“Strange Days,” the techno thriller starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett snapped, crackled and popped when it came out some years ago. I saw it on the big screen a couple of times with my then-live-in, and then a couple years later with my new beau and future husband. We loved it. I remember in both cases my boyfriends–in the first case, one from Indiana, and the other from Georgia, went goo-goo-gaa-gaa over Ms. Bassett, whom they hadn’t seen or heard of before the movie (yep).
Recently decided to revisit the film. My recollection was kind of dusty. I remembered it was very good. But the exact details and depth were traces. The film years then were a creative visual bizarre with the likes of Tarantino, the Cohens, David Lynch, Almodovar, Nick Cage, Brad Pitt in gritty urban movies, etc., etc.
Wow! I totally forgot how amazing “Strange Days” was. It’s still relevant and a work of art today. I haven’t seen anything like it since it came out in ‘95.
The idea of virtual reality that you can plug into by use of a SQUID, an electronic cap with electrodes to electrically stimulate and manipulate your brain. The use of floppy disks, yeah, okay, it was ‘95. The use of a big ole box like the old cable boxes from yore? yah. Ok. The idea of people getting sucked into spending more time with electronic devices than living real life? Right on. Then and now. Yeah, there are internet/techno junkies. Near catatonia and zoned out. Subjective. The idea that electronics/games can get the best of you, and bring out the worst? Too much of anything’s not good. People too game. Bound for perversion. Gamer is played out. Another consumer consumed? Yeah. Pushing limits to pushing daisies.
Some other movies popped into mind when watching this film again. Videodrome. 8MM. Blue Velvet. Sean Penn’s The Game. And then there’s the Vincent D’Onofrio The Cell (New Line Platinum Series). In 8mm, Joaquin Phoenix’s character Max California warns Nick Cage’s Tom Welles, ‘When you dance with the devil, you don’t change the devil, the devil changes you.’
All visually appealing films, often with more than 1 superstar. Strange Days, no doubt, a title ode to The Doors song, includes many superstars. Michael Wincott is Philo, who starred in the 1991 Val Kilmer, movie about 60’s rock legends “The Doors”.
In this regard, Strange Days opened many doors of mayhem. Pandora’s Box, no less. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, techno, love, good, evil, etc.
People “just trying to survive. Making a run for it, if need be.
When Ms. Bassett got down to Earth running through the crowds reveling in NY’s merriment, she kicked off her heels and got real practical, like any woman would. While there are elements of horror and the perverted, skidrow elements too, you also see fist fighting women, and women tag-teaming for their men. So it was no surprise when Mace hitched up her glam black gown all sequins and strapless, and shoved her pistol in her thigh garter; or when she flipped off those heels and sprinted like Wilma Rudolph. She was not about to get shot in the back a la android stripper Zhora (the whore-a?) (Joanna Cassidy) in Harrison Ford’s 1982 Blade Runner – The Final Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition). A beautiful dead woman running and stumbling to her death, a pretty corpse replete with heels. Maybe chalk all this up to a woman director making heroic, capable, women of action. Can’t imagine someone in law enforcement who couldn’t at least kick off her heels and run to dodge bullets trailing her backside. (Last summer, Blade was re-released to millions of fans’ delight, in major theatres so we could see it digital, big screen. The android getting shot in the back still resonates as one vicious scene, sex and violence in a slowmo death ballet.)
Characters skirt the cusp of interracial romance between actress Angela Bassett and Ralph Fiennes. You wonder about the romantic tension, but film studios being as they are, the chemistry pops just the same between 2 people so that others feel it too, whether it takes place or not. At the end, unrequited love lets go of the past memories and lives in the now.
Overlook the stereotypical ‘tude/hard black woman Ms. Bassett had to play. She chills out over the course of the movie and viewers realize it’s less the black woman ‘tude than an under appreciated woman willing to do battle for the man she loves, and even help him win another woman if that’s what it takes for his happiness. Oh, …sacrificing women. Sign of true love when you’re willing to give your all, a sign it’s not love or even friendship if someone’s willing to let you take a bullet, not have your back when it counts, and even throw you under the bus.
