The Godfather. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Back to the Future. These three titles are only some in the fortunate group of films that have received four out of four stars from widely known critic and analyst Roger Ebert, and for good reason. Anybody who has watched these celebrated cinematic classics would agree that they hit on all fronts: they have characters that we connect with, camera work that seamlessly brings us into the scene, and emotional punches that stick with us long after the credits roll.
But as much as you would think that this list is logically made up of box office successes, some of those on Ebert’s highest-praised list are actually major commercial failures. A massively disregarded science fiction thriller starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, and Juliette Lewis is one of these — four stars by Ebert, but ended up making less than half of its budget back at the box office. Yikes.
Some of the names who resided behind the scenes of 1995’s Strange Days will shock you. None other than James Cameron wrote the screenplay and produced this futuristic neo-noir. Being at the helm of some Academy Award-recognized films like 2008’s The Hurt Locker and 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty, Kathyrn Bigelow was the director. Some say this film predicted too much of the future, and maybe that’s true. Police brutality, dystopian society, racism, digital voyeurism. It’s all here and set against the backdrop of 1999 Los Angeles.
‘Strange Days’ Shows Virtual Reality as a Drug
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Release Date
October 13, 1995
Runtime
145 Minutes
Cast
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
, Michael Jace
, Louise LeCavalier
, David Carrera
, Jim Ishida
, Todd Graff
, Malcolm Norrington
, Anais Munoz
, Ted Haler
, Rio Hackford
, Brook Susan Parker
, Brandon Hammond
, Donald Donnie Young
Main Genre
Sci-Fi
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A former police officer turned black market seller of memories and sensations, Lenny Nero (played by Fiennes), and limousine driver/bodyguard Lornette “Mace” Mason (played by Bassett) slowly uncover a conspiracy that involves corrupt cops, seedy businessmen, prostitutes, and explicit desires. While Strange Days can be hailed as an experimental film of sorts for its overall use of cyberpunk concepts (from wardrobe to soundtrack to cinematography), the movie’s standout trait is that Mace is consistently driven to become the heroine of the story while Lenny is shown to be in a panicked state, his judgment clouded. Her arc as a femme fatale not only concludes the movie but brings the whole story into another space entirely.
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Clearly, the brilliant motif (hidden behind the dark visual tone) of Strange Days flew right over the moviegoing audience of the mid-1990s. Some may even say the failure of the movie was found in the topsy-turvy marketing. So many different genres were mentioned in press releases that distributors didn’t know what angle to take when promoting it. In his review (six days after the movie was released), Ebert pays no mind to the troubling tale at the box office and instead calls Strange Days “a technical tour de force.” While applauding cinematographer Matthew F. Leonetti and editor Howard Smith for fully engrossing us into another world, he takes the longer road in commending the crux of this movie — it meshes the promise of virtual reality with the consequences that the technology could have on the very real world, good and bad.
Ralph Fiennes and Others Make ‘Strange Days’ an Unforgettable Film
He makes note of the fact that Lenny seems to be swallowed by the traumas of this new-found technology and fully taken by the same piece of his past that the SQUID technology puts him in. Having impressed critics two years prior with his performance in Schindler’s List, Fiennes perfectly brings forth a man who has lost all but his love for the disk, love for what this perverse electronic drug can represent. Andy Garcia was almost selected for this antihero role, but Cameron made the right remark when he said Fiennes made Lenny into someone you care for and admire. This emotion certainly comes forth when the camera zooms into his face while he’s under the spell of the illegal memory player and sent back into the arms of his late girlfriend, Iris.
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In his review, Ebert also notes how Bigelow’s film masterfully subverts expectations by forcing the audience to reflect on themselves as “voyeurs” of violence. Lenny has a rule against snuff films on the SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) disks, but the movie is showing us that in itself. When the more explicit scenes do present themselves (such as killings, sexual violence, and torture), he says that the sequences come off rather “distressing” and saddening, rather than just being tense moments delivered to your viewing senses. Through the crew’s combined efforts in deciding what to show on screen and the story’s emphasis on the SQUID’s effect, one’s own emotional and psychological reaction while wearing the device is the most important character vehicle.
‘Strange Days’ Is Not on Streaming?
The cast’s focus, mixed with the talented hands behind the camera, easily elevates Strange Days from a movie that could have just been about a cheap gimmick into a story that has resonated for just about 30 years. As aforementioned, Lewis plays Faith Justin, a friend of Iris who Lenny is trying to save from the clutches of sadistic music mogul Philo Grant (played by Michael Wincott). As she is an alternative rock musician in real life, Lewis’ mesmerizing moments on stage in Strange Days while playing for the club that Philo owns truly foreshadow what Lenny and Mace will do next. The cops who hunt down these two are played by Vincent D’Onofrio and William Fichtner.
As much as the movie deals with the perverse underground, these two bring that same kind of seedy personality above ground with their takes on extremely zealous law enforcement officials. Their characters’ abuse of power seethes on your last nerve. For some reason, this excellent film of a thousand genres is quite difficult to find. It’s just not available on any streaming platform these days. But Roger Ebert is right with his perfect rating, and Strange Days is absolutely a pickup if you can find it in physical format.
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