#Lem Dobbs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

actualearthling · 2 years

Text

Dark City: So Many Unanswered Questions

!Spoilers! (I mean, duh, it’s a 1998 film).

“Dark City is a 1998 Australian-American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas and starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O’Brien, and William Hurt. The screenplay was written by Proyas, Lem Dobbs, and David S. Goyer.

Primarily shot at Fox Studios Australia, the film was jointly produced by New Line Cinema and Proyas’ production company Mystery Clock Cinema and distributed by the former for theatrical release. The film premiered in the United States on February 27th, 1998, and was nominated for a Hugo Award for the Best Dramatic Presentation and six Saturn Awards. It received generally positive critiques, even though it was a box office bomb. Roger Ebert expressed interest in this film, and he appreciated its art direction, set design, cinematography, special effects, and imagination. Some critics have noted its similarities to and influence on The Matrix, which came out a year later. The film is widely considered a sci-fi cult classic.”

Director Alex Proyas is known for his effects-driven filmmaking. He’d already made a big impact with The Crow in 1994. And now Dark City would be a memorialization of his out-of-this-world storytelling (yes, that was a pun). And it categorically was, according to hard sci-fi fans and critics. Though it did less than fantastic at the box office.

The entire film was shot on constructed sets with zero location shoots. This adds a sense of designed falseness and is crucial in the rest of the story. Fun fact: The Matrix was shot on the sets that had been made for Dark City!

The Matrix was released a year after Dark City, and it also deals with a creepy oppressive force controlling the perceptions and memories of its citizens. They also both revolve around a hero breaking free from their mind control, and the villains trying to capture and contain him. In the end, the heroes use the villains’ powers against them.

In Dark City, all human memories are newly fabricated when the hands of the clock reach 12. This is referred to as “midnight,” but the term is deceptive because there is no noon. There is never any daylight for the inhabitants at all. Hence the title. “First came darkness, then came the Strangers,” we are told in the opening narration. John Murdoch, the hero, asks Bumstead, the police detective: “When was the last time you remember doing something during the day?” Bumstead is surprised by the question. “You know something?” Murdoch asks him. “I don’t think the sun even exists in this place. I’ve been up for hours and hours, and the night never ends here.”

About that narration that the studio insisted on, Proyas hated it. It essentially spills the plot right out, in the beginning, leaving no mystery to what’s to come for much of the film. The studio insisted on it because apparently, they thought audiences are stupid and would be frustrated desperately trying to figure out what was happening and give up on the film. Proyas did finally get his way when the director’s cut was released without the narration.

Their civilization is dying. The narration explains that the Strangers came from another galaxy and abducted a group of humans. Considering the style of the city the extraterrestrials create, I can speculate that these humans were at least, originally abducted around the 1940s. Either that, or it came after, and the ghouls are just big film noir fans. Though through Murdoch’s memories we see brief flashbacks from Shell Beach, and it looks pretty old-timey. We also have no idea how long they have had these humans captive. It appears time stops, and we get the impression that people aren’t aging. Seeing that the strangers seem to be able to bend and shape reality and space, it goes to reason that they also are capable of controlling time. I found myself thinking how strange it would be if the humans had been taken in the 1940s, but in earth time the year was a hundred, even a thousand years in the future. Then some space-faring future humans would come upon the city and rescue the no longer captive humans. I will bring that idea back up when we get to the end of the film.

The Strangers are seeking the secret of the human soul, which they think could be the key to extending their lives. We only get a bit of an idea as to how they plan to use our souls to accomplish this at the end of the movie. And it still leaves me with many questions. They create a vast artificial city, which can be remanufactured, rebuilt, rearranged, or “tuned,” whenever they want to run another experiment. We see the tuning taking place. All humans lose consciousness. All machinery stops. The city changes. Skyscrapers are extruded from the primordial materials of the underworld, architecture is devised, rooms are prepared for their inhabitants, and props are physically set in place by the aliens. Aided by a human scientist, the Strangers “imprint” or inject memories into the foreheads of their test subjects. When humans awaken, they have no memory of the time before; everything they remember has been injected from a communal memory bank. The experiments are to discover things like if a man commits murder one day and then is given a new identity, is he still capable of committing murder? Are men inherently good or evil, or is it a matter of how they think of themselves? What about humans creates a soul that can’t be destroyed? And can they harness that for themselves?

