''Dark City'' is a 1998
neo-noir
Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating s ...
science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstell ...
directed by
Alex Proyas
Alexander Proyas (; Greek: Αλέξανδρος Πρόγιας; born 23 September 1963) is an Australian filmmaker of Greek descent. Proyas is best known for directing the films ''The Crow'' (1994), '' Dark City'' (1998), '' I, Robot'' (2004), ...
and starring
Rufus Sewell,
William Hurt
William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.
H ...
,
Kiefer Sutherland,
Jennifer Connelly,
Richard O'Brien, and
Ian Richardson. The screenplay was written by Proyas,
Lem Dobbs
Lem Dobbs (born Anton Lemuel Kitaj; 24 December 1958) is a British-American screenwriter, best known for the films '' Dark City'' (1998) and '' The Limey'' (1999). He was born in Oxford, England, and is the son of the painter R. B. Kitaj. The pe ...
, and
David S. Goyer. In the film, Sewell plays an
amnesia
Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...
c man who, finding himself suspected of murder, attempts to discover his true identity and clear his name while on the run from the police and a mysterious group known as the "Strangers".
Primarily shot at
Fox Studios Australia, the film was jointly produced by
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...
and Proyas' production company Mystery Clock Cinema, and distributed by the former for theatrical release. It premiered in the United States on 27 February 1998 and received generally positive critiques, but it was a
box-office bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
, in particular, supported the film, appreciating its art direction, set design, cinematography, special effects, and imagination, and even recorded an
audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
for the film's home video release.
The film was nominated for the
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...
for
Best Dramatic Presentation and six
Saturn Awards
The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films bel ...
. Some critics later noted ''Dark City''s similarities to and influence on the
''Matrix'' film series, whose
first installment came out a year later, and the film is now widely considered a sci-fi
cult classic
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
.
Concerned that audiences would not understand the film, New Line asked Proyas to add an explanatory voice-over to the introduction, and he complied. When a
director's cut
A director's cut is an edited version of a film (or video game, television episode, music video, or commercial) that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the ...
of the film was released in 2008, among the changes was the removal of the opening narration.
Plot
John Murdoch awakens in a hotel bathtub, suffering from amnesia. He receives a phone call from Dr Daniel Schreber, who urges him to flee the hotel to evade a group of men who are after him. In the room, Murdoch discovers the corpse of a ritualistically murdered woman along with a bloody knife. He flees the scene, just as a group of pale men in trenchcoats (later identified as members of "the Strangers") arrive.
Police Inspector Frank Bumstead is looking for Murdoch as a suspect in a series of murdered prostitutes, though Murdoch cannot remember killing anybody. Following clues, Murdoch learns his own name and finds out he has a wife named Emma. When the Strangers catch up with him, he shows he has the ability to
alter reality at will, which the Strangers can also do and refer to as "tuning", and he manages to use these powers to escape.
Murdoch wanders the streets of the anachronistic city, where nobody seems to notice the perpetual nighttime. At midnight, he watches as everyone else falls asleep and the Strangers physically rearrange the city and, assisted by Schreber, change the inhabitant's identities and memories. He learns that he came from a coastal town called Shell Beach, which is familiar to everyone, though nobody knows how to get there, and all of his attempts to visit are unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the Strangers inject one of their men, Mr Hand, with a copy of the memories given to Murdoch, hoping it will help them predict his movements and track him down.
Inspector Bumstead eventually catches Murdoch, though he acknowledges that Murdoch is most likely innocent, as by then he has his own misgivings about the nature of the city. They confront Schreber, who explains that the Strangers, which are
extraterrestrials who use human corpses as their hosts, have a
hive mind, and are experimenting with humans to analyze individuality in hopes of making a discovery that will help their race survive. Schreber also reveals that Murdoch is an anomaly who inadvertently awoke when Schreber was in the middle of imprinting his latest identity as a murderer.
Murdoch and Bumstead take Schreber and attempt to reach Shell Beach, but instead end up at a poster for the town on a wall at the edge of the city. Frustrated, Murdoch and Bumstead break through the wall, revealing outer space, just before some of the Strangers, including Mr Hand, arrive with Emma as a hostage. In the ensuing fight, Bumstead and one of the Strangers fall through the hole and drift out into space, and the city is shown to be a deep space habitat surrounded by a force field.
The Strangers bring Murdoch to their home beneath the city and force Schreber to imprint Murdoch with their collective memory, believing Murdoch to be the culmination of their experiments. Schreber betrays them, however, and instead inserts false memories in Murdoch that artificially reestablish his childhood as years spent training and honing his tuning skills and learning about the Strangers and their machines. Murdoch awakens and, now able to fully realize his powers, frees himself and battles with the Strangers, defeating their leader Mr Book in a psychokinetic fight high above the city.
After learning from Schreber that Emma has been re-imprinted and cannot be restored, Murdoch employs his powers, amplified by the Strangers' machine, to create an actual Shell Beach by flooding the area within the force field with water and forming a
spit and beaches. On his way home, Murdoch encounters a dying Mr Hand and informs him that the Strangers searched in the wrong place—the mind—to understand humanity. He rotates the habitat toward the star it had been turned away from, and the city experiences sunlight for the first time.
Opening a door leading out of the city, Murdoch steps out to view the sunrise. On the pier in front of him is the woman he knew as Emma, who now has new memories and a new identity as Anna. Murdoch reintroduces himself and they walk to Shell Beach, beginning their relationship anew.
Cast
*
Rufus Sewell as John Murdoch
*
William Hurt
William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.
H ...
as Inspector Frank Bumstead
*
Kiefer Sutherland as Dr. Daniel P. Schreber
*
Jennifer Connelly as Emma Murdoch / Anna
*
Richard O'Brien as Mr. Hand
*
Ian Richardson as Mr. Book
*
Bruce Spence
Bruce Spence (born 17 September 1945) is a New Zealand–Australian actor. Spence has amassed over 100 film and television credits and has also acted in theatre.
Biography
Spence won an AFI Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1971 comedy ...
as Mr. Wall
*
Colin Friels as Detective Eddie Walenski
*
John Bluthal as Karl Harris
*
Mitchell Butel
Mitchell Patrick Butel (born 10 February 1970) is an Australian actor, singer, director and writer. He is best known for his work in theatre, including musical and opera productions. He has been the artistic director of the State Theatre Compa ...
as Officer Husselbeck
*
Melissa George as May
*
Frank Gallacher
Frank Gallacher (7 April 1943 – 23 February 2009) was a Scottish-Australian actor.
Gallacher was born in Glasgow in 1943. In 1962, aged 19, he was working in London when his parents and younger sister decided to emigrate to Australia. Gallach ...
as Chief Inspector Stromboli
*
Ritchie Singer as Hotel Manager / Vendor
*
Justin Monjo as Taxi Driver
*
Nicholas Bell as Mr. Rain
* Satya Gumbert as Mr. Sleep (Noah Gumbert as Mr. Sleep Filming Double)
* Frederick Miragliotta as Mr. Quick
* Jeanette Cronin as a Stranger
*
David Wenham as Schreber's Assistant
*
Alan Cinis as Automat Cop
* Bill Highfield as Automat Cop
* Terry Bader as Mr. Jeremy Goodwin
* Rosemary Traynor as Mrs. Sylvia Goodwin
* Maureen O'Shaughnessy as Kate Walenski
Anita Kelsey
Anita Kelsey is an English singer and songwriter whose vocals and top lines are featured on many hit dance records and feature films. Her voice has appeared as backup vocals for artists such as Kings of Leon, ...
provided the singing voice of Emma Murdoch.
Production
Influences
For ''Dark City'', Proyas was influenced by
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
of the 1940s and the 1950s, such as ''
The Maltese Falcon'' (1941).
The film has additionally been described as
Kafkaesque, and Proyas cited the TV series ''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television program, television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dysto ...
'' as a conscious influence. Proyas also wanted the film, though nominally science fiction, to have an element of horror to unsettle the audience.
Writing
Originally, Proyas conceived a story about a 1940s detective who is obsessed with facts and cannot solve a case where the facts do not make sense, saying: "He slowly starts to go insane through the story. He can't put the facts together because they don't add up to anything rational."
In the process of creating the fictional world for the character of the detective, Proyas created other characters, and ended up shifting the focus of the film from the detective (Bumstead) to the person pursued by the detective (Murdoch). Proyas envisioned a robust narrative where the audience could examine the film from the perspective of multiple characters and focus on the plot.
After writing the first draft of the screenplay by himself, Proyas worked with
Lem Dobbs
Lem Dobbs (born Anton Lemuel Kitaj; 24 December 1958) is a British-American screenwriter, best known for the films '' Dark City'' (1998) and '' The Limey'' (1999). He was born in Oxford, England, and is the son of the painter R. B. Kitaj. The pe ...
and
David S. Goyer to create the final script. Goyer had written ''
The Crow: City of Angels'' (1996), the sequel to Proyas's 1994 film ''
The Crow
The Crow is a supernatural superhero comic book series created by James O'Barr revolving around the titular character of the same name. The series, which was originally created by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his fiancée at t ...
'', and Proyas invited Goyer to co-write ''Dark City'' after reading Goyer's screenplay for ''
Blade
A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Historica ...
'', which had yet to be released. The
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO
* The Writers G ...
initially protested the crediting of more than two screenwriters for a film, but eventually relented and credited all three writers.
Design
When Proyas finished his preceding film, ''The Crow'', in 1994, he approached production designer
Patrick Tatopoulos
Patrick Tatopoulos (born September 25, 1957) is a Greek-French production designer and director who lives and works in the United States. His designs have appeared in numerous motion pictures, including ''Pitch Black'', '' Underworld'', '' I, ...
to draw concepts for the world in which ''Dark City'' takes place. The city was entirely constructed on a set, and no practical locations were used in the film.
Describing the city, Tatopoulos said:
The movie takes place everywhere, and it takes place nowhere. It's a city built of pieces of cities. A corner from one place, another from some place else. So, you don't really know where you are. A piece will look like a street in London, but a portion of the architecture looks like New York, but the bottom of the architecture looks again like a European city. You're there, but you don't know where you are. It's like every time you travel, you'll be lost.
The production design included themes of darkness, spirals, and clocks. There appears to be no sun in the city's world, and spiral designs that shrink when approached were used. The Strangers' large clock does not have any numbers, and Tatopoulos said: "But in a magical moment it becomes something more than just a clock."
The production designer created the city architecture to have an organic presence alongside the structural elements.
The Strangers' lair is a large underground amphitheater, in which a sculpture of a human face hides a large clock and a spiraling device changes the layout of the city above. The set for the lair was in height, while an average set is , and was built on a fairground in Sydney, Australia. The film's budget was $30–40 million, so the crew used inexpensive techniques to build the set, such as stretching canvas onto welded metal frames. The lair also had a rail conveyance that appeared expensive. Tatopoulos said: "We had, obviously, a car built, but we had just one built. We laid some rail for it to ride on. We made a section of corridor that we kept driving through all the time, and you end up believing this thing is running along forever." Proyas wanted the rail car to pass various rooms, which was not feasible given the budget, so Tatopoulos and the crew used "replaceable elements and strong design textures" to give the impression it was passing different rooms.
The Strangers themselves are energy beings who reside in dead human bodies. At the beginning of the design process, the filmmakers considered having the Strangers be bugs, but they decided the bug appearance was overused. Tatopoulos said one day Proyas "called me and said he wanted something like an energy that kept re-powering itself, re-creating itself, re-shaping itself, sitting inside a dry piece of human shape."
Casting
About the character of Mr Hand, Proyas said: "I had Richard in mind physically when I wrote the character, because I had these strange, bald-looking men with an ethereal, androgynous quality", and O'Brien had famously played a similar character (Riff Raff) in ''
The Rocky Horror Show
''The Rocky Horror Show'' is a Musical theatre, musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to the Science fiction film, science fiction and Horror film, horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s, the ...
''. When Proyas visited London to cast the film, he met with O'Brien and found him suitable for the role.
Daniel P. Schreber, the character portrayed by
Kiefer Sutherland, was named after
Daniel Paul Schreber, a German judge with narcissistic, paranoid
psychosis
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...
, and possibly
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wi ...
, whose autobiographical ''Memoirs of My Nervous Illness'' (''Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken'') (1903) inspired some elements of the film's plot. Hurt was originally asked to play Dr Schreber.
Soundtrack
The film's
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
was released on 24 February 1998 by
TVT Records
TVT Records (Tee-Vee Tunes) was an American record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 24-year history, the label released 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon ...
. It features music from the original
score
Score or scorer may refer to:
*Test score, the result of an exam or test
Business
* Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio
* Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company
* Score Media, a former Canadian m ...
by
Trevor Jones, and versions of the songs "
Sway
Sway may refer to:
Places
* Sway, Hampshire, a village and civil parish in the New Forest in England
** Sway railway station, serving the village
People
* Sway (British musician) (born 1983), British hip hop/grime singer
* Sway Calloway (born 1 ...
" and "
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" performed by singer
Anita Kelsey
Anita Kelsey is an English singer and songwriter whose vocals and top lines are featured on many hit dance records and feature films. Her voice has appeared as backup vocals for artists such as Kings of Leon, ...
. It also includes music by Hughes Hall from the
trailer a song by
Echo & the Bunnymen that played over the final credits, as well as songs by
Gary Numan
Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his ...
and
Course of Empire that did not appear in the film. The music for the film was edited by Simon Leadley and Jim Harrison.
Release
New Line Cinema wanted the filmmakers to consider retitling the film ''Dark World'' or ''Dark Empire'' to help differentiate it from the recently-released ''
Mad City'', but ''Dark City'' was kept as the title.
The film was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on 17 October 1997,
then 9 January 1998,
and finally 27 February 1998, when it debuted in 1,754 theaters in the United States.
Home media
The film was released on
VHS on 2 March 1999.
A
Region 1 widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
DVD of the film was released in the United States on 29 July 1998. Special features on the DVD included two audio commentary tracks (one with film critic Roger Ebert, and one with director Alex Proyas, writers Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer, and production designer Patrick Tatopoulos), cast and crew biographies and filmographies, comparisons to Fritz Lang's ''
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big c ...
'', set design drawings, and the theatrical trailer.
A director's cut of ''Dark City'' was officially released on DVD and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...
Disc on 29 July 2008. The director's cut removes the opening narration, which Proyas felt explained too much of the plot, and includes approximately eleven minutes of additional footage, most of which extends scenes already present in the theatrical release with additional establishing shots and dialogue. The DVD and Blu-Ray featured expanded audio commentaries by Ebert, Proyas, and Dobbs and Goyer, along with several new documentaries. The Blu-ray Disc also included the original theatrical cut of the film and the special features from the 1998 DVD release.
Reception
Critical response
Among mainstream critics in the U.S., the film received generally positive reviews.
[Dark City](_blank)
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
. CBS Interactive
Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media Group, CBS Interactive, ViacomCBS Streaming), a division of Paramount Global, oversees the company’s streaming technology and offers direct-to-consumer services, free, premium and pay. These inc ...
Retrieved 2 September 2010. On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, it has a 75% approval rating based 85 reviews, with an average score of 6.8/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Stylishly gloomy, ''Dark City'' offers a polarizing whirl of arresting visuals and noirish action".
[Dark City (1998)](_blank)
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
. Fandango Media
Fandango Media, LLC is an American ticketing company that sells movie tickets via their website as well as through their mobile app, as well as a provider of television and streaming media information through its subsidiary Rotten Tomatoes. ...