The movie drops in the historical temperament of the ’90s toward what was going on and wrong with the LAPD at that time. The riots of ‘92 in LA and elsewhere when the Rodney King vid hit the air (imagine Youtube igniting a firestorm back then). Strange Days is set in ‘99, but drops in a provocative scene of citizens versus police brutality by the LAPD. It does give credit to the good men in uniform who rise beyond corruption and are willing to police their own in the name of justice. The footage of the New Year’s countdown for 2000, according to the credits was likely footage from New York Times Square. There was mention of Madrid. In this supercharged scene, Vincent D’Onofrio’s police character seems more like a flashback of horrific evil from his Full Metal Jacket Days. The crowd is awe struck and nearly speechless as the monster drags his crime in partner forward, marching towards unspeakable evil. LAPD rise to the challenge. Strange Days precedes and perhaps sets the typecast for D’Onofrio’s future on Law & Order. The quirky, weird guy with a heart, who maybe is on the good guy’s side, but understands the demons in all, can draw it out by drawing on his own. Ever intense, check him out in Feeling Minnesota with ex gf Cameron Diaz and Keanu Reeves, in which he play typecast, another odd man out. But no blood, not much anyway, this time. Men in Black? A scifi flick but not so dark and dreary for Vinny.
As refined as the Harvard alum is, her street cred didn’t really pop with legit authenticity, but of course therein lies the distinguishing characteristic of someone with bigger plans than the circumstances under which they’ve found themselves anyway.
All of the main characters, including Juliette Lewis (of “Kalifornia,” “Natural Born Killers – Oliver Stone Collection“, “Cape Fear” fame), Tom Sizemore (“Pulp Fiction“), intense actors in any film, sizzle and spark here. (In looking at the imdb.com website to see who else of celeb status was in this film, discovered Dru Berrymore..not The Drew Barrymore…but turns out there’s a porn star, also with an extensive body of work.)
Look for other stellar actors that appear in many subsequent films, including William Fichtner. According to imdb.com, William’s an Air Force brat, so it’s no wonder he appears in years to come in progressive, multiracial and patriotic pics, including Malcolm X, Crash, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, Armageddon, Virtuosity, Switchback; and action pics with other progressive stars like A. Jolie, including Go and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Most recently, Fichtner is in The Dark Night.
Nicky Katt appears in the film. Long before “Boston Public”, see Katt in cyber club punk blonde hair and leather pants. (MMmm)
Tom Sizemore was also like his Strange Days pal Fichtner, in Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down.
According to imdb.com, Ms. Bassett has 3 films in the works, including an historical film; a rap pic about the life of rap legend Notorious, B.I.G.; and a mainstream film:
1. Toussaint (2009) (pre-production) …. Suzanne Louverture
2. Notorious (2009) (post-production) …. Voletta Wallace
3. Nothing But the Truth (2008) (post-production) …. Bonnie Benjamin
Ralph Fiennes has four films in the works–a biopic about a wealthy philanthropist; a film about obsession of a younger man for an older woman in post-war Germany; a military pic set in Iraq; and an historical film:
# The Gifted (2008) (in production)
# The Reader (2008) (post-production)
# The Hurt Locker (2008) (post-production) …. Mercenary Team Leader
# The Duchess (2008) (completed) …. Duke of Devonshire
Director Kathryn Bigelow, former painter turned film director and writer by way of Columbia Film School (home to extreme talent), is the Director of the upcoming Fiennes movie The Hurt Locker. Viewers can see the visual sensability come to life on Bigelow’s films. K-19 The Widowmaker (Harrison Ford); Blue Steel (J. Lee Curtis and Tom Sizemore); are among her other films.
Writer James Cameron wrote the screenplays for Terminator (film series); Rambo; True Lies; Aliens; Titanic; and The Abyss, among other films. For Strange Days, Cameron was nominated by the Acad. of SciFi, Fantasy and Horror Films of USA, for their Saturn award; Cameron has won the Saturn awards for writing, and for directing Aliens. His screenplay The Terminator won the Saturn.
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