The Strangers occupy the bodies of human cadavers. Most of them are tall. One is in a child’s body, which is always an incredibly creepy concept. The alien beings themselves, living inside the corpses, look like spiders made of frightened noodles. They can levitate, they can change the matter of the city at will, they have a hive insect organization, and they gather in a subterranean cavern to collectively retune the city.

The movie begins with John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakening alone in a strange hotel to find that he is wanted for a series of brutal murders of prostitutes. The problem is that he can’t remember whether he committed the murders or not. The memories injected by the Strangers have not been completely incorporated. The memory injection was administered by Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland), a scientist who works for the Strangers but clearly hates and fears them. For one moment, John is convinced that he has gone mad. Dr. Schreber calls the motel room and reveals to him that he will now be in great danger from the Strangers, as he was subjected to a failed experiment, and he must get away quickly.

That sets the story into motion. Murdoch wanders through the city, trying to discover its nature. Detective Bumstead (William Hurt) tries to catch him for the serial murders but will gradually be won over by Murdoch’s questions (he is programmed as a cop, but not a very good one). As Murdoch edges closer to solving the mystery, he stumbles upon the underworld of the Strangers. During one escape attempt while being pursued by the Strangers, he finds himself drawn to a billboard of Shell Beach. Where his flashes of memory all take place. When Murdoch tries to break through it in frustration, it is revealed that it was no mere billboard on a wall. The Strangers come upon them, Murdoch breaks through the billboard, a Stranger attacks, and poor Detective Bumstead gets sucked out into space. But of course, it’s no great shock since the narration already ruined the reveal of the humans being on a spaceship at the beginning of the film. John is then forced to surrender, as the strangers have captured his wife, Emma, and are threatening to kill her. The Strangers force the captured Dr. Schreber to imprint John with new memories, but the Doctor instead, imprints John with the knowledge to destroy the Strangers by taking over the underground machine they use to tune the city instead.

During an intense telekinetic battle, John kills the strangers and frees the captive Dr. Schreber. John then uses his powers to create the Shell Beach from his memories. The beach, sea, and for the first time, they see the sun in their city.

Then the humans reawaken, and John reunites with Emma, expectedly to live out the life they had together on Earth at Shell Beach.

This ending left me with so many questions about the future of the abducted humans.

John will add sunlight, the beach, and perhaps other left-out details, but is he thinking of all the other things that the creatures took care of? What was creating the food and water? If they were stopping aging, will he know how to do that? Will he be able to supply all the society’s needs or were they better off under the creatures’ than under his care? He’s becoming their god. If he can remake matter, can he turn the city into a functioning spaceship and guide them back to Earth or any human life-sustaining planet? They can’t all live in the city together. Have they been sterilized? Will they procreate? In successive generations, won’t they run out of living space?

The cabbie that Murdoch gets a ride with said he took his honeymoon at Shell Beach when John asked him how to get there. He gets frustrated when he tries to remember the way but can’t. Was everyone abducted from the same town? What are the odds that this cabbie out of all the abducted humans had been to what looks like a small beach town? Could the Strangers have abducted an entire town?

It is not unheard of for towns and communities to vanish quickly without a trace.

The colony of Roanoke in North Carolina, USA. The Ancestral Puebloans in Utah. An entire cargo ship called the Mary Celeste was found with its crew mysteriously all missing in 1872. We have also lost entire airplanes like the case of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

I also wonder so much about Dr. Schreber. As my favorite character in the film, I feel like we could have known him so much better. Was he randomly picked up with the other abductees? Doubt it. The Strangers would have to have gotten extremely lucky to have accidentally caught a scientist with the skills to create their memory potions and treat the other humans. So, he must be special. Maybe they stalked him on Earth. I mean, he is the only human scientist they have. He must be especially talented. He seems to have a mental illness. He’s nervous and paranoid. That could be a result of being the human slave of the strangers and all alone in his knowledge of their reality. What was he like before the abduction? Why did he help Murdoch in the opening? He’s not told Murdoch can tune until the pool scene. Did the procedure in the hotel room go wrong randomly? Did the Dr. have any inclination that Murdoch was special, or evolving as he said?

Dark City needs a comic series.