Retrieved 16 June 2022. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 66 out of 100 based on reviews from 23 critics.
Writing in the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'',
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
called the film a "great visionary achievement", while also exclaiming that it was "a film so original and exciting, it stirred my imagination like ''
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big c ...
'' and ''
2001: A Space Odyssey''." In the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pap ...
'', Peter Stack wrote that the film was "among the most memorable cinematic ventures in recent years", and "maybe there's nothing wrong with a movie that is simply sensational to look at." He felt the film's "twisting of reality and its daring look—layered and off-kilter grays, greens and blacks—make it click." In a mixed review, Walter Addiego of ''
The San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corpora ...
'' thought that "as a story, ''Dark City'' doesn't amount to much", its "complicated plot" containing important themes that were "no more than window dressing", but that "what counts here is the show, the creation of a strange world by a filmmaker who clearly knows science fiction and fantasy, past and present, and wants to share his love for it."
Unimpressed by the film, Marc Savlov of ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' wrote: "You really have to feel for Alex Proyas. This guy wears bad luck like the grimy trenchcoats of his protagonists, only his zipper's stuck and he can't seem to shake the damn thing off." He felt "''Dark City'' looks like a million bucks (or rather, a million bucks gone to compost), but at its dark heart it's a tedious, bewildering affair, lovely to look at but with all the substance of a dissipating dream." Left equally disappointed was John Anderson of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'', who said of the directing that "If you had to guess, you might say that Proyas came out of the world of comic art himself, rather than music videos and advertising. ''Dark City'' is constructed like panels in a
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book '' Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939 ...
book, each picture striving for maximum dread", and that Proyas was "trying simultaneously to create a pure thriller and sci-fi nightmare along with his tongue-in-cheek critique of artifice. And this doesn't work out quite so well." Author TCh of ''
Time Out
Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to:
Time
* Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team
* Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken
* Timeout (computing), an enginee ...
'' felt that the development of the Murdoch character was "surprisingly engrossing" and thought the "art direction is always striking, and unlike most contemporary sci-fi, the movie does risk a cerebral approach, tapping a vein of postmodern paranoia."
Richard Corliss of ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' said the film was "as cool and distant as the planet the Strangers come from. But, Lord, is ''Dark City'' a wonder to see."
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli (born September 25, 1967) is an American film critic and former engineer. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ''ReelViews.'' Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of r ...
writing for ''
ReelViews'', remarked that "Visually, this film isn't just impressive, it's a tour de force." and noted that "''Dark City'' opens by immersing the audience in the midst of a fractured, nightmarish narrative."
Berardinelli also said "''Dark City'' appears to be New York during the first half of this century, but, using a style that is part science fiction, part noir thriller, and part gothic horror,
royas
Royas () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Isère department
The following is a list of the 512 Communes of France, communes in the French Departments of France, department of ...
has embellished it to create a surreal place unlike no other."
Describing some pitfalls, Jeff Vice of the ''
Deseret News
The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...
'' said that "when critics talk about films being 'style over substance', they're definitely talking about movies like ''Dark City'', which looks good but leaves an unpleasant aftertaste."
He was quick to admit that "The special effects and set designs are dazzling", but ultimately felt "Proyas makes a crucial error in treating the subject even more seriously than ''The Crow'', and the dialogue (co-written by Proyas and ''The Crow: City of Angels'' scriptwriter David S. Goyer) is unintentionally funny at times and often just plain dumb."
[Vice, Jeff (27 February 1998)]
Dark City
''Deseret News
The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...
''. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
Andrea Basora of ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'', stated that director Proyas flooded the screen with "cinematic and literary references ranging from
Murnau and
Lang to
Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
and
Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...
, creating a unique yet utterly convincing world". Similarly, David Sterritt wrote in ''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'' that "The story is dark and often violent, but it's told with a remarkable sense of visual energy and imagination." Marshall Fine of ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...
'' found the film to be "Fascinating, visionary filmmaking", and said that "With its amber-tinged palette and its distinctively dystopian view of life, it may be the most unique-looking film we've seen in ages", but said that it "defies logic and makes frightening and unexpected leaps."
