![]() ![]() Proyas’ vision of a gigantic mechanical city, that can be altered and manipulated at will, is great idea, and the film’s story is a heady fusion of film noir, German expressionism and Kafkaesque fear.Ī movie we regularly return to at Den of Geek, Total Recall is a sci-fi action classic. The city he inhabits is, in fact, a giant machine floating through space, manipulated by an alien race called the Strangers, who can also control the memories of its inhabitants.Ī visually startling film, Dark City is more than worthy of the gradual re-evaluation it has enjoyed in recent years. Again, like a Philip K Dick protagonist, Murdoch later learns that he’s party to a conspiracy far greater than he initially realises. Its protagonist, Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) has a group of strangers after him, wakes up in the middle of a crime scene, the details of which he has no recollection, and lives in a city that is shrouded in perpetual night. If anything, Dark City is even more paranoid and angst-ridden than The Matrix. This was due in part, perhaps, to its release date – at the time, the world was going into a frenzy over James Cameron’s sinking ship romance, Titanic, and appeared to have little appetite for a noirish sci-fi thriller. But where The Matrix was a hit, almost no one went to see Dark City. ![]() ![]() Unlike the loud, bombastic Matrix, Dark City is comparatively restrained. Released just one year before The Matrix, Alex Proyas’ Dark City is very much the polar opposite of the Wachowskis’ movie. Predictable though it often is, Rosemary’s gradual realisation that everyone around her has a hidden, devilish agenda is superbly done, as is the conclusion, in which she discovers the true identity of her newborn baby… And when she falls pregnant a few weeks later, things get really weird. Then Rosemary has a disturbing dream about a Satanic ritual, in which she’s ravished by what appears to be a denizen of hades. Rosemary’s neighbours seem friendly, if a little eccentric, and Guy manages to land himself a decent role in stage play. She’s just moved into a pleasant old apartment in New York with her handsome husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), and she’s just bought herself a trendy Vidal Sassoon haircut. Mia Farrow plays Rosemary, a young woman who, like so many protagonists in paranoid movies, appears to have a perfect life. At the same time, its restraint and quiet build-up of tension is excellently handled, and the movie ends with a dark, perhaps even blackly comic final revelation. Later, the curtain of reality is peeled back, and Neo is shown its ugly inner workings – humans are actually little more than batteries for their robot masters.īefore it descends into big-budget action chaos, and Neo is transformed from a Phildickean protagonist into a god-like superhero, The Matrix is a masterful exercise in cinematic paranoia, and it was this element that was sorely missing in both of the film’s sequels.īased on a book by Ira Levin, there’s much that’s dated and rather quaint about the 1967 horror film, Rosemary’s Baby. Pursued by mysterious men in black suits, Neo gradually realises that he’s caught in the middle of a conspiracy that is far bigger than he could have possibly comprehended. And for the first hour, The Matrix is a good approximation of Dick’s preoccupations, and Neo himself is, initially, a protagonist straight out of a PKD novel. Such paranoid interrogations of reality were the trademark of author Philip K Dick, and it’s clear that his writings were a source of inspiration for the Wachowskis. With Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) as his guide, Neo is taught that the reality he thought he knew is merely a simulation, and that humanity has been enslaved by a dominant race of sentient machines. Keanu Reeves stars as Neo, a computer hacker who lives in a world straight out of classic film noir. In their hyperactive, pre-millennial sci-fi movie, The Matrix, the brothers Wachowski borrowed freely from numerous literary and cinematic sources, and not just from the realms of science fiction – there are allusions here to Alice In Wonderland, the Bible, and the works of philosopher René Descartes. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |