Strange Days |
  • USA • 1995 • 145m •   • Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow. • Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Vincent D'Onofrio, Glenn Plummer, Brigitte Bako, Richard Edson, William Fichtner, Josef Sommer, Joe Urla, Nicky Katt. • Music by: Graeme Revell.      It is 1999, and urban society is little more than a vast wasteland of anarchic violence. Seedy, burnt-out ex-cop Lenny Nero caters to the sensation-seeking citizens by dealing in "clips": virtual reality sequences where the user can "re-live" the experiences of another, including robberies, rape and murder. But Lenny's life is turned upside-down when two rabid cops, who want an incriminating clip that Lenny possesses, begin to pursue him. Furthermore, Lenny, with the help of female bodyguard Mace, is desperately searching throughout the chaotic enclaves of L.A. for his ex-girlfriend Faith, who he still loves. Everything comes to a head at a wild, tremendous -- and turbulent -- New Year's Eve party that will usher in the new millennium.
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The film takes place in an alternative now, a slightly more futuristic Los Angeles on the brink-the very brink-of the new millenium. As midnight, December 31st, 1999 approaches, tensions are running high. An altogether new kind of drug is taking over the streets. A narcotic of technology, it enables people to live someone's recorded experience. "This isn't like, 'TV, only better.'" The user experiences the action as if they were living it. This allows the user to experience everything from sexual fantasies to the adrenaline rush of charging into a convenience store, weapon in hand, without any of the consequences.
One of the wonderful things about Strange Days is that it succeeds on so many different levels. First, it is an intelligent and thought-provoking science fiction film, in which the technology doesn't serve merely as the backdrop for a stylized action film, but is integral to the plot and the theme. The technology concept wasn't new to Strange Days--visionary sci-fi writer William Gibson used the idea of recorded memories as entertainment in his groundbreaking, brilliant and extraordinarily influential Cyberspace trilogy --but the film handles it with great intelligence. It poses the questions, What is the value of real experience vs. memories or movies? And how are we, as audience members, complicit in the actions and events we witness?
Secondly, the film is a gripping mix of action and mystery, directed with a terrific sense of momentum by Kathryn Bigelow. From its tour-de-force first-person perspective opening sequence until its poetically beautiful final image, the film never ceases to propel its story forward and remain visually inventive and interesting throughout.
Thirdly, and, of course, most importantly, the film is populated by fascinating characters who are played by wonderful actors, and the film never loses its human element amidst the technology and action. The film's anti-hero, Lenny Nero, is played with great intelligence and complexity by talented British actor Ralph Fiennes. Lenny is a dealer in "clips," as the discs containing the recorded memories are called. A wonderful introductory scene shows Lenny cruising down Hollywood Boulevard in his Mercedes, eating a sandwich and conducting business on his carphone a la Typical Uncaring Movie Drugdealer, oblivious to the acts of violence he's cruising past or the calls of panic on the talk-radio station he's tuned in to as the new millenium is less than two days away, while the effective techno-global Deep Forest soundtrack serves as counter-point to the action. Later on, though, in a priceless scene, we find that Lenny hasn't completely lost the kindness he possessed as a police officer, as he gives a friend who has lost both legs a clip he had specially made of running along the beach and getting a smile and a "hi" from an attractive woman.
Lenny is a rather pathetic man, an addict as well as a pusher of his drug. Rather than living his real life, he chooses to constantly re-live his own recorded memories of happier times with his ex-girlfriend Faith, played by Juliette Lewis. Faith, an aspiring singer, has left Lenny for big-time music industry executive Philo Gant (bad guy in every movie made 1991-1997 Michael Wincott), whose record label represents rapper Jeriko-One, an angry and powerful voice for the black community who proclaims, as the new year approaches, "2K is upon us. History will end, and begin again." Angela Bassett gives a pressure cooker of a performance as Mace, Lenny's friend who struggles to snap him out of the past, and Tom Sizemore, a consistently interesting actor best known as Tom Hanks' friend Horvath in Saving Private Ryan, is great here as Max, a buddy of Lenny's from his days on the police force.
Strange Days is, in a sense, a mystery, and to say too much about the plot would be to give some things away. Suffice it to say that the characters become entangled in a web of murder and deceit and, by the time the truth of the crime is revealed, it is also revealed that almost everyone's desires and motivations are more complex than we initially thought. The scene in which Lenny finally tracks the killer down and the truth is revealed is a doozy, a nifty verbal sparring match between two skilled actors in top form. Ultimately, the film carries us over the brink and into the new millenium, providing us with an image of poetic beauty that nicely ties up the film's ongoing concern with issues of race. The film goes into darker places than most films go, and still manages to be positive and uplifting in the end, a story of hope and redemption, and miraculously, thanks to the skill with which it's written, directed and acted, it doesn't feel the least bit cliched or forced in its journey.
A word of warning: Strange Days has disturbing moments, and one crime is particularly chilling. Some people argued that this particular scene was overly gratuitous. I don't believe this is the case. Rather, I think it is through this scene that the film explores one of the most interesting and complex issues it poses. In the scene, Lenny, as well as the audience, watches a clip, a first person record of a particularly brutal murder. Lenny is positively repulsed by the clip, and we are meant to be as well. Typically, when we go to an action film, we are allowed the luxury of feeling distanced from the loss of human life occuring on screen, if we're not meant to downright cheer and rejoice. In this scene in Strange Days, by putting us in the killer's position, James Cameron (the film's story developer and co-screenwriter) and Bigelow are implicating us in the on-screen action, preventing us that luxury of feeling distanced and forcing us to consider the action in a much more direct and immediate way. Why does Lenny refuse to deal in blackjack clips (snuff films?) Probably because he believes that the purchasers and viewers of such clips are not completely free of responsibility for the crimes they are watching.
In a way, it's a shame that Titanic looms so large, because, while that's certainly a fine film, Strange Days is Cameron's true masterpiece of the decade, but in the public eye it will always be obscured by the big boat.
Review by Keith Petit from the Internet Movie Database.
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