Daybreak (1993) (TV)

Director:

Stephen Tolkin

Writers (WGA):

Alan Bowne (play)
Stephen Tolkin (teleplay)

Release Date:

8 May 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Romance | Sci-Fi

Plot:

This drama, based on Alan Bowne's play "Beirut," takes place in a decrepit New York City of the near future, controlled by a fascist government.

Plot Keywords:

New York | New York City | Plague | AIDS | World Trade Center New York

Cast

Moira Kelly	...	Blue
Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Torch
Martha Plimpton	...	Laurie
Omar Epps	...	Hunter
Amir Williams	...	Willie
David Eigenberg	...	Bucky
Alice Drummond	...	Anna
John Cameron Mitchell	...	Lennie
Willie Garson	...	Simon
Mark Boone Junior	...	Quarantine Guard (as Mark Boone Jr.)
Deirdre O'Connell	...	Mom
Jon Seda	...	Payne
Phil Parolisi	...	Russell
Paul Butler	...	Truck Driver
Alix Koromzay	...	Woman in Quarantine

Also Known As:

Bloodstream (UK) (theatrical title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Home Box Office (HBO)

Awful script ruins interesting idea

I recorded this because the Tivo program guide description described the movie as a "two rebels fighting a fascist government in the near future." The movie starts promisingly with a failed escape from a medical institution that leads to an execution and an eerily prescient city street scene borrowed (or stolen) from Soylent Green -- a group of people standing around watching a TV behind a barred storefront window, a menacing group of paramilitary thugs intimidating a homeless person, and a couple of girls in uniforms with the label "WorkFare" getting off work.

This should have helped establish a backstory of a bleak near future of economic collapse, government propaganda and tyrany, and, as we're told later on, rampant disease and forced quarantine.

Instead of building on all these ideas to tell what could have been at least as good as "Handmaid's Tale", the script gets lost in a ridiculous love story between Cuba Gooding Jr. and Moira Kelly which is not redeemed even by two sex scenes featuring extensive topless footage of Moira.

The love story detracts from the all-too-plausible social premise of the movie that seems quite believable now: the government is using propaganda, a paramilitary "Home Guard" of thugs and forced internment of people infected with a disease in quarantine centers that are portrayed as country club resorts, but instead are more like Soviet-era prison hospitals where the patients are sent to die.

The budget must not have allowed for much location shooting or set dressing, as the premise of an America in deep decline is offset by Kelly and Martha Plimpton getting on a bus and a number of other scenes shot in high-rise Manhattan that would make it appear that life was functioning normally, in direct conflict to the other, Soylent Green like street scenes and overcrowded apartments.

The AIDS-like disease is also treated in a conflicting manner -- it apparently was a real disease, as Cuba Gooding's band of rebels was actually trying to aide those sick with it, and Gooding made a deliberate attempt to wear a condom before having sex with Kelly -- but we're also led to believe that the sypmtpoms, communicability and perhaps even treatability of the disease wasn't what the government said it was. It would have been more effective (and productive for the storyline) if the disease had been instead a creation of the government as an excuse to put people in a prison-like quarantine where they would die by other means.

Overall, a "near-future" concept which is actually chillingly plausable in our modern times (substitute genetically engineered smallpox for the disease and terrorism detention for the quarantine...) is ruined by a bad love story and a low-budget production.

If you do suffer through this movie, don't miss future Sex and the City characters David Eigenberg ("Steve") as Kelly's brother, and Willie Garson ("Stanford Blatch") as a member of Gooding's rebel gang.