Screen Scene: "Unknown White Male"
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 22, 2006 9:00 p.m.
“Unknown White Male” Directed by Rupert
Murray Wellspring Media When it comes to movies, memory
loss has been the stuff of fiction ““ think “Mulholland
Drive,” “Memento” and “Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind.” However, Rupert Murray’s
documentary “Unknown White Male” ““ and what
happened to Murray’s friend, Doug Bruce ““ is 100
percent real. On July 2, 2003, 35-year-old Bruce left his New York
apartment and turned up several hours later on a subway headed to
Coney Island. He had no idea who or where he was, so he did what
anyone with retrograde amnesia would do: He turned himself into the
police department. The police took him to the Coney Island
Hospital, where the nurse asked him to write down his name. The
film’s title comes from the ID given to Bruce after he had to
admit he didn’t know his own name. Fortunately, Bruce had a
slip of paper with a lone phone number on it, providing a starting
point for his attempt to reconstruct his life without knowing
anything of his past. He has been given a chance few people are
ever allowed: the ability to marvel at the world through the eyes
of a newborn, while appreciating it with an adult mind. The first
thing director Murray wanted to do for his friend, of course, was
make a movie about the whole ordeal. Murray chronicles
Bruce’s first “meeting” with his family, his
first time seeing the ocean and grasping a handful of snow, and his
first brush with various types of New York cuisine. Through
interviews with Bruce, his friends and his family, the audience
gains emotional insight into how the situation has affected all
parties involved. The problem with “Unknown White Male”
is its lack of emotional urgency. Bruce’s condition should be
terrifying, but Murray gets lost in the moment, focusing too much
on the kind of cinematography found in the aforementioned fictional
films. He fills the film with pointless montages and shaky home
footage of Bruce’s past life, instead of concentrating more
on Bruce’s new life. This misplaced emphasis detracts from
the emotional quality of Bruce’s condition. In addition, the
post-accident Bruce’s reaction to his condition is quite
strange ““ he repeatedly claims he does not want to recover
any of his memories prior to the accident. When meeting up with his
family in London, for example, his older sister Christina remarks
how weird it is that Bruce won’t ask about his childhood or
what their deceased mother was like while she was alive. It takes
Bruce months to call his old friends, and when he does, he remains
apathetic and does not want to re-integrate into the London party
scene of his former youth. Since Bruce does not seem to care about
his old life that much, neither will the viewer. “Unknown
White Male” does succeed in raising very interesting
philosophical questions and implications about the nature of
memory. Given the chance to start over, would one choose the same
friends and lifestyle as before? Is one’s unique
individuality retained after severe memory loss, or does it get
erased entirely? Even if Murray does not answer all of these
questions, the provocative subject matter leaves the viewer pensive
and disconcerted. But the real question is, after Bruce’s
journey from the abyss of memory to new life, whether he even
cares.
“”mdash; Julianne Fylstra
