Customer comments on this Youngstown Ohio Book
 Dark Days - Got Balls?
People live in the NYC subway. Are you freaking serious? That's awesome! We should all aplaud Marc Singer for making this documentary about real people who live down there. Why? Because I sure as hell wouldn't do it. Have you ever seen a NYC rat? They could eat your foot. Cinematically it doesn't even matter because the story is enough, but Singer does a great job given the circumstances. He even won the cinematography award at Sundance in 2000. I was a little shocked by that one. Just validates the expression, "only two kinds of people can afford to live in New York, millionaires and the homeless." I don't know who said that.
 Enlightening and Haunting
"Dark Days" is a startlingly amazing achievement on so many levels (including the subterranean ones). First time film-maker Marc Singer moves from the UK to the USA as a very young man to give himself a "fresh start", and subsequently befriends a group of homeless people in NYC. He becomes curious about their "digs" in the Amtrak tunnel, and retreats there to investigate further. One thing leads to another, and eventually Marc and his homeless companions become film-maker and crew to "Dark Days".
Given the facts of how it came together, this film would have to be considered remarkable even if it were lousy. Actually, it's terrific. Here we are privy to the daily lives and struggles, resourcefulness and ingenuity of a group of homeless people, and it's a real eye-opener. "Dark Days" is not filmed in typical narrative documentary style; it lets its cast of characters speak for themselves. To get more background information, one can view it with Marc Singer's commentary "on". You will want to view this film more than once anyway, and each time it becomes more compelling, as are the people involved in it. In addition, the supplementary features on the DVD are extraordinary as well.
Why anyone would want to bore themselves to death with "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and the like, I'll never know. Marc and his friends Ralph, Henry, Tito, Greg and the rest of them are infinitely more interesting. Step outside of yourself and your bourgeois lifestyle and visit them via "Dark Days". You won't soon forget it.
Fascinating
It was interesting to watch how these people survived in such appalling conditions. I think they lied to themselves to deal with it (as the end of the film tends to prove my belief) but I admired their fortitude. Nobody should have to live in such a bleak environment.
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