I watched the movie “Pitch Black”on DVD the other day. I went to the theater to see this movie when it came out and was impressed then and on seeing it again I am more impressed. It is a good movie. The story is about a cargo ship that crash lands on this hostile environment three-sun world that is on its way to entering a total eclipse that the planet goes into every twenty-two years.
Coming out of the catacombs and caverns during this eclipse are hundreds of thousands of huge winged bat like creatures and the survivors of the crashed ship must fight to survive and escape the planet.
The character Riddick played by Vin Diesel is introduced during this picture as a murderer being transported to face justice by the drug-addicted bounty hunter Johns played by Cole Hauser.
Radha Mitchell plays Fry the co-pilot that piloted the doomed merchant spaceship as it plunged through the atmosphere of the three-sun world
Keith David plays an Imam leading his three students to New Mecca.
The themes running through this picture are many. The whole castes of characters that survive the crash are decently drawn but the ones mentioned above are very well drawn.
In this story we see that what is suppose to represent the good or just is not necessarily good or just. Johns the law enforcement presence in this group is the ignoble character in this picture. We discover that he stole the painkiller that Fry desperately looked for to ease the pain of her dying crewmate. Johns used it to get high. Johns hides his fears of leaving the wrecked ship to confront the creatures behind the fears of a young co-survivor. He even tries to get Riddick to agree with him to sacrifice one or more of his fellow survivors to the creatures so they can escape.
Fry is the woman who watches out for her self and no one else. During the crash landing Fry wanted to jettison all the cargo (including human passengers) but her crew mate wouldn’t allow it and kept Fry from jettisoning them by placing a bar in his hold’s doorway preventing it from closing. The crewman was stabbed through the heart by this very bar. He sacrificed himself to prevent the passengers from being jettisoned to their deaths by Fry.
Fry’s character grows throughout the movie. At the beginning of the movie she demonstrated almost no nobility, but in the end she becomes the most noble of all.
The character Riddick also develops. The survivors must depend on this supposedly least trustworthy of the group for their very lives because his eyes are able to see through the darkness. His ‘cocky’ and all for self attitude evolves until he reaches that place of nobility with Fry.
To have nobility means sacrifice the picture seems to argue. Fry starts off with absolutely none and ends with it in full measure.
There are themes of faith also running through this picture. Tragedy repeatedly strikes the Imam and his students but the Imam maintains his beliefs. He hangs on to his faith despite the severe difficulties he must endure to survive.
Science Fiction movies that have such important themes and develop them are generally good pictures. Pitch Black is a picture with many important themes about character and how things can appear one way but be the exact opposite.
When I first saw “Pitch Black” I knocked off a few points because the design of the creature was so lame for a film made in this day and age but after seeing the film again on DVD I must acknowledge that the picture deserves a better grade.
I think that director Twohy deserves credit for having an Imam as the representation of the good holy man instead of a Christian preacher or priest (I know the writer (s) deserve credit for this but the director as head of the film crew and caste on set {to completion} gets all the credit for a film. It is the director’s vision in the end that one sees on screen). It was a unique and good touch.
The director also deserves credit for the way the film is shot. His style captures the desolation and heat of the three-sun planet.
“Pitch Black” is a good picture and all science fiction fans should see it. It is enjoyable at all levels. The action and tension starts from the very beginning of the film. The crash sequence is excellent. In fact I think it is one of the best openings to a picture that I’ve ever seen. The struggle for survival after the crash by this very diverse group of individuals keeps one involved with the story to the very end.
Good job by caste, crew and director Twohy. “Pitch Black” (1999- it might have been released in 2000) gets an A grade.