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic.
Biography
Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote that the "plot that ''Dark City'' builds on John's predicament is a confused affair" and that the film's premise is "unsettling enough to make you wonder if it could actually derail a seriously drug-addled mind."
Steve Biodrowski of ''
Cinefantastique'' found the production design and the cinematography overwhelming, but he considered the narrative engagement of Sewell's amnesiac character to be ultimately successful, writing: "As the story progresses, the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, and we gradually realize that the film is not a murky muddle of visuals propping up a weak story. All the questions lead to answers, and the answers make sense within the fantasy framework." He compared ''Dark City'' to Proyas's preceding film, ''The Crow'', in style, but found ''Dark City'' to introduce new themes and to be a "more thoroughly consistent" film. Biodrowski concluded that "''Dark City'' may not provide profound answers, but it deals seriously with a profound idea, and does it in a way that is cathartic and even uplifting, without being contrived or condescending. As a technical achievement, it is superb, and that technique is put in the service of telling a story that would be difficult to realize any other way."
Box office
Its opening weekend in theaters, ''Dark City'' grossed $5,576,953, enough to place fourth at the box office;
''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...
'', which had been released ten weeks earlier, grossed $19,633,056 and was still number one.
The following weekend, it earned $2,837,941 (a decrease of 49.1%) and dropped to ninth place, while ''Titanic'' remained in first with grosses totaling $17,605,849.
During its four-week theatrical run, the film earned $14,378,331 domestically. Internationally, it took in an additional $12,821,985, for a combined worldwide box office total of $27,200,316.
The film's cumulative gross was the 105th-highest of 1998.
Accolades
The film won and was nominated for several awards in 1998. Film critic
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
cited it as the best film of 1998,
and in 2005 he included it on his "Great Movies" list.
[Ebert, Roger]
Great Movies: Dark City (2005)
6 November 2005. Ebert used it in his teaching, and also recorded an
audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
for the original
DVD and the 2006 Director's Cut.
The film was screened out of competition at the
1998 Cannes Film Festival.
Analysis
Theologian
Gerard Loughlin interpreted ''Dark City'' as a retelling of
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...
's
Allegory of the Cave
The Allegory of the Cave, or Plato's Cave, is an allegory presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work '' Republic'' (514a–520a) to compare "the effect of education ( παιδεία) and the lack of it on our nature". It is written a ...
. For Loughlin, the city dwellers are prisoners who do not realize they are in a prison. John Murdoch's escape from the prison parallels the escape from the cave in the allegory. He is assisted by Dr. Schreber, who explains the city's mechanism as Socrates explains to Glaucon how the shadows in the cave are cast. Murdoch, however, becomes more than Glaucon: "He is a Glaucon who comes to realize that Socrates' tale of an upper, more real world, is itself a shadow, a forgery."
Murdoch defeats the Strangers, who control the inhabitants, and remakes the world based on childhood memories, which were themselves illusions arranged by the Strangers. He casts new shadows for the city inhabitants, who must trust his judgment. Unlike Plato, Murdoch "is disabused of any hope of an outside" and becomes the
demiurge
In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge () is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term ''demiurge''. ...
for the cave, the only environment he knows. Of the lack of background provided in the film, Loughlin said: "The origin of the city is off-stage, unknown and unknowable."
The city in ''Dark City'' was described by Sarah L. Higley as a "murky, nightmarish German expressionist film noir depiction of urban repression and mechanism". It has a
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
-era dreariness reminiscent of
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realism, American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolor painting, watercolorist and printmaker in e ...
's works, as well as details from different eras and architectures that are changed by the Strangers: "buildings collapse as others emerge and battle with one another at the end". The round window of Murdoch's hotel room is concave like a fishbowl, and is a frequently seen element throughout the city. The inhabitants do not live at the top of the city; the main characters' homes are dwarfed by the
bricolage
In the arts, ''bricolage'' (French for " DIY" or "do-it-yourself projects") is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work constructed using mixed media.
