Dark City Director’s Cut | DVD Review

Dark City, originally released in 1998, is a vastly under-appreciated film. Actually, that’s not quite true; this visually intense and intricately thought-out mix of film noir and science fiction is almost universally respected by everyone who’s seen it and actually taken time to think about what they’d just seen. The problem is, not very many people have actually seen it and of those who have, many got too caught up in the visual style of the film to actually understand the grand concept of the story. With the release of the director’s cut of Dark City on DVD, along with plenty of special features to help guide the way, perhaps that will change. One can only hope.

John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell, The Illusionist) wakes up in a hotel room occupied by a murdered woman, having no memory of what happened or how he got there. In fact, he doesn’t remember anything at all, not even who he is. He immediately gets a phone call from a strange doctor named Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland, Mirrors), who urges him to get out of the hotel room immediately, lest he be caught there by The Strangers, a group of creepy pale-skinned men who seem to be hunting Murdoch down. Fleeing the hotel, he notices that everyone seems to be asleep. The noir part of the story comes in the form of William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman) as Inspector Frank Bumstead, who is investigating a series of murders in the city, and Jennifer Connely (A Beautiful Mind) as Murdoch’s wife Emma, who is also searching for him, having not seen him since they had an argument three weeks earlier. The sci-fi element obviously comes in the form of The Strangers, who happen to be aliens inhabiting the bodies of dead humans. Their race is in jeopardy and they have been conducting an experiment on humans, with the help of Doctor Schreber, in order to learn how to prolong their own existence. They have the ability to “tune” the world, and what that entails is erasing people’s memories and planting new ones every night at midnight. More than that, they can also remove and erect buildings at will, fashioning entire cityscapes as the populace sleeps. Is John Murdoch the murderer of these women? Will Inspector Bumstead catch his man? Are our memories and concepts of reality actually our own? Sure. it’s a pretty heavy concept, especially if you pause long enough to explore it more deeply, but that’s what makes Dark City such an arresting film, more so than the stunning visuals. In fact, perhaps it’s a case of too much style and substance together that caused many critics to dismiss Dark City when it was originally released.

Writer/director Alex Proyas (The Crow, I, Robot) enlisted the help of screenwriters Lem Dobbs (Kafka) and David S.Goyer (Batman Begins) to flesh out his original story and help ensure that the philosophical and ethical themes remain as messed up but cohesive as possible. Everything in Dark City, as complex and convoluted as it is, ties together quite nicely in the end, even while messing with your mind. Every technical aspect of the film is also an integral part of the storytelling. For example, while it’s never said what decade the film is supposed to take place in, and there are little elements thrown in that evoke different eras altogether (it is, after all, a creation of The Strangers’ imaginations, right?), the lighting and color palette necessitated by the noir genre suggest the early mid-twentieth century (30s, 40s, early 50s). It’s just one example of how everything about Dark City was so well thought-out so as to fit perfectly together in the end. The only thing that just didn’t seem right about the film was a climactic battle between Murdoch and The Strangers that was more along the lines of an action blockbuster film as opposed to the smart and thought-provoking film that Dark City really is.

Presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and a 5.1 EX mix, everything about Dark City is beautifully vivid and intense.

Expanded Audio Commentaries
While a commentary track featuring the writers and director of the film and perhaps the most famous film critic of all time sounds like it might be one hell of a party, this is actually three separate commentary tracks. Director Alex Proyas and Roger Ebert each fly solo, while screenwriters Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer provide the third track (although they were recorded separately and edited together). All three commentaries make comparisons between the theatrical release and the director’s cut, and they all seem to agree that this cut is the better of the two. Perhaps Ebert, having no involvement in the production of the film, is the best of the three. There’s no denying that he loves Dark City, and he heaps plenty of praise on Proyas for being a director who just loves what he does. He points out the little things that a regular filmgoer might not notice or care about that Proyas included in the film just because, in the end, he felt it made it a better film.

Introduction by Alex Proyas
It would have been enough to hear from Alex Proyas how this director’s cut differs from the theatrical release, including the removal of the film’s opening narration, which is like hitting the audience over the head with a hammer as to what it’s all about. But for some strange reason, we also are treated to Roger Ebert again, giving his own opinion as to what he felt made this version the definitve version of the film.

Memories of Shell Beach (Making Of)
This 45 minute documentary is mostly a series of interlaced interviews with Proyas, the screenwriters, and a couple of actors from the film. It starts with the writers and director discussing the concept and how they went about creating the story; they go on to discuss the production of the film in depth, including various stories of butting heads with the producers over budgetary and time constraints. Except for some insights from Rufus Sewell and Richard O’brien (who played Mr. Hand, the main Stranger), and some fascinating on-set pictures taken by Sewell, this doc can almost be seen as a condensed version of the commentary tracks.

Architecture of Dreams featurette
This 35 minute featurette explores five different perspectives of Dark City and its impact. Some of the people giving their accounts iclude Dobbs, Proyas, and Ebert, but perhaps most interesting is the inclusion of two film studies professors who discuss why they use Dark City in their courses.

Production Gallery
This stills gallery includes 80 pictures, some of which are quite nice, but each one only takes up a small portion of the screen, making it almost impossible to pick up on any of the intricate details in the photos.

Theatrical Trailer
The inclusion of the theatrical trailer is an odd decision, as it only goes to prove how Dark City was a difficult film to market. The trailer makes it seem like a horror-lite/action film, as opposed to the thought-provoking noir/sci-fi film that it actually is.

Needless to say, any fan of film noir should see this Dark City. Ditto any fan of science fiction. It should be considered a benchmark film in either genre. The fact that Alex Proyas could combine two seemingly disparate genres and come up with perhaps the smartest film of the 1990s only goes to show that we should always keep an open mind when it comes to films, lest another gem like this go unnoticed until ten years after its initial release.

Movie rating – 4.5

Disc Rating – 4