“Tell them Riddick’s dead. He died somewhere on that planet.”
More than a decade after its release, Pitch Black remains an anomaly–arguably the only movie to ever enter Ridley Scott’s Alien terrain and not be shown up as a lame copycat. It helped to have some really cool monsters, of course, and the idea of three suns eclipsing into a window of lethal darkness is pure sci-fi genius. But I suspect none of it would have been enough without the character of Riddick. At first he IS the film’s antagonist (though I’m left scratching my head as to why we need him to escape and be immediately recaptured); as the movie develops, director David Twohy does a masterful job of pinning the Intrepid Survivors between two closing menaces: Riddick and the monsters, who are all the more frightening for being unnamed. (”It’s not me you should be scared of.”) Once the latter comes into their own, we’re ready to embrace our antihero as the only one who can get us out of shitville.
It would be fascinating to know just how the Riddick character took shape in the writing. This seems unlikely to be resolved with any real certainty, since the development of the movie is tangled, and the waters have been muddied still further by a WGA arbitration between Jim/Ken Wheat and David Twohy. Supposedly the first few drafts featured Riddick as a female outlaw (”Taras Krieg”); one wonders if “Jack’s” gender-crossing emulation of Riddick has its origins in this. Or perhaps it was just the injection of Vin Diesel into the development process, with Twohy recognizing the star potential in this relatively unknown actor, and adjusting the script/story to accommodate it.
If so, it was an inspired decision. Diesel dominates the movie in an unusual type of way, radiating a charisma that eludes ordinary definition. The meme out there on the internet that Diesel is gay may (or may not) be true; but it may just be a function of the collective recognition that Diesel is a very different kind of action-hero. Like Scytale in Dune Messiah, he seems to recognize the joke in everything. At times, the bad-ass dialogue becomes excessive (”did not know who he was fucking with”)–lines that might work better were Diesel a more conventional action star–and perhaps it’s the subsequent failure of his writers/directors to walk that fine line that explains why Diesel has never reached the proverbial actor A-list.
But no matter. Pitch Black took him to a whole new level, and introduced us to a whole new universe. . . one that remains in play almost a decade later. I think no less of the movie for thinking that the opening scene remains my favorite: Diesel’s spacey, noir monologue (”and they only take the back roads”) furnishing the soundtrack to the gradual realization that something is going terribly wrong with this ship . . .and then all of it giving way to one of the most spectacular crash-landings ever seen in science fiction. Yet rather than collapsing under the weight of the expectations raised by those first ten minutes, the movie then proceeds to weave its Heart of Darkness story remorselessly. “Guess something went wrong,” muses Jack. . . but for us fans, a lot of stuff went right.
David J. Williams is the author of the Autumn Rain trilogy, which began with THE MIRRORED HEAVENS and THE BURNING SKIES, and concludes on May 25th with THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT. Learn more about the world of the early 22nd century at www.autumnrain2110.com.
5 Responses to “On watching Pitch Black (for the millionth time)”
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i figured the reason for the whole escape and immediate recapture thing was to quickly establish the antagonistic “pissing contest” dynamic between riddick and his paul newman lookalike captor. there’s obvious “alpha male” strife between the two with regard to who’s got the bigger dick and who gets the girl, as well as who the party leader is (or should be).
in terms of character development they’re parallel throughout the entire movie, the main difference being how they are perceived by others, and as you point out riddick only begins as the antagonist.
furthermore, the immediate recapture solves the logical problem of how riddick could possibly survive solo. true, he is a total badass in the movie – more human than human, even – but there’s no way the one gladiator could hope to survive given the sheer number of monsters in that arena.
in addition to comparable physical build, equal disregard for rules and guidelines, self-serving nature, and sharing an air of “baditude”, i think my favorite character parallel between the two is in the eyes.
riddick’s night vision vs. the captor’s eye injections simultaneously work to further unite and distinguish the two in the mind of the audience.
both afflictions are serious and conventional limitations (blindness and drug addiction), thus making them utterly human. but riddick’s handicap has an obvious benefit in the unconventional setting, thus setting him apart from and ahead of what’s-his-face.
building on this point, riddick only successfully transitions from antagonist to antihero in the third and final altercation with his captor. at that point they are truly (narratively and visually) on even ground, and riddick bests his opponent for no other reason than the narrative would have it so.
i need to watch it again….
I would easily rank Pitch Black in my personal top 5 favorite sci-fi movies. In many ways it was like a re-imagined Alien with modern special effects, yet it did not cross that invisible line where it was just blatant rip-off. I personally think a female Riddick would have pushed it well into that rip-off category.
Mary – That’s a really nice assessment of relationship between Riddick and Johns (that Paul Newman look alike). I had not considered the correlation between Riddicks eyes and Johns drug use before but that is a pretty fascinating take on it. I don’t think that was by accident and am somewhat ashamed I missed that in multiple viewings.
And I also need to watch it again. I watched the full ‘trilogy’ (including the animated) last year on a Sunday in order. Enjoyable afternoon!
Funny, I’d never thought about that eye parallel either. Fascinating.
There’s a lot of backstory even on the DVD about Johns’ tracking of Riddick and how he actually caught him in the first place. There might be more clues there; will have to watch it. . .
thank you for the posi assessment.
i’ve had a fair amount of training in the visual arts as well as film appreciation, so i’m kind of always looking at the visuals and the story and how they complement one another. i wish i were a blogger. i could do stuff like this all day.