My Blog:

#aliens #paranormal #ufo #alien #alien abductee #alien abduction #spooky #uap #men in black #mib #film noir #scifi #sci fi movies #horror #horror movies

1 note · View note

80smovies · 2 years

Photo

#Romancing the Stone #Michael Douglas #Kathleen Turner #Danny DeVito #Alfonso Arau #Robert Zemeckis #Diane Thomas #Lem Dobbs #Howard Franklin #Treva Silverman #80s

37 notes · View notes

cinesludge · 3 years

Photo

Movie #1 of 2021: Dark City

“Shut. It. Down!”

https://www.instagram.com/cathodecinema

#dark city #english #mystery #sci-fi #thriller #alex proyas #lem dobbs #david s. goyer #trevor jones #dariusz wolski #dov hoenig #35mm #1998 #01 #cathodetv

17 notes · View notes

leighlim · 4 years

Photo

Do you let the subject feel like she has the upper hand?

(Hopefully by this point you’ve finished all 125 minutes of 'The Company You Keep’, the kind of person who isn’t bothered by spoilers, or are just deciding if you still want to keep watching.)

I’ve noticed that there are tiers of actors:

Those who are good no matter what (on their own or with another performer)

Those who need a high caliber actor to ‘bring it’

Those who haven’t found their ‘niche’ yet (so they keep doing roles that doesn’t translate well on screen)

Watching the first third of the film reminded me that Shia isn’t only a capable actor....he has found his niche (at least at this point in his career): curious and brought into something over his head.

This is why he was such a joy to watch in his first ‘Transformers‘ appearance: shock and awe are one of the things he does well.

PS: I had been waiting for AGES for a subtitled version! Thank you SBS! It really made a difference. It went from it seemingly like a bland film (4) to a a really good one (7).

PPS: I definitely wondered if there was a ‘happy ever after’ for Ben and Rebecca. I know after that ‘coffee conversation’ (was Ben trying to multitask? Or is this an actual manipulator? --- I’m holding out hope that it is the former) and hope that the film’s resolution (Ben deciding not to submit the piece for publishing)....is enough. Not because he’s doing it to win her over...but more because the decision aligns with his values.

--------

HIGHLIGHT:

EXT. COLLEGE CAMPUS - DAY

BEN and REBECCA make their way towards her building, coffee cups in hand. Other students make their way towards their respective buildings and classes.

BEN So, tell me about yourself.

REBECCA Peace Corps for a bit.

BEN Hmmm.

REBECCA Thought I was gonna change the world...decided it was actually people who needed changing.

BEN Hmmm.

He smiles. Eyes ahead.

REBECCA Went back to school to study psychology. Turns out psychology has nothing to do with that.

BEN chuckles.

REBECCA Ended up in New York for a bit. I guess I thought I was gonna change myself.

He glances at her.

REBECCA Turns out I'm too stubborn.

They lock eyes.

BEN You must be older than I thought.

REBECCA looks away, smiles and takes gulp of her coffee.

BEN So what happens now? If in doubt, you go back to law school?

She gives him a look.

REBECCA I'm not in doubt. It's my mom. She's a judge.

BEN Really?

REBECCA Mm-hm.

BEN So is mine!

She stops walking and looks at him.

BEN Just not professionally.

She continues walking, regards him for a moment then laughs. Smooth.

REBECCA Ok.

That was a good one. Not a gut laugh...but enough think about for the rest of the day. She takes another swig.

BEN You like Michigan?

REBECCA I love it.

She turns to him.

REBECCA OK, you---I read one of your articles online last night. I read a couple of them actually.

BEN You're kidding me. Really?

REBECCA Yeah.

BEN And what did you think?

He studies her and smiles.

REBECCA I think you broke a big story.

BEN I did.

REBECCA I think you're clinging to it like a life raft.

BEN Oh, wow!

He laughs.

REBECCA Now it defines you.

BEN Wow. Maybe psych's not a bad fit after all.

She shrugs.

REBECCA I kind of call 'em like I see 'em.

He nods.

BEN Fair enough. Call this one. Your father's ignoring me. Why?

He stops walking and soon so does she.

REBECCA I'm guessing because he doesn't want to talk to you.

She throws him a cheeky look and starts walking.

BEN Hmmm.

He nods...plays along.

REBECCA He's retired. I mean...and this was decades ago. He wants to fish and watch boats on the water. He's also not one for reminiscing.

BEN You know he was close to the Lurie family?

REBECCA Yeah.

BEN Mmm.

REBECCA Her dad and my grandad were fishing buddies, I think.

BEN That's what I heard.

REBECCA Yeah. They used to go up to the Linder Woods in the UP.

She motions to her building.

REBECCA It's absolutely gorgeous up there. You would hate it.

He doesn't pick up the jab though...and is instead deep in thought.

BEN The UP?

He glances at her.

REBECCA The Upper Peninsula.

