrangeable. The Strangers are experimenting on humans by
removing their memories and replacing them with new ones that were mixed up
from the vats.
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Bit 4
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It's a film about dealing with density of information: narrative, visual,
biochemical, and psychic. The info-dumps are scattered throughout the film
for the viewer to grab and absorb as quickly as possible. The sets are
extraordinarily detailed, setting off trains of cultural and historical
associations. The question of how we deal with the accumulated, real, but
intangible traces of our own existence is explored.
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Bit 5
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film fails to develop its premise in a
philosophically rigorous fashion, but a comprehensive filmic argument on
the nature of mind/body duality might be a big ask from anything funded by
Hollywood. Nevertheless the film is visually stunning, seamlessly mixing
architecture from a dozen eras with an expressionist aesthetic and
chiaroscuro cinematography. Special effects are near flawless and
stylistically unified. Fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld will swoon over
one particular closing sequence.
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Bit 6
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Despite my misgivings over the film's development of its ideas, I recommend
it, because it is philosophical, intelligent and ambitious, a rarity in
Hollywood SF, and because of a few sequences which have genuine emotional
power.
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Bit 7
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Details
Dark City, by New Line Cinema, 1998.
Director/Writer: Alex Proyas.
Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski.
Production design: George Liddle, Patrick Tatopoulos.
Cast: Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland.
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Bit 8
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Citation reference for this article
MLA style:
Nick Caldwell. "Made of Memories: 'Dark City'." M/C Reviews 14 Aug. 1998.
[your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/dark.html>.
Chicago style:
Nick Caldwell, "Made of Memories: 'Dark City'," M/C Reviews 14 Aug. 1998,
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/dark.html> ([your date of access]).
APA style:
Nick Caldwell. (1998) Made of memories: 'Dark City'. M/C Reviews 14 Aug. 1998.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/dark.html> ([your date of access]).
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![[image]](http://www.darkcity.com/DC/Images/clock.gif)