Dark Days (2000)

Filmed in black and white, Dark Days Follows the lives of a group of homeless people living underground in the abandoned Amtrak Tunnels of NYC.

The homeless are the modern day lepers. And to be quite honest, I'll never understand why businesses would rather dump food than give it to the homeless. It would definitely create good pr and in a sense, it would bring in more humanitarian paying customers. You don't want to enable homeless, however when you have the capacity to help on such a grand scale, why not?

Ahem...


One dude laments that he's comfortable down there and he hates that as he's lost 5 or six years just staying in the tunnels. There's electricity and at one point there was even running water. Another knows that crack was his problem. It contributed to why he was down there and knowing that, he's kicked the habit. He also admits to fighting the urge occasionally, so he goes out of his way to avoid it.

They are all concerned with security and at one point, one woman even has her house burned down over some hobo beef. Lucky for her she moves in with another guy until she gets the material to build her own place again. But the thing is, there are no laws aside from common human decency. You're on your own down there. You don't pay taxes, so why would the police help you?

What do we learn?:

• The new houses are like a new lease on life because none of them wants to live in a shelter
• Some of them like this is karmic retribution for their past mistakes.
• It's easy to forget that the homeless are still people as well just extremely impoverished.
• Not all homeless people are insane or mentally unstable. These guys are entrepreneurs, basically finding trash and selling it. logical and charismatic.
• 80% of the homeless down there are crack fiends who smoke a lot of crack and even sell the coats off their backs even during the winter.
• A man can make a lot of money selling gay films and books.
• Hygiene is important. The hygienic are the ones who've let themselves go with the drug use.
• They miss companionship and a lot of them have pets.
• You don't forget what you've learned before homelessness.
• Even though they live underground, they do their best to keep their places clean.
• They miss the lives they had, and in some cases fully understand the mistakes of their previous lives, but are making due with their current situation.

Dark Days is labeled as a documentary in what may be the broadest sense of the word. The truth is, it's far from it. There's no moral or central message to this film. There's no bias. It's just about spending time with these people and you the viewer realizing that although they don't have a home, that doesn't make them any less human. If anything, I'd say the message is "We're all about 4-5 bad decisions away from shitting in a bucket."

Out of Ten? 7

Surprisingly Poignant and very candid documentary. Runs a bit longer than I'd like, but this film is like an 1 1/2 hour look at the poorer side of life.

Violence? No
Explosions? No
Nudity? No