Subject: Review: Strange Days (1995)

From: GL Schmitt <[email-masked]>
Date: 9 Jan 1999 06:04:36 GMT

STRANGE DAYS: Not A New Flavour Chewing Gum!
1999 by  GL Schmitt

	According to Max Peltier (Tom Sizemore) an ex-cop unable 
to live on his disability pension; by the end of the millennium 
there is nothing new left.  Everything has been tried, at least 
once--even new flavours for chewing gum!

	When released, in 1995, "Strange Days" was not a new 
flavour gum, but it is still chewable.  Any opinion more 
forceful than that must involve personal taste.  "Strange Days" 
is, however, a piece of chewing gum with an interesting history. 
 
	One might suggest that stories involved with gaining 
entrance to an alternate reality go back at least as far as 
Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland"--if not Shakespeare's 
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" or "The Tempest".

	The technology for creating alternate realities became 
more accessible to the masses in the 1500's with Johann 
Gutenberg's printing press, and even more so in the late 
nineteenth century with Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, 
as well as Thomas Edison's phonograph and motion picture camera.  

	So, the concept of gaining entrance to an alternate 
virtual reality is not exactly novel.

	There are two distinct branches of this idea.  

	Using an alternate virtual reality to manipulate some 
one else to do your bidding, is one.  The disciplines of 
advertising, propaganda, and brainwashing fall into this 
category, with "The Manchurian Candidate" a classic example.  

	Also, the recent film, "Wag the Dog" spoofed Washington 
spin doctors.  

	The largely unnoticed film version of the 1951 Robert A. 
Heinlein Sci-Fi novel "The Puppet Masters" (though originally an 
expression of 1950's anti-Communistic paranoia) showed a mirror 
version.  In it, extra terrestrial parasites overrode their human 
host's nervous system to gain control of the body, rather than 
manipulating the host's mind.

	The other branch of this idea involves the conscious 
choice to self inflict an alternate virtual reality; such as 
answering the telephone, turning on the television, or going to 
the movies.  

	Personally, my first encounter with this whole concept, 
was in the Sci-Fi novel "The Big Ball of Wax" [1954] by (Edward) 
Shepherd Mead who is best known for the novel [1952] which formed 
the basis of the Tony Winning Musical "How to Succeed in Business 
Without Really Trying", filmed in 1967.

	In "The Big Ball of Wax" an advertising executive 
investigates why a certain 'religious' cult does not consume 
a conspicuous amount of his clients' products, only to discover 
that they have developed an alternate virtual reality projector 
which allows the cult's adherents to gobble up sufficient tasteless, 
minimum requirement nutrients, then sit back and vicariously enjoy 
a twelve course meal appreciated by the ersatz taste buds 
of a gourmet's trained palate.  The satire is derived from 
the advertising executive's attempts to secure a profit 
from this device.

	Philip K. Dick used this theme several times in his 
writings, especially in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" 
[1966] filmed in 1981 as "Blade Runner".  The experimental 
android 'Rachel' is _given_ artificial memories to cushion 
her from the harshness of her proscribed life expectancy. 
[A fact left as obvious in Ridley Scott's director's cut, 
but obliterated in the Hollywoodized ending of the original 
theatrical release--the one with Harrison Ford's almost 
continuous voice-over.]

	In Dick's "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" [1966] 
filmed in 1990 as "Total Recall", an artificially implanted 
memory of a trip to Mars 'accidentally' reactivates suppressed 
memories of a real Martian excursion.  This film--excessive 
violence and flaws aside--demonstrates how a person is 
the accumulation of his memories; one who will be true to himself, 
only if his memories are true.

	Both as a curiosity, and as a flawed film, "Brainstorm" 
filmed in 1983 joined with "Strange Days" in recognizing the 
voyeurism inherent in this concept.  But, writer Bruce Joel Rubin's 
predilection for examining the phenomena of after-life experience 
[See: Ghost, 1990; Jacob's Ladder, 1991] sent this film, 
quite literally, along a dead end.  

	Also, film star, Natalie Wood's drowning death, before 
principal photography ended, caused extensive rewriting, which in 
turn contributed to the somewhat choppy continuity of "Brainstorm".

	"Strange Days" is the first film, of which I am aware, 
to use this self-inflicted full sensory, virtual reality concept, 
while consciously acknowledging the addictiveness of indulging 
in it.   As a consequence, this technology necessarily becomes 
the product of an underground.  A 'drug' for sleazy 'pushers'.  

	Previously, "The Puppet Masters" showed hosts, reclaimed 
from their parasitic masters, suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

	Also, "Strange Days" identifies the person recording the 
virtual reality 'clip' as sharing all their responses and emotions, 
even to suffering from the recorder-person's own physical
limitations.  In this case, colour blindness.

	Another film, "Dreamscape", not only connected the 
technologically enhanced watcher with the one watched that closely, 
but even allowed them to interact 'physically' with real world 
consequences. 

	"Dreamscape" was  filmed in 1984 with Dennis Quaid, 
Max von Sydrow and Kate Capshaw.

	Of course, the ultimate _extreme_ of using technological
enhancement to reshape reality must go to 1956's "Forbidden Planet"
with Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen.

	Seen, ranked with these other films and novels, 
"Strange Days" is not only a atmospheric crime mystery, set in 
the near future.  "Strange Days" is both another step along 
a developing Sci-Fi theme, as well as one which is coming more 
uncomfortably close to reality than any of its originators 
could ever have imagined.  

	"Strange days" may be a previously used flavour 
of chewing gum, but it represents one of the tastier morsels 
employing this Sci-Fi theme.

RELATED FILM AND NOVEL SUGGESTIONS:
***********************************

"Strange Days" 	     Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett 
                     (Atmospheric, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Action)

"Total Recall"       Arnold Swartzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, 
                     and Sharon Stone 
                     SFX, Sci-Fi, Action)
 (Novel}-'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale'-Philip K. Dick       

"Brainstorm"        Natalie Wood and Christopher Walken 
                    (Sci-Fi Drama)

"Blade Runner"	    Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young 
                    (SFX, Sci-Fi, Action, Drama)
(Novel}-'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'-Philip K. Dick

"Forbidden Planet"  Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen. 
                    (SFX-for 1956, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Drama)
(Novel}-Novelization of film, author unknown.
        Film based on William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'

(Novel}-'The Big Ball of Wax'-(Edward) Shepherd Mead (Not Filmed)

"The Manchurian Candidate"  Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, 
                            Janet Leigh, and Angela Landsbury 
                       (Sci-Fi, Political, Action, Drama, Thriller)
(Novel}-'The Manchurian Candidate'-Richard Condon

"Wag the Dog"      Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro and Anne Heche 
		   (Comedy and Satire--which unfortunately--
                   several highly visible Washingtonites are 
                   ill-equipped to recognise.)

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GL Schmitt
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