BEN Oh. He told me he never met her.

They stop walking. REBECCA considers this.

REBECCA Huh.

He looks at her searchingly. Full reporter mode now.

BEN That had to be hard, to live with the Lurie name after everything went down.

REBECCA Yeah. I'm sure it was.

BEN Did he ever talk about her when you were younger?

REBECCA This was all way before my time.

She moves off towards the building entrance. BEN tries to fit the new puzzle pieces as quickly as he can.

After a couple of steps, she stops and turns to him.

REBECCA What are you thinking?

He sighs.

BEN Can I speak honestly with you for a second?

He takes a step towards her.

REBECCA Yeah.

BEN People lie for two reasons. They speak unknowingly, a simple mistake, you know, or they do it intentionally. And having met a known fugitive who is also a family friend isn't something you would forget.

REBECCA Mmmm. What are you getting at?

BEN In my business, when someone lies intentionally, that's significant.

He searches her eyes.

BEN It seems your father lied to me. I'm guessing 'cause it's some way to cover himself.

A throwaway laugh from the law student.

REBECCA Look, Ben, I get that you're good at your job...

The friendliness disappears from her eyes.

REBECCA ...but so is my dad, and I would put the quality of his character up against anyone in the world. So if you're insinuating that he was or is somehow involved in something that ends up in your paper. I would be damn sure you know what you're talking about.

A beat.

REBECCA I may be a student of the law, but that's libel, and in my business, that's significant.

She walks off. A small smile starts to form on his face.

BEN I'd like to see you again!

She stops and turns. Thoroughly confused. But only for a moment.

REBECCA Bye.

She turns away and enters the building.

--------

My verdict of the film: 7/10

Link to the timestamp commentary: TBA

2 notes · View notes

90smovies · 11 months

Photo

#Dark City 1998 #Dark City #Alex Proyas #Rufus Sewell #Jennifer Connelly #Kiefer Sutherland #William Hurt #Lem Dobbs #David S. Goyer #VHS #90s

97 notes · View notes

adamwatchesmovies · 5 years

Text

Gotti (2018)

You haven’t heard of Gotti? I don’t blame you, It didn't even make back half of its $10 million budget and was primarily distributed by the now-defunct Movie Pass. So why are we talking about it? Well firstly, it holds a rare 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Even Freddy Got Fingered managed to scrape an 11% so this has got to be the worst movie ever, right? Further enticing us is the advertising campaign. “Audiences loved Gotti. Critics put out the hit. Who would you trust more? Yourself or a troll behind a keyboard?” After such words, how could one NOT check it out?

Based on the true story, John Gotti (John Travolta) rose through the ranks of New York’s Gambino Crime Family, eventually eliminating its previous leader and replacing him. The film chronicles his 30-year reign as well as his personal life, particularly his relationship with his wife, Victoria (Kelly Preston) and eldest son John “Junior” (Spencer Lofranco).

Honestly, it isn’t really THAT bad. The big green 0% implies a special kind of awful, which it isn’t. This is an extremely vanilla mob film. The performances are just kinda there, nothing about the cinematography, characters, dialogue, etc. stand out. We get the usual suspects of crime films with characters being revealed to be snitches, the police scrambling to make the evidence stick while the crime family eliminates or intimidates witnesses, the media circus which accompanies “The Teflon Don” every time he manages to get acquitted of all charges, etc. You wonder why the film was even made, as it brings nothing new to the genre… except right at the end.

Predominantly told in flashback, the makeup effects Gotti uses on Travolta look are great. The other characters age unconvincingly - mostly because all they do is change clothes and hairdos - but the one responsible for those prosthetics deserves praise. Still, this isn't really noteworthy. What catches your attention are the conclusions' bizarre implications. In the clips of John Gotti’s funeral, hundreds mourn him, proclaiming that while he might’ve been a criminal he did good for the community. Right... I just watched two hours of him unrepentantly murder and intimidate people to line his pockets. Worse is a text crawl which implies the Justice System wasted time, effort and money convicting John Gotti Junior when, instead, it should’ve focused on the people who testified against him. Because Jr. couldn’t have simply NOT gone on to become a career criminal. Come on.

The story behind Gotti - the movie, not the man - winds up being more interesting than the film itself. You could pick apart some of the clunky dialogue or the out-of-place soundtrack, the overall execution or why the community embraced him… but why? This is too bland a movie to demand such attention and I wager few people who see it will remember the film down the line. (January 4, 2019)

1 note · View note