The term ''bricolage'' ...
of buildings.
The film contains motifs from
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...
, in which gods manipulate humans to serve a higher agenda. Proyas said: "I do like Greek mythology and have read a little of it, so maybe some of it has crept into the work, though I don't completely agree with that point of view."
Similarities to other works
The film's style is often compared to that of the works of
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...
(especially ''
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
''). Some stylistic similarities have also been noted to
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (; born 3 September 1953) is a French film director, producer and screenwriter. His films combine fantasy, realism and science fiction to create idealized realities or to give relevance to mundane situations.
Debuting as a di ...
and
Marc Caro's 1995 film ''
The City of Lost Children
''The City of Lost Children'' (french: La Cité des enfants perdus) is a 1995 science fantasy film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Jeunet and Gilles Adrien, and starring Ron Perlman. An international co-production of co ...
'', another film that was particularly inspired by Gilliam (Gilliam had presented Jeunet's and Caro's previous film ''
Delicatessen
Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany (original: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the m ...
'' (1991), which was a deliberate homage to Gilliam's style, in North America).
''
The Matrix
''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction film, science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in The Matrix (franchise), ''The Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Car ...
'', which was released one year after ''Dark City'', was also filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, and it even used some of ''Dark City''s sets.
Comparisons of the two films have made note of similarities in
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of Film, motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens (o ...
, atmosphere, and plot.
[Morales, Jorge]
Comparación de los Filmes "Dark City" & "The Matrix"
Retrieved 24 December 2005. (Spanish)
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
's 1927 film ''
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big c ...
'' was a major influence on the architecture, concepts about the baseness of humans within a metropolis, and the general tone of ''Dark City''. In one of the documentary shorts included on the director's cut home video releases of the film, the influence of the
early German films ''
M'' and ''
Nosferatu'' are also mentioned.
One of the last scenes of the movie, in which buildings "restore" themselves, is similar to the last panel of the ''
Akira''
manga
Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...
, and Proyas has called the film's final battle an "homage to
Otomo's ''Akira''". ''Dark City'' has also drawn comparisons to the
anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
films ''
Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer'' (1984)
and ''
Megazone 23'' (1985), as well as the 1993
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
''
Gadget Invention, Travel, & Adventure''.
When
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&n ...
first started thinking about writing the script for ''
Inception
''Inception'' is a 2010 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infil ...
'', he was influenced by "that era of movies where you had ''The Matrix'', you had ''Dark City'', you had ''
The Thirteenth Floor
''The Thirteenth Floor'' is a 1999 science fiction neo-noir film written and directed by Josef Rusnak, and produced by Roland Emmerich through his Centropolis Entertainment company. It is loosely based upon '' Simulacron-3'' (1964), a novel by ...
'' and, to a certain extent, you had ''
Memento'', too. They were based in the principles that the world around you might not be real".
Tie-ins
''Mask of the Evil Apparition'', a short film written and directed by Proyas and set in the ''Dark City'' cinematic universe, was released in 2021. During a Q&A session after a screening of the short film, Proyas revealed he was in the early stages of developing a ''Dark City'' series.
See also
*
A Feasibility Study (The Outer Limits)
*
List of films featuring space stations
*
The Signal (2014 film)
''The Signal'' is a 2014 American science fiction thriller film directed by William Eubank, and written by William and Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio. The film stars Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dark City (1998 Film)
1990s science fiction drama films
1990s dystopian films
1998 films
American neo-noir films
American science fiction drama films
American dystopian films
Films about amnesia
Films directed by Alex Proyas
Films produced by Alex Proyas
Films shot in Sydney
Australian neo-noir films
Australian science fiction drama films
Films with screenplays by Alex Proyas
Films with screenplays by David S. Goyer
Films with screenplays by Lem Dobbs
Films about extraterrestrial life
Films about altered memories
Films set in outer space
Films scored by Trevor Jones
1998 drama films
1990s English-language films
1990s American films