| Strange Days | |
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| Directed by | Kathryn Bigelow |
| Produced by | James Cameron Steven-Charles Jaffe |
| Written by | James Cameron Jay Cocks |
| Starring | Ralph Fiennes Angela Bassett Juliette Lewis Tom Sizemore Michael Wincott Vincent D'Onofrio William Fichtner |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Editing by | James Cameron Howard E. Smith |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox Lightstorm Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | October 13, 1995 |
| Running time | 145 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $42,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $7,919,000 |
Strange Days is a 1995 cyberpunk[1] science fiction film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and produced and co-written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott and Vincent D'Onofrio.
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In December 1999, Los Angeles has become a nightmare with heightened police tensions and civil unrest, stemming largely from the brutal murder of Jeriko One (Glenn Plummer), a hip-hop artist strongly critical of the LAPD's pervasive brutality. In the last days of the millennium, former police detective turned street hustler Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) deals in 'SQUID' recordings: experiences recorded directly from the cerebral cortex which when played back through a MiniDisc-like device allow a user to experience all recorded sensory inputs as if actually doing it themselves. Despite his charming and suave veneer, Lenny is a deeply unhappy man who constantly yearns for his ex-girlfriend Faith (Juliette Lewis), repeatedly reliving their happier times through his own SQUID recordings of her, while relying on his bodyguard friend Lornette "Mace" Mason (Angela Bassett) for emotional support. Lenny is also friends with Max (Tom Sizemore), a former police officer injured in the line of duty who now works as a private investigator.
While dealing erotic SQUID recordings, Lenny receives a "black jack" (snuff) disc portraying the excruciating rape and murder of Iris (Brigitte Bako), a prostitute he is acquainted with and who met with him hours before her death. Deeply troubled by both the tape and warnings Iris had made about Faith's safety (the two having been friends), and convinced that the killer will strike again, Lenny immediately overreacts using his paranoia as an excuse to try to get Faith away from her new boyfriend, music industry mogul Philo Gant (Michael Wincott).
Over time Lenny receives more snuff tapes, clearly made by the same person as the original recording, and he and Mace eventually discover that the case is tied to a cover-up of the murder of Jeriko One by LAPD officers sick of the trouble his message is causing. As they are hunted by the two police officers (Vincent D'Onofrio and William Fichtner) that committed the murder and constantly repelled by Philo's goons, Lenny and Mace find themselves in a race to uncover the full truth before the murderer catches up with them, and before civil war descends on Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Lenny and Mace's relationship begins to deepen and intensify as he finds out the truth about Faith, while trying to protect her.
Strange Days was given a limited release on October 6, 1995 in only one theater and grossed $31,062 on its opening weekend. It was given a wide release on October 13, 1995 in 1,691 theaters and grossed $3.6 million on its opening weekend. The film went on to make $7.9 million in North America.[2]
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "The movie is a technical tour de force ... The pacing is relentless, and the editing, by Howard Smith, creates an urgency and desperation".[3] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised the performances of Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett: "Mr. Fiennes gleefully captures Lenny's sleaziness while also showing there is something about this schlockmeister that is worth saving, despite much evidence to the contrary. As for Ms. Bassett, she looks great and radiates inner strength even without the bone-crunching physical feats to which she is often assigned".[4] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B-" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Strange Days has a dazzling atmosphere of grunge futurism, but beneath its dark satire of audiovisual decadence lurks a naggingly conventional underworld thriller".[5] Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers called the film Bigelow's "magnum opus", and wrote, "In a film of striking performances, Bassett's is the standout -- she is fierce, funny and heart rending".[6] In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Edward Guthmann wrote, "Strange Days wants to say something about faith and redemption -- about the importance of maintaining one's humanity in a darkened world. That's a worthy intent, but Bigelow is so enamored of high-tech thrills, and so mesmerized by the violence she seeks to condemn, that her efforts at 11th-hour moralizing seem limp and halfhearted".[7] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote, "No matter how much thought may have gone into Strange Days, terribly little has come out the other end".[8]
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Strange Days is a 1995 film set in a dystopian 1999 Los Angeles on New Year's Eve.
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   | Internet Movie Database entry - Strange Days (1